LED Charged Sparrowhawk

Galloway - 13.10.19

Over the course of the weekend up in Galloway I took the opportunity of a night session in one of Alan McFadyen's hides trying for images of Tawny Owl that visit after dark that requires being in the hide early to avoid any potential disturbance, as Alan is setting up a couple of LED lamps to illuminate a post he says to keep an eye open for the Sparrowhawk that often makes an appearance at dusk....under lights !

Shooting with LED lamps is a new experience for me and a technique that doesn't always make sense...well to me it doesn't. In the low light, light rain conditions the camera is bumping 12,000 ISO with the lens wide open at f4 and a shutter of 250-320/sec, but add a couple of LED lamps and the ISO drops to a manageable 6,400 further more it seems to pull out some incredible detail you would not normally get in general cloudy conditions. I've also noted the LED's don't create that unnatural look in the image you so often see with conventional flash something I'm going to try in the future in my own garden.

It's all quiet the silence only broken by the odd squeaky chair as we fidget about trying to get comfortable, light rain is falling and normally a little too dark to get any decent images, but this is where the LED lamps come in to their own.

Bang !...the female Sparrowhawk appears almost out of nowhere, not surprising they are the stealth hunters of the woods, the "bop" just sits there for an age as thou looking around for any free offerings....then it's gone.

The female Sparrowhawk is an amazing sight, far more impressive then the more colourful male, and using LED lamps is another first just make sure if you are using auto iso to dial in some negative exposure or better still go fully manual......WOW !

Sparrowhawk - female