The Books in My Library-"The Life and Art of William T Cooper"

Occasionally in some of my videos I have mentioned some of the great books I have in my personal library.
I have many on Birds and Wildlife and also on photography.
Some also are on Australian Art and I love the fictional work of the great authors..
In this day and age I believe it is important to maintain the practice of reading and indeed creating good books.
I hope to leave my collection mainly for the benefit of my grandchildren.
Today I will do a short review of "The Life and Art of William T Cooper" by Penny Olsen.
The forward is by David Attenborough.
Penny Olsen has put together some wonderful books about the Art of Bird Ilustration and also Australian Birds in general.
Since I became acquainted with work of this great Australian Bird and Wildlife Artist he has died.

Here is a link to some short videos by Sarah Scragg about Bill and his meeting with David Attenborough.

https://vimeo.com/49892627

https://vimeo.com/33327840

This book is a beautifully produced coffee table book.

It traces Cooper's career from his earliest development and shows how he moved from Landscape Artist to Birds and Wildlife.

The videos available about him complement the book beautifully.

There is also an instructional video available on how to paint like he did.

One of the things I like about the book it shows his friendships and interaction with many other significant Australia Artists and Photographers, names I have grown up with and whose books I also have in my library.

Stanley Breeden is one of them.

I highly recommend getting a copy of this to add to your library and have a real good read.

The Walk Up method of Bird Photography

Over the years I have done lots of bird photography.
Never with real expensive cameras or real expensive lenses.
I have also never sat in a bird hide all day to capture images.

My approach has been mainly to shoot as opportunity arises.

This means having a camera ready to shoot.

I have adopted an approach as under.

1. Spot your bird(s)

2. Look for cover to approach from un-noticed.

3. Preset your camera so you can re act quickly.

4. Walk slowly towards your subject taking pictures from furtherest distance and progressively
    as you get closer.

5. Watch for changes in direction of birds head and pleasing poses.

6. Aim to try to fill the frame with the bird.

7. If you sense the bird is about to take flight get ready to capture a sequence of flight shots.

8. If your bird is fairly passive and quite tame take time to quickly make any necessary camera adjustments.

9. You could try using a tripod or monopod but this will be difficult.

10. With Australian Emus you can actually attract them in close to you and get many great shots.
 They are very curious and will come form a long way off to investigate if you are sitting in a  
 stationary car and slowly waving say a red jersey out of the window.

The camera, a Nikon D60 was not up to getting this shot but nailed the next one.

These emus came from the horizon you can see in the background right up to our staitonary car.

Egret captured at Dix's Park Paringa,South Australia, Emus at Calperum Station near Renmark.

Great Nature Photographers

There are some great nature photographers who have successfully passed from the film age to the digital age.

Two of them are John Shaw and Arthur Morris.

They are probably my favourite non Australian Nature Photographers. 

Check out there work by linking below.

http://www.johnshawphoto.com/

http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/about/

Photographing Kangaroos

For those who don't live in Australia I guess the idea of photographing a Kangaroo would be a pretty exotic idea and on many wishlists.
If you live in Australia you don't need to go far to see Kangaroos but you won't see any hopping down the main streets of our towns.
There was an interesting survey done recently that showed that Kangaroos that live in the hills surrounding Canberra,our national capital, do come into the suburbs at night.
Many country towns do have Kangaroos close by and they may do the same thing there as well.
Kangaroos are most active at night but do also frequent the daytime .
Mostly on very hot summer days they lie on the ground under the shade of trees usually in a depression in the sand.
Kangaroos are usually wary of humans but on some places will be more approachable than others.
Driving on country roads at night you have to be very careful that you don't hit them where they are plentiful.
That is why many cars in the outback have "bullbars" on the front to protect the car from impact.
In National Parks where they are not under threat from hunters they are more likely to be reasonably approachable.
There are many varieties with wallabies being a small form of Kangaroo.
My late father in law used to complain when we were out in the bush and I stopped the car to photograph "roos.
"Haven't you got enough shots of Kangaroos?"
I probably have but I never tire of photographing these beautiful animals.
Anyway below are some of my favourite Kangaroo shots.
A telephoto lens of at least 200mm is usually required.