Wild Bird Trust photographers of the week

It has gone awhile since I last got chosen by Wild Bird Trust to be among the 25 photos they show at National Geographic’s News Watch.

I have been quite and not sent in that many pictures to Wild Bird Trust over the last weeks as I have focused on building my public profile at Facebook, which I should have done a year ago, and making ads for the upcoming Photo Fair in Stockholm this weekend. This together with the fact that more and more excellent photographers is joining Wild Bird Trust’s cause makes it harder to get chosen.

This close up of a Common Snipe is the included picture this time.

I think this is a really interesting photo and something fresh as most photos of a Common Snipe would “focus” on their long beak. I wanted to do something else when I saw how the opportunity materialized.

The story is a little funny as I had travelled to Skåne and the Kingfisher place together with Andreas Jarl of Snakebunk. The sun wasn´t up and we had just put up the hide while talking with another photographer when this little fellow landed just a few feet away. It stayed for a short period before it probably realized that we where there.

The Kingfisher just made a short appearance during the morning, but the Snipe was quickly back and soon it started to work its way back towards the hide. It seemed to know that we where there, but it was more focus on digging the beak into the soft ground searching for something eatable.

It didn´t take long before it appeared in front of the hide and that was when this picture was taken.

The only downside to the picture is the high angle and that is why I got the water as background. I would have liked to get a darker and more earthy background, but that wasn´t to be. Still I could save the image during the post-processing where I have darkened the water, as it was far too bright for my liking.

It was a true pleasure to be able to follow this wild bird while it searched for food. If you put up the picture at full screen you will see the individual feathers of the bird together with a really nice reflection in the eye where you can see the tree line as a nice contour. I like it and I hope you also do it.

Now I will do some marketing and that is for my new Facebook page Lensman – Lennart Hessel Photography.

I need Likes to get things going. If you have a Facebook account please login and “Like” my new page. If you also could take the time to “Invite” your friends to “Like” the page, then I’ll be really glad.