News and reviews

It has been a long time since I have done a blog as I have been so busy (tip to wildlife photographers – don’t buy a house that needs renovating). After a couple months of DIY, I was ready for a trip and so in late January I was co-running a trip with Chris Gomersall for Natures Images to Israel.

Chris had been to the Hula Valley in northern Israel before and showed me some wonderful images of the wildlife that can be found there. I was really impressed with the Crane images that he had achieved and so we put a trip together.

Now like everybody else in the western world we are bombarded with bad news coming out of Israel and so there is always a slight doubt in your mind. After this visit though I thought it is a wonderful country and the people just couldn’t do enough for us.

Our main destination was the Agmon Crane centre and I have to say the staff made our stay so welcome and they really put themselves out to accommodate us throughout the trip.

Now I have to confess that I have a thing for Cranes. I have been to many places around the world to photograph them from New Mexico, Japan and Sweden. I went to Lake Hornborga in Sweden a few years back to photograph the huge gathering of Common Cranes that descend there each spring and loved every minute. I thought it would be hard to beat Lake Hornborga but that is what I felt the Hula Valley does.

The sheer number of Cranes that winter in the Agmon Crane centre is an amazing spectacle, around 37,000 winters here. The centre has a very clever way in getting you close to the Cranes as they use a tractor with a large trailer to take you to the area where the birds feed during the day. They also feed the birds themselves and so they have become accustomed to these vehicles which allow an unbelievable close encounter.

We went out each morning and evening to photograph the Cranes in the best light. It was great for getting individual flight shots as the birds dropped into the fields to feed.

The hardest part of the trip was to work out which lens combination to use because there are so many things going on. Wide angle lenses where great for capturing the large flocks of birds as they took off from their night time roosts.
I really liked working with my 500mm lens though because I could go in tight on the huge flock and pick out individuals preening or displaying.

Once we were in a position with the trailer the other tractor would then come in to feed the Cranes. This was a fantastic opportunity because the whole flock would form a tighter group. The movement in the flock was great to watch but it was extremely hard to capture in a still image. So I decided to use very slow shutter speeds to try and capture. This kind of photography is very much hit and miss and I had more misses that’s for sure. Every now and then though one image stood out from the rest. This kind of photography is what I call marmite shots; you either love it or hate it. I like the challenge though.

Every now and then though we took a break from working with the Cranes and Chris knew where we could photograph some Griffin Vultures in the Golan Heights. We spent a couple of afternoons at this location and it was great in capturing flight shots of these impressive vultures. In the latter part of the afternoon the vultures would head back to their roosting sites in big gorge. It was good fun watching these flying barn doors effortless glide by.

The Agmon reserve was also good for seeing other species like Marsh Harriers, Kingfishers, Ibises, Spoonbills and also Coypu. I really liked these large rodents and on a couple of occasions managed to get close enough to photograph them.

So there you go just a small selection of the images that I managed to achieve during this great trip. I loved it so much that we have decided to run it again next January. If you are interested in photographing something unique then please drop me an email. The trip will go live on the Natures Images website soon. I would like to make a special mention and thank Yossi Eshbol, Israel’s top wildlife photographer. Yossi really helped in making this trip happen and would like to thank him for all his help. Again I would like to thank the staff at the wonderful Agmon Crane centre. See you next year.

Danny