New Forest wildlife workshop

The New Forest National Park is one of the natural jewels of southern England, blessed with a variety of wonderful environments and animal species for wildlife photographers. If you’d like to learn how to capture stunning images in this beautiful part of the country then why not join me for a Wildlife of the New Forest Photography Workshop? Whether you want to capture magnificent fallow deer or take a closer look at a variety of reptile species, a day of photography tuition will provide you with new insights into photographing wildlife, practical tips and hopefully lots of motivation and inspiration!

These are opportunities to spend the day at two sites in the Lyndhurst area with me as your personal mentor giving you 1-to-1 tuition. See my workshops & tuition overview page for more detail on why I specialise in offering personal tuition rather than group workshops. You’ll be able to photograph a range of species usually including:

Fallow Deer
European Adder
Green Frog
Sand Lizard
Grass Snake
Smooth Snake
Natterjack Toad
Various types of dragonfly and damselfly

What does the day include?

The pace of the day is dictated entirely by you in terms of the subjects you want to cover. A typical day’s itinerary would include:

10am: Meet at the New Forest Reptile Centre (free entry apart from car parking charge) in advance of the day. Enjoy a hot or cold drink while we discuss the plan for the day. If you’d like to bring examples of your photography then I’m very happy to review them with you.

10.30am – 1pm: Begin our photography with a morning session at the reptile centre, taking plenty of time at each enclosure. All the reptile areas are outdoors giving the opportunity to shoot these hard to find species in natural light under controlled conditions. As I’ve photographed at the centre many times I’ll show you some tips on how to achieve naturalistic images that you would never know had been taken in a captive setting. As well as looking at camera settings and long lens techniques we’ll also take time to study our subjects carefully. How they move and behave as well as how to anticipate what they might do next!

1pm – 2pm: Break for lunch and review the morning’s images. We’ll also make a plan for what we want to achieve in the afternoon session.

2pm – 5pm (depending on season and light): We’ll move on just 2 miles down the road to the Bolderwood Deer Sanctuary for an afternoon photographing the resident population of Fallow Deer. Although the deer are within an enclosed park it is a large area with lots of cover. This provides the guarantee of seeing the deer but also the opportunity to try out some stalking and fieldcraft techniques on the 1 mile trail around the sanctuary.

5pm – 6pm: We’ll spend the last hour of the day with a review of what we’ve achieved. We’ll discuss workflow and image processing (I can bring a laptop to demonstrate some techniques in Photoshop and Lightroom). Hopefully this will give you all the information you need to realise some images from the day that you’ll be extremely proud of.

What equipment will I need for the day?

You’ll need to bring your own camera with a lens that can reach a minimum focal length of 300mm. Ideally to take good-quality images you’ll own a digital SLR although this isn’t mandatory. When spending an entire day shooting it’s highly advisable to bring some kind of camera support, either a monopod or tripod. That way you give yourself the best chance of capturing sharp images and it’s a lot more comfortable as you don’t have to carry your camera constantly.

The UK weather can always be unpredictable so I’d always advise bringing a waterproof layer and comfortable footwear that you are happy doing plenty of walking in.

Costs and what’s included

The cost for a 1 day wildlife of the New Forest photography workshop is £175. As mentioned above you will need your own camera equipment, but I’ll also be bringing a Nikon DSLR with various lenses and a tripod so I can show you some of the camera settings and techniques I use. The only items not included are food and drink for the day but you’re welcome to bring your own lunch or there are places close by to grab a spot of lunch.