My annual visit to Newent IBOPC

Well hello; it looks like once again I’ve just returned from what can only be described as my annual pilgrimage to the Newent International Bird of Prey Centre!

Armed with my Nikon D300, D200, Sigma 150-500mm & new Sigma 70-200 f2.8 lens, I headed off with LJ on a stunning summer day to the centre to see how I would fare with the live action displays that they put on 3 times a day.

For those who haven’t been to the Newent IBOPC, I can higly recommend it if you have even a passing interest in the stunning birds of prey they have there. The location is peaceful and stunning; the staff helpful and very well informed and the displays are just amazing to watch, let alone photograph.

When we arrived, we just caught the second half of the first live display, and rushed to grab the camera equipment and rattle off the first shots of the day. Sadly, I was pretty disappointed with the results, but wasn’t awar of the fact that my Sigma 70-200 f2.8 was severly back/front focussing, and initially put the out of focus shots down to my own lack of ability!

After finding out the poor shots were down to the 70-200 f2.8, I swapped over for my trusty Nikon 70-300 VR2. While not as fast, it autofocuses quickly, the VR2 works flawlessy and it is a joy to work with.

Thankfully, this allowed me to get some pleasing shots and salvage what started off as a bit of a disappointing day.

I hope you enjoy the images below.