Neil Khandke Bird Photography
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I have been photographing birds/wildlife since 2006.  My wife suggested I take up a hobby (she has regretted it ever since) and I had been interested in wildlife photography when I was younger but could never afford the equipment.  I therefore brought a Fuji Finepix s5500 and a 1.5 screw converter and off I went.  I started with birds in the back garden and spent time at my local reserves where I met some great wildlife photographers who were very happy to give advice.  This fuelled my interest and I upgraded my equipement (unfortunately for those that get the bug this becomes a bit of an (expensive) obsession).  I now use Canon equipment.  

Finding time to get into the field can be hard and I have not done much in the last 2 years but I try to get out when I can.


I enjoy both portrait and action photography.  For portrait work I tend to use the Canon 50D.  The 1.6x crop give that extra bit of magnification and I find the 9 autofocus points really easy to use and very accurate (using the Canon 500mm f4 lens with the 1.4x converter and 1.6x camera crop give me 1120mm focual length at f5.6).  I have set the camera autofocus points to be changed with the thumb stick as this is really quick when you need to change focus point in a hurry.  I did/do use this camera for flight work and you can get good results but I always keep the camera on centre point as I do not find all 9 active works very well.

For flight work the 1D mark 3 is the one to use.  The focus is lightning fast and accurate and and my hit rate went up quickly when I purchased this camera.  The image quality is super and the noise at higher ISO is very low. 

I recently purchased a Fuji compact and an underwater housing and tried some underwater photography on holiday this year.  Mixed results but I have posted my first attempts on the site.

I hope you enjoy this site, please leave a comment in my guestbook.  Also check out the links to some great photo sites.

Neil

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I recently visited Gigrin farm in Powys to see the Red Kite Feeding Station.  A fantastic spectacle with over 100 Red Kites and Buzzards feeding for nearly 2 hours.  The birds were so close I had to take my 1.4x converter off my 500mm lens.  I took over 700 photo's,  see the best in my Red Kite and Buzzard folders.

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Kestrels are one of my favourite birds. So compact and neat and I just love their small faces.

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I wanted a kingfisher for a long time and this one turned up out of the blue in front of the hide.

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See more shots of this beautiful bird in my Barn Owl Folder.

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Red Kite swooping in to take some food, Gigrin Farm 2008.

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The Ringed Plover was taken on a beach in Norfolk.  We sat quietly at the seafront and waited and gradulally the birds came close.  A low viewpoint helps with the shot.  Taken with the Canon 40D which is great for portrait work.  I do try to get the eye sharp for these shots.

Questions or comments? You can send me e-mail at:

s.khandke@ntlworld.com