Last available places at Grey Seal workshops -So...Book Now!!

Hi There,

The annual Grey Seal and Red Deer workshops are about to happen again next November.
I have some final places left for those of you whom might be interested to join me on this photographic adventure in the UK.

For some examples have a look down here..







I will host a one day workshop at the Grey Seal colony and another at a Red deer site and both are great for working with 200mm + type lenses so no huge telelenses needed!

If you are interested to join me, send me an e-mail at: info@jeroenstel.com
or have a look on the website: http://www.jeroenstel.com

Dances with .....euh...Foxes

I have been following the family lives of two Foxes with cubs and it has been a great joy to do. One Fox in particular let's me get really close to her when she is out hunting for Greylag Geese. Sometimes i see her out in the field crawling towards a group of Geese and i know it won't take long for her to catch pne despite her old age and one leg not working as it should. When she returns to her den i carefully choose the right position where she will pass me and sometimes she walks by at only 2 meters. The thrill i feel when that happens is something out of this world!





I hope to be able to follow the two families for some time but the youngsters are allready growing tall so it won't take long before they decide to go out and explore this world on their own.





If you are interested in doing a 1:1 workshop on Foxes with me or perhaps one of the other workshops i host then have a look at the website: http://www.jeroenstel.com

New Website online!!!

Finally...

It took me a while and it's been pretty silent i know...
But i have been working hard on my new website wich has just been published!

So have a look at:

http://www.jeroenstel.com

And drop me a line to tell me what you think of it..

Boxing Hares

One of the things i just love about Spring is when male European Brown Hares start boxing amongst eachother for the right to mate.
The best place to photograph this action over here in The netherlands must be nature reserve Polder Arkemheen wich is well known amongst the natre photographers community for it's Waders such as Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank and Oystercatchers but also in wintertime for Bewick and Whooper Swans.



But the Brown Hares can be found in abundance too. It's just a matter of the right timing. Parking your car near the right field and a bit of luck and a lot of patience to get the right images.
Here are some i shot last week when i had some spare hours between business meetings in the nabourhood of the reserve and had a blast with these brown beauties.



And ofcourse what it is all about for these guys...

cuisses de grenouille sil vous plait...

In other words....Frog-legs anyone..??

I went back to the Bittern site where i photographed the Bitterns in the last post. Today was another succes as there where two Bitterns active out on the ice. One of them was hunting the edges of the reed bed and all of a sudden i saw it reaching out for something from underneath the ice...There it was...a big fat Frog!





Was hoping for such action but never expected it...
Tomorrow i will revisit the site to get some more shots and hopefully more of the action as i will be hosting another "Winter-Wonderland-Workshop" with the Bitterns as main point of focus..litterally..





So thumbs up for tomorrow and hope the Bitterns will be cooperative again and may the light be with us.

Mr. Camouflage..Exposed

Maybe some of you will remember one of my first posts on this weblog back in February of 2009 called "Masters of Camouflage",followed by another post of this mysterious creature called "Mr. Camouflage strikes again". I was talking about a Bittern ofcourse. A beautiful and mysterious bird that rarely steps out of it's natural habitat of the reed bed. It blends in perfectly and is very hard to detect.



There is a patch of reed bed near my home that i pass perhaps hundreds of times a year and i always think...this would be great Bittern territory....but i never see one...
Today i had about an hour or so to go out so i passed the same patch again and today it finally happened! There he was..fouraging out on the ice..a beautiful Bittern!
After taking some shots of it a few people on bycicles passed by and the Bittern decided to fly off and i finally got a couple of Bittern in flight shots that had crossed my mind several times..


I hope to be able to get some more shots of this amazing bird in the days to come and for those of you who are interested in doing a "Winter Wonderland"-Workshop with me (see 2 posts below this one)..be sure i will take you to several of my Bittern hotspots as they are out there right now!