Quick update

As always, it's been months since I last updated the blog - and plenty has happened in that time. I'm still producing two weekly video programmes for the TSC channel on YouTube. I am now appearing on camera in the Tuesday news show, which has been quite a learning experience - not just because of the technical challenges of lighting, recording video and sound in a 'studio' type environment, but also because presenting to camera really isn't my thing; I'm much happier behind the camera! I'm rapidly discovering that reading a script, sounding natural and looking into the camera is quite a challenge, and I've developed a new-found respect for TV news presenters.

The BBC's newsreaders have nothing to fear!

On top of the TSC production work, I have produced a lot of videos for the CPSA, including reports from their major championships in 2017, instruction videos in their 'How to Hit' series, and promotional videos for Facebook and other social media platforms. There are more of these in the pipeline, with the CPSA Annual Awards and the CPSA World English Sporting Championship coming up later in 2018 - follow their YouTube channel and Facebook page to see my work as it appears. And members will have seen my regular articles and photos in the CPSA magazine, 'Pull!', as well as the occasional write-up in Clay Shooting magazine.

My photo of Austin Coxhead on the cover of Pull! magazine

Plus there's been a host of smaller projects for clients including Eley, Just Cartridges, Save The Rhino, and many more. In case you're thinking it's all about shooting, I have also worked on a number of non shooting related projects too - most recently filming a performance by the lovely Yasmine Giles.

I've continued to steadily upgrade and update my gear, so my main video kit is now based around the phenomenal Panasonic GH5 micro four thirds camera, with a selection of prime and zoom lenses. My main stills camera is a Canon 5D Mk iii, mostly with prime 35mm, 50mm and 85mm lenses, but also my trusty old Sigma 70-200 f2.8 which produces stunning quality on the full-frame format, despite being nearly 20 years old! For wildlife I reach for my Canon 300mm, another stunning lens. I edit video in Final Cut Pro X running on a 27" iMac.

Barnaby the bully

I've been experimenting with video settings on my Canon 550D, and I recently got an adaptor so I can use it with an old Olympus 300mm f/4.5 lens that was sitting around gathering dust. Here is a little clip I shot from the bedroom window. The chicken house is 40 yards away, but with the crop factor of the APS-C sensor I'm getting the equivalent of a lens of 450mm or so.

I'm pleased with the result - the colours look natural even after I've boosted the saturation and added a bit of S-curve in Hawaiki Autograde.

As for Barnaby, he's a complete hooligan. I'm going to try putting up a few short sections of low fence in the hope of keeping them apart, or at very least giving the chickens a head start when he gets a mood on.

Share|

In the Fox Box with Gary Green

Here's my latest film with Gary Green; unusually this one appeared on Fieldsports Channel, as part of their Fieldsports Britain programme. It was a good night, and I was pleased with the way my infra-red filming gear worked. If you were there, the view out across the field was pitch black, but the camera makes it look like broad daylight.

Share|

Shooting in the dark

This foxshooting tale was quite literally filmed in the dark; fortunately I had some powerful IR lamps and an IR camera which makes it all possible - and Robert and Nigel had night vision spotters and riflescopes so they could do their thing without any need for visible light either. But if you'd been driving by at the time and looked straight at us, you'd have seen nothing at all. Spooky.

Share|

Driven pheasants and partridges

It was a challenge to film the item on Paul Childerley's Bedfordshire driven shoot for this episode of The Shooting Show. It's never easy filming any type of shotgun shooting, and live birds are much less predictable than clays. I've developed a technique of holding the camera to my right eye and zooming until it matches the picture from my left eye, then keeping both eyes open while locking head/camera/neck so they move together. Well, it helps me!

I cheated a bit, if you want to call it that, by setting up a Sony AS15 behind the gun and leaving it running throughout the drive. In the edit, I always had the fallback of a wide shot to cover what I'd missed with the hand-held camera - and I needed it quite a bit!

It's hard to convey the reality of a driven day on video. The birds either look too close or miles away, depending on the lens, angle, etc. If you stop and think about it too hard, the action is all over and it's too late.

Some of the birds on the video look lower - and easier - than they were in real life, a fact that's clearly lost on the couple of sneering commenters who seem determined to give shooting a bad name. All in all, though, I think it turned out quite well for a demanding day's filming followed by a quick turnaround on the edit.

Share|

Someone's after my ducks!

Of course I could be wrong, but this looks suspiciously like Charlie has been scratching at the duck pen trying to find a way in.

It's getting cold at night and those ducks must look awfully tempting. We lost the last lot of ducks to a fox on a particularly cold night - Charlie had ignored them up til then.

I've set up one of the excellent Minox DTC600 trail cameras to watch the pen so I can find out more. For the technically minded, that's a pigeon hide pole, with a Manfrotto 143BKT bracket which just happens to fit perfectly - it's a super easy way to place a trail camera anywhere you can drive in the spike, and adjust the height and angle by loosening a single screw.

Share|

Tracking down the Preston Puma

Here's a video I made about David Glyn Jones, who is on the trail of what he believes is a puma living wild on some rough ground just outside his home town of Preston. David is deaf, which to my untrained eye appears to go some way to explaining why he is more observant than average. Plus he's been tracking wildlife since he was a boy, and loves spending time outdoors. He can look at a tree branch, patch of Himalayan balsam or a grass field and spot signs that I wouldn't have noticed in a million years. Tracking down whatever-it-is has become something of an obsession for him. I managed to borrow a couple of trail cameras from Minox to help with his quest. I went to visit him at home last week, and this is the result.

Share|

Ferret faking it!

Ok, I give up. That jill is no more pregnant than I am. She's a big faker. She showed all the signs, she even put on a load of weight. But the time has passed and now she's getting slimmer again. Maybe she was after the extra rations, maybe she fancied a bit of peace and quiet on her own, or maybe she just enjoys the limelight. But pregnant she isn't! I'll leave the webcam on for a while, just in case. Then I'll think about what to point it at next. The vegetable patch perhaps - at least the potatoes are actually producing something!

Share|

Gundogs in slow motion

I've been playing about with the Casio EX FH20 today, filming the dogs at 210fps - this is the result. More practice needed, but the results are promising, and it's fascinating to see how they move.

Share|

Gotcha!

At last! I've captured Mr Fox taking the eggs. There's even a hedgehog bumbling along when he comes back for the second one. Watch how the hedgehog jumps when he realises there's a fox nearby. You can practically hear him go "Oh, $#!7, a fox!" as he rolls up.

It's fascinating to see the fox use its paw to roll the egg into reach - exactly what my young lab, Bracken does when she's got her favourite tennis ball wedged behind the water bowl.

The third time the fox comes back, he seemes quite peeved that there are no eggs left - lazy hens aren't laying fast enough!

For those who're interested, this was shot with the excellent Mini DVR2 from Dogcamsport, rigged up on a ball-head mount, and illuminated with a cctv IR lamp that I bought on eBay.

This should have been a fox!

I've been trying to get some close-up footage of our local foxes. On Friday I set up a minicam, connected to a DV camera, and sat up all night waiting for the fox to turn up so I could press the 'record' button at the crucial moment. Needless to say, the fox didn't show up!

Not to be outdone, I downloaded a motion sensing cctv app for the mac, and left the laptop watching over my bait.

Turns out the laptop connection isn't as sensitive as the DV camera's, so it didn't spot foxy sneaking in under cover of darkness and lifting the two eggs I'd placed just in front of the camera. Still I did get this nice shot of a crow.

Next step is to find a way of illuminating the scene properly... Watch this space!



UPDATE 23/6: Turns out there's more to this than meets the eye. The HQ2 camera I've been using is not sensitive to IR light. That's because they put in a special filter to stop IR spoiling the image in daylight! After an email conversation with the helpful chaps at Dogcamsport, I'm ordering an adapter cable to use another camera, which is sensitive to IR and performs very well as a night vision device. Plus I've extended the cable connection to reach the computer in my spare bedroom, so I don't have to leave the laptop in the shed (thieves please note, there's no point breaking the door down). And I've got hold of a super-powered IR cctv floodlamp to cover the area. And yes, my wife does think I'm getting a bit obsessed with all this!

Fox on camera

I'm testing a new Bushnell trail camera, and managed to capture this fox early this morning (while I was still in bed!). It shoots higher quality video than the last one I tested - rather a nice result.

Trail camera fox from James Marchington on Vimeo.

It works in the dark too...

Bushnell trail camera - foxes at night from James Marchington on Vimeo.

And catches squirrels!

Bushnell trail camera - squirrel from James Marchington on Vimeo.

Roe deer on camera

I went back to check the trail camera today. Here's the best roe deer sequence it had caught. Having set off the camera, the deer then obligingly walks back across the frame before moving off.

Trail camera: roe deer from James Marchington on Vimeo.

I also got some nice video of the roe with a normal camera - here are some clips I put on youtube:

Bringing home the bacon... er, rabbit

Today I went over to my parents' place, to see what the trail camera had picked up over the past week. It had snapped a roe deer and a fox, but with so little activity in the entire week it was clear the fox family had moved out.

I was fairly sure I knew where to find them, so I stalked over to the far side of the wood, where I'd seen the vixen and cub a week earlier, and settled in under an overhanging bush. After an hour or so, the vixen set off out of the cover and along the hedge away from me. She was clearly hunting, and made a half-hearted lunge at a couple of rabbits grazing by the hedge - they just hopped underground out of the way, and the fox trotted on and round the corner out of my sight.

Half an hour later, I noticed the rabbits scuttle off in alarm, and switched on the camera. Sure enough, over the hill came the vixen, bringing back her catch for the cubs.

More trail camera fun

There's a fox den in the woods near my parents' house - most years it produces a litter of cubs. I'd planned to get some film of the cubs when they first started to emerge, but with one thing and another I wasn't able to get over there until this weekend. I think I may be too late!

There's a big patch of flattened bluebells in front of the den, so it looks like the youngsters have been playing there. I've spent a good few hours sitting up watching, but only once did I get a glimpse of a foxy-red blur in the half-light.

I've set up a motion sensor trail camera watching over the den. It went off around 3.45am last night, but all it caught was a moth (plus some owls hooting, and an insomniac blackbird).

Trail camera from James Marchington on Vimeo.

Today I looked a bit further afield, and came upon these two foraging in the field on the other side of the wood:



You can't see it clearly in these clips, but I think the vixen has had some sort of accident - she is missing a lot of hair from the back half of her body, and she walks with a bit of a limp. The cub looks healthy enough, though, and there was another skulking in the brambles on the edge of the wood.

I've left the camera set up, in the hope they'll come back to the den eventually and I'll get a photo.

Two foxes snapped by the ProStalk

For the first time, the ProStalk camera has captured two foxes at once.

Also a magpie that visited the site during daylight. There are one or two 'blank' photos, day and night, which I guess are the result of something whizzing past the sensor and being out of shot by the time the shutter opens. It could easily happen with a small bird, or even a bat, flying close to the camera.

One thing I've learned from using the ProStalk is how unpredictable the foxes are. Some foxshooters have told me about foxes so predictable "you could set your watch by them". Not mine! Looking through the 'event log' on the machine, I've had foxes visit on different days at 17.00, 18.11, 20.40, 22.20, 01.35, 04.00, 05.40 and 06.15. There's really no pattern in that - so if I had to wait up for them it could be a long cold night, with no guarantee they'd show up at all.

Gotcha!

The ProStalk camera nabbed this photo of my night-time visitor last night. There are 9 photos in all, taken in 3 bursts of 3. The info on the card shows that foxy came through twice - once around 8.40pm and then again this morning at around 6.15.

Event 0001 2009/11/25 20:39:06
Event 0002 2009/11/26 06:14:04
Event 0003 2009/11/26 06:15:44

On test: Pro-Stalk trail camera

I've been waiting for an opportunity to test out the £200 Hawke Pro-Stalk camera from Deben - a nifty bit of kit that you set up strapped to a tree, then come back a day later and marvel at the high quality pictures and video it's snapped of any passing wildlife. At least, that's the theory.

Well the opportunity came along today. Long story, but when our local council issued us with slop bins for food waste, they hadn't reckoned on people like me who regularly have to dispose of the inedible bits of assorted pheasants, deer, trout and the like. The answer of course is an environmentally friendly composting scheme, otherwise known as digging a hole at the end of the garden. The foxes seem to think I'm doing this for their benefit, and do their best to dig the juiciest bits up again.

So I thought I'd set up the camera overlooking their latest hole. The instructions seem simple enough. Like any electronic gizmo, you slot in the batteries (4 D-cells), turn it on, then use the menu to set the time, date, etc. You can set up the camera using a combination of slide switches and a menu, to take photos or video, adjust the delay between pictures, and so on.

I've set it with the minimum delay of 1min between triggerings, to take a 90sec video each time it's triggered. During darkness, it should use its built-in infra-red LEDs to film in night vision. The final touch, a scoop of smelly dog food in the bottom of the hole.

Now I just leave it and wait to see what appears on the card...

UPDATE: Well I clearly got something wrong, because this morning the dogfood had gone, but the camera hadn't taken any video. Back to the instructions, which are of limited help because they were translated into English by someone who, er, doesn't exactly count English as their first language. Reading between the lines, though, I see that they're talking about an IR 'flash', rather than 'lamp', which suggests that maybe video isn't an option during darkness. Which could explain why Mr Fox was able to sneak in and eat his meal unrecorded. So tonight I'm setting it to take photos rather than video. And putting another dollop of dogfood down the hole. At this rate I'll be getting an award from the RSPCA for services to foxes!