Moray photographer Pat Douglass' photo diary
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Spring is a great time for photographers whether it’s landscape, nature or any other outdoor subject.
For landscape photography the sun is still low enough on the horizon to give that golden light so beloved by photographers, whilst for nature photographers spring is a bonanza of opportunities.
The resident bird population is supplemented by new arrivals who come to the north of Scotland to breed, taking advantage of the long days to raise their families.
This is the perfect time to get into nature photography.
The hedgerows are full of birds sitting, singing, posing: not as shy as they might be at other times of the year they make an easier subject to practise on.
It’s also a great time to learn about birds.
Dressed in their spring outfits looking at their best they also look most like the descriptions in your bird book, making identification that bit easier!
One of the challenges of bird photography is getting enough light to capture the movement.
Small birds in particular often hide away in the hedges and undergrowth, lurking in shady corners barely visible by eye.
Then spring comes along and they leave their dark corners to sit atop the hedgerow, singing and strutting and just waiting to be photographed.
A good bird portrait can reveal exquisite feather detail but to achieve this you need to be able to freeze the bird, movement is the enemy of a sharp photograph.
Small birds move surprisingly fast, and often you will need a shutter speed of around 1/2000th to freeze them in flight.
When I started bird photography it took me a long time and a lot of experimenting before I realised that the lack of sharpness in the image was not a failure to focus on the subject but a shutter speed that was just too slow to freeze the movement.
Birds move faster than we think!
