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Im considering a day out to a dedicated area of woodland south of Crawley called Millers Wood. Its run by photographer John Stanton who has purchased a few acres solely for the purpose of photography and spent much time and effort in building hides and attracting bird life. He understands that some people prefer to just hire out the hides and charges £50 per person per day for their use, details here - http://www.johnstantonphotography.co.uk/hide-rental/#

I was thinking of visiting in June/July, probably a weekday (due to car availability) and could accommodate another 3 members. Journey time is around 50 minutes from Croydon. Would anyone be interested in joining me??

On a final note his blog covering his purchase of the woods and building all the hides is interesting and his gallery of birdlife is very impressive.

Hi Paul,

Thank you for offering to arrange this trip which sounds interesting.

If the trip is on a Friday I'd be interested but have commitments the rest of the week.

Regards,

Tom

Hi Paul

I might be interested but would like to know the full frame telephoto focal lengths recommended for the location. As we all know, birds are small and a lot of magnification is required to fill the frame. I have looked on the website and there is no mention of suitable equipment.

When I was on Guernsey the other day, I met a photographer who specialises in bird photography and he had just bitten on a rather sizeable bullet. He had invested in a Canon 800 f/5.6 lens. Even allowing for Guernsey's VAT free status, that still represents a significant investment. The cheapest UK price I can find is around £10.5k at one dealer. Most of the others are charging nearer £12k, with some in excess of that. Hopefully, we can get by without going to those extremes.

There are some images of John Stanton who uses Nikon equipment with his big lens (?) at
http://www.johnstantonphotography.co.uk/about-me-2/
Iggy

Iggy wrote:There are some images of John Stanton who uses Nikon equipment with his big lens (?) at
http://www.johnstantonphotography.co.uk/about-me-2/
Iggy

Judging by its length and the size of the front element, It looks like a 300 f/2.8 to me.

Hi Paul

I would be interested in joining you and would like to take one of your spare seats in your car. Just let me know when you're going - I'm generally free most days.

I e-mailed John Stanton, the owner of the site, about the equipment he recommends for shooting from the hide. This is his response:

"It all depends what your shooting, for small birds Goldfinch etc I use my 500ml and for woodpeckers 300ml all on full frame, this gets me most of my shots.
As the wood is set up for photographers I encourage making sets, perch setups etc so you can purposely make something to suit, and also have Christmas tree stands which take logs for the woodpeckers which can be moved around, anything from 5ft to infinity so everything is doable.
more info here. http://www.johnstantonphotography.co.uk ... -workshop/
Any questions just ask."

It sounds as though it would be worthwhile taking some bird seed along.

Paul

Have you decided on a date yet?

Also, I have a spare Canon 100-400mm zoom that I can loan out it anyone is interested. It is a heavy lens and a tripod might come in handy.

Hi David,
If I do decide to go once a date has been arranged, I would be interested in borrowing your spare 400-100 mm lens that you have kindly let me use before.
Kind regards,
Iggy

Iggy wrote:Hi David,
If I do decide to go once a date has been arranged, I would be interested in borrowing your spare 400-100 mm lens that you have kindly let me use before.

Iggy do you intend using the lens back to front? [ ]