THE APPRENTICE
HIDE & SEEK
This month we pair up PhotoPlus Apprentice Raju with Canon pro Sean at his wildlife hide at Gigrin Farm Red Kite Feeding Station
APPRENTICE
NAME:
RAJU MISRA
CAMERA:
CANON EOS 77D
RAJU IS a ex-police sergeant of more than 30 years from Cheshire who, since taking retirement, enjoys nothing more than getting out with his Canon EOS 77D. He has a love for wildlife photography and managed to go on two safaris in Africa before the pandemic hit. Raju has written to us asking for help with bird photography as he’s a little unsure of settings and how to get the best out of his Canon EOS 77D and Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary lens.
CANON PRO
NAME:
SEAN WEEKLY
CAMERA:
CANON EOS 5D MK IV
SEAN LIVES in rural mid-Wales working as a professional wildlife photographer and a guide for Wildlife Worldwide travel company, leading numerous photography trips. On top of that, he also runs photography workshops and 1-2-1 sessions. We met with him at the Gigrin Farm Red Kite Feeding Station where he has his own wildlife hide and up to 600 Red Kites can be seen as they are fed there on a daily basis. Check out his work on Instagram @seanweekly and to book a place at his Red Kite and Buzzard Ground Level Photography Hide be sure to visit his website at www.seanweekly.com
EXPERT INSIGHT
WATCH THE BACKGROUND
PAY PARTICULAR attention to your background, as this can have a huge impact on your wildlife portraits. Opening your aperture wide to a value such as f/4, or even f/2.8, will help blur the background with a shallow depth of field, however, you’ll also want to watch out for other distractions like the additional birds in our bad example here, as this pulls the eye away from our subject. Raju waited for the moment when the bird was on its own, this gave his image a much cleaner background and more impact.