Equipment extremes

[Chris_Johnstone]

I've set it my goal to photograph some Ptarmigan over winter. In a perfect world I'd like the final result to be a snowscape with the bird in it (you know the type).

If anyone has any experience with stalking these birds I'd love to hear about it. Especially the camo, where to find them kinda thing. Spec me some things I'll need that I might not already have.

Back to the subject - what kind of abiotic extremes have you put you gear through. Temperature, pressure, rain, dust, saltwater, that sort of thing and if so what were the best ways of dealing with it?

Hope you get the picture (haha).

Chris

[wildlifesnapper]

Hi

I think I can remember reading somewhere that at the top of one of the ski slopes in scotland they are fairly used to seeing people so they may be easyer to stalk there.

neil

[big bill]

They are fairly common of the pistes in the Cairngorms National Park during the winter,bit of advise if you do decide to go and take photographs of them up there wrap up really warm it could be 3`C down in the car parks but up the top of the mountain in can be -10 and above also let someone know where your going and time expected back or you could end up with a costly bill from mountain rescue looking for you.Around the Aviemore ski centre you will be lucky because you could use the funicular railway to take you to the top,hope this helps

[JonSadler]

Head up the hills around Braemar and Ballater you'll hear and see lots of these little clucking birds. They are easy to approach but exposure is tricky with all that snow about. That's if there is any this winter.

It is a great landscape but the weather changes rapidly so care is needed. I never went up with anything other than a small compact camera - my visits were long before I bought a SLR camera (which was not until this Sept.), so I cannot comment on how to protect those. I do remember the walk up being an effort though. Best of luck.

Jon

[ron1863]

Originally Posted by big bill

They are fairly common of the pistes in the Cairngorms National Park during the winter,bit of advise if you do decide to go and take photographs of them up there wrap up really warm it could be 3`C down in the car parks but up the top of the mountain in can be -10 and above also let someone know where your going and time expected back or you could end up with a costly bill from mountain rescue looking for you.Around the Aviemore ski centre you will be lucky because you could use the funicular railway to take you to the top,hope this helps

Good advice from Big Bill. I've been up in the Furnicular railway and it's very very cold especially as there always seems to be a bitter wind in winter. You can always walk back down as there are several trails but tell someone where your going and roughly when you will be back and take a mobile phone. Leave nothing to chance.

[big bill]

Chris to expose for the snow if your camera allows it shoot in Raw mode and you can fix out exposure in Raw convertor otherwise take your exposure and componsate by +1 -+2 in exposure compensation as the camera will be fooled by the whiteness of the snow and under-expose

[Chris_Johnstone]

Yep. I'll get the exp. compensation up. Thanks for the tips. More are welcome!

Chris