British Wildlife Centre residents (image heavy)

Hello again all. Following on from the thread of the Barn Owl at the British Wildlife Centre in Surrey, I thought I would share a handful of portraits of the various creatures there. It's a great place to go if you get the chance to do one of their photography days. On the day I was there severe weather warnings were in place across the country and many places were shrouded in snow, but miraculously the weather at the centre was mostly not-too-bad... (ish)

1. Me me me... (Red Squirrel) (DA*300)



2. Busted (A Fox called Frodo) (DA*200)



3. Waiting (Tawny Owl) (DA*200)



4. Kevin the Barn Owl (in Colour) (DA*200)



5. Can you see me? (Hedgehog) (DA*200)



6. Proud Whiskers (Otter named Elwood) (Sigma 100-300 f4)



7. Kendra steps out (Wildcat) (Sigma 100-300 f4)



8. Ow ow ow... (Harvest Mouse) (Sigma 180 Macro) - he was TINY (about the size of a 50 pence piece)



9. Pop! (Weasel sniffing at some catfood on a log) (DA*200)



10. Polecat stare (DA*200) - the light was failing considerably by this point and I reckon B/W works a bit better...



11. Bright-eyed Stoat (DA*200)



12. Brock (Badger) (DA*200)



Hope you like these. I lugged a range of lenses around around with me and have noted which lens was used. I especially enjoyed the DA*200 - I always think it is a real beauty whenever I use it. As ever, there are a load more pics on my flickr if anyone wants to see more.

Cheers

Excellent set of images, long time since I've been there, think I need to go back

Super images with faultless detail.

Best regards

Lovely set of images. I especially like "ow ow ow..."

I should go visit...!

K.

Wow..

Superb set Mat, I really must take a trip down there, seems silly not to! when its only 20-30 minutes away from me.

Really lucky to have such a facility nearby Mat and you've definitely done it justice. excellent set.

+1

Great set of images Matthew.

I have a question for you. I note the focal length(s) used, (predominantly 200mm), but what in your view would be best?

In longer lenses I have DA* 300 and 50-135, DA 55-300, and then most focal lengths down to 10mm.

+2

What a great place to shoot. Love them all....and the titles/descriptions.

Thank you very much everyone for the kind comments. It is a great place to go for British animals. The opening hours are unconventional (I think it is only open at weekends unless otherwise specifically arranged - e.g. for a photo day or a school party visit), but the keepers are great and knowledgable - and interested in photography - and on an organised day you can go inside the enclosures and get up close with the animals, which is a treat.

John - interesting question on focal length. I started with the DA300 (red squirrel), and found actually I might have been better with something a little shorter as I was able to get very close indeed (at one point one of the squirrels was on my head!), so I switched to the 200mm for most of the rest of the time, which I thought was a good focal length. Looking at what other people were using (mostly Canon users), there were several using 70-200mm lenses, one with what looked like telescopic 100-400 (or something like that) and one guy with an impressive tripod mounted monster 500mm f4 prime, which I think cost more than all of my kit, and my car (and possibly most of the rest of the contents of my house!) - although it did in fairness seem to deliver pretty stunning results.

The lenses you mention would all work well, and you could probably get some funky shots really close up with a much shorter length as well - there are some brilliant shots on the forum here of red squirrels taken with a 10-20 lens, for example. In the afternoon when I was there and the weather was deteriorating, I was pleased to have the wide aperture of the DA*200 - the pic here of the weasel was I think taken fully open at f2.8.

Cheers again all