Recently Edin and I ran our first dedicated bird photography workshop for New Zealand Photography Workshops. We based this in Rotorua as it is home and we know the area and what it has to offer well. It runs as a weekend workshop over 21/2 days beginning midday Friday and ending on Sunday afternoon. Our usual workshop is based on the Otago peninsula and wildlife focussed including birds and marine mammals so it was nice to have a purely bird focussed weekend.

We had a fabulous group of very capable photographers (some repeat offenders/frequent flyers from previous workshop/tours) which made our work a lot easier and fun. We began with a classroom session of our approach to bird photography, issues to consider, fieldcraft and image design along with some practical advice on camera settings. This was followed by practical sessions at 2 venues with a range of subjects and conditions. The first evening was brought to a close with a lovely meal at the Pig and Whistle.

Day 2 was a little more classroom work based around image processing with some one on one time with the photographers. We then revisited one of the venues from the previous day to explore options in different conditions before lunch and then some more editing time. We rounded out the day shooting at the second venue from the day before. One of the points we were trying to illustrate being the benefit of revisiting a venue and getting to know it well in different conditions. The day ended with an excellent meal at the Distinction hotel which was our base for the workshop.

Day 3 dawned calm with a veil of cloud offering very different conditions so we elected to revisit our lake venue to explore this very different mood rather than spend indoor time editing. Rain brought our lake session to a slightly early close and we headed in a deluge to Wingspan for a session on raptors.

Conditions really didn’t look great but the weather broke and we had a lovely session photographing a NZ falcon in flight. Repeated passes to the lure gave us plenty of opportunity to try and capture this speedy bird.

Sadly we could not photograph the harrier/kahu in flight as her trainer was ill. We did though, get a chance to see her up close for some lovely portraits.

We then had the opportunity for some up close Meet and Greet sessions with a kāreaea/falcon and ruru/morepork which were absolutely stunning.

Do yourself a favour and book a Meet and Greet with Cricket the ruru/morepork. She is the most engaging little bird who will change your view of the world when she lands on your arm.

Photos with Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 400mm f4.5 some with 1.4x teleconverter or Nikkor Z 28-400mm f4-8 VR or Nikon Z9 with Nikkor Z 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 VR S