MARK HAMBLIN

WILD NATURE OF THE CAIRNGORMS

Tuesday saw the 1st of our Big Nights. Mark Hamblin is an award winning professional nature photographer. Originally from Warwickshire, he started in 1995 as a freelance nature photographer, he then lived for 18 years in Sheffield, and for the last 14 years is now presently living in Aviemore within the Cairngorms. Starting off originally with film, in 2004 went into digital photography. He has many books to his name and plays a major part of the 2020 Vision.

Mark began the evening with a time lapse of the Cairngorms, to wet our appetite. His images involved a huge range from the garden Robin, to Slavonian Grebes, Crested Tits, Red Squirrels, Capercaillie’s, Pine Marten, Whooper Swans, Black Grouse, Red Grouse, Greylag Geese, Brown Hares, Mountain Hares, Roe Deer, Red Deer, Ptarmigan, Golden Eagles & Osprey.

He has a permanent hide set up in his garden which also includes a home made pond, where the hide is at one end and the opposite end is shallow where the birds land. He recommends pre-focusing his lens on certain areas watching when the birds fly in and then pressing shutter. The pool encourages many varieties of birds, Siskin, Goldfinch, Jackdaws, Robin and Wrens. Around the hide he puts natural perches and in some cases will put road kill out to encourage Kestrels and Buzzards.

Around his home he’s surrounded by Pine Woodland which is an old Caledonian Pine Forest, and is the best example of its kind. There’s lots of farm land and a local river which is full of salmon, dippers and common sandpipers. Cuckoo’s are in good population in the area also, due to their reliance on caterpillars which are in good supply. He has a soft spot for Red Squirrels and explained how 10 years ago he hardly saw any, but now numbers are v good. He has various props again to achieve certain shots. He has an upright stick where he puts nut feeders and then a short stump to the side which encourages the squirrels to jump to the stick holding the nuts (that’s the theory) again pre-focusing on one end of the logs, rather than trying to follow.

He showed a short film of a fund raising project he’s passionate about. A book is being put together by a fellow photographer Neil McIntyre who needs to reach a target that Mark would like everybody to pledge to buy, please follow the link below.

Locally there are also Black & Red Grouse, Hen Harriers and Merlin which are widespread but not common. A marsh land managed by the RSPB, is home to Grey Herons, Short Eared Owls, Dragonflies, Damselflies and finds Roe Deer numbers quite high. Red Deer are also in good numbers in the area, as they have no natural predator, so they have to be controlled via shooting, the argument being that they are healthier deer if numbers are reduced.

Mark has spent more time photographing Mountain Hares more than any other animal. One entire winter he chased hares around, but hadn’t appreciated the techniques involved in capturing them. Although predominantly he uses a 600mm lens for his wildlife photography, he also likes to use a 70-200mm lens which is great for showing animals such as the hares in their environment.

He likes minimalist shots, small in the frame shots or cryptic shots where just their eyes & nose can be seen.

Mark ended with a short film of Scotland – The Big Picture.

A fabulous evening with fabulous images.

http://www.markhamblin.com/home

http://www.neilmcintyre.com/2016/11/red-squirrel-future-forest/