Alan Mackenzie Photography

Thursday 8th November 2012: An estimated ten thousand starlings gathered around Brighton Pier at sunset this afternoon. I had little time to grasp the sheer magnitude of the display. Within fifteen minutes, my 16GB memory card was full up. The murmurations can only get bigger and more spectacular each afternoon, as thousands of starlings arrive in Brighton for the winter. ------ Wednesday 14th November 2012 : One would normally expect clear skies to be accompanied by cold, crisp weather, but today's maximum temperature of 12.5 °C   was an exception to the rule. Unfortunately, clear skies don't provide any kind of dramatic backdrop. Therefore, despite taking 600 shots, only one was good enough to show other people. After the standards set last Thursday, keeping up with expectations is becoming increasingly a challenge!  I was delighted to meet Fine Art and Photography student, Suzanne Carr on Sunday afternoon, after being contacted by email. Suzanne is in...

I stood almost knee-deep in water as a band of torrential rain passed overhead. The clay-lined Low Weald, flooded many times over the summer months. I may be an outdoor person, but unlike the deer I had within my sights, I don't have to live outdoors . If it rains all summer — well, the deer are soaked right through all summer. If the temperature drops to -14 °C in winter — well, the deer just have to eat and sleep in temperatures of -14 °C. No wonder the average life expectancy of wild Roe deer is just seven years. When the rain finally ceased, the deer wasted little time and emerged from their hedgerow hideaway to dry out in the open. I moved into place, clutching a very expensive 500mm lens, kindly lent to me, by Alex Lawrence. There she was. Beads of water, glistening in the evening light, swelled in circumference, before dripping off her face. The doe looked up, I took a few shots and quickly withdrew before my sudden appearance became disruptive. 

I encountered this beautiful Roe deer doe in woodland, at the end of a hot July day, just as the rutting season was beginning. Moments earlier, a passing train had given the deer a terrible fright; little did she know, an invader of the forest was tracking her with a super-telephoto lens. Upon spotting me, the doe tentatively walked closer, out of natural curiosity, before turning around and melting into the trees. Deer are natural experts at working out the behaviour of nearby animals. While deer are quite at ease, when humans are clod hopping about the forest, chattering away as normal, they will paradoxically become far more alert, should any humans try to camouflage their presence. Deer are genetically programmed to identify any animal trying not to draw attention to itself, as a predator.

The starlings pleased themselves, as always, on Sunday afternoon, which was a shame, from our perspective, because the marmalade sky would have provided an ideal backdrop for the murmurations. The scene, although pleasing to the eye, lacked a strong focal point, until a yacht sailed by; using the sky and water as negative space, I placed the vessel in the desired location. Lines featuring in the sky and on the water are like brush strokes. Of note was the calm air, an unusual occurrence on the coast; Brighton and Hove is such a windy place. I told the photography student I met last Sunday about a storm last winter, which coincided with high tide. The sea and waves reached Kings Parade; a certain landscape photographer by the name of Finn Hopson was down there at 1.30am .

This week, I met with motor sports photographer, Alex Lawrence , in a busy Hove café, to take custody of the best telephoto lens in the world: none other than the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM Mark II. Equipped with a 4-stop image stabilizer and blisteringly fast autofocus, this lens can keep 200mph Formula One cars in perfect focus, no sweat. Optical quality is second to none; the glass produces razor sharp images, with negligible chromatic aberration and distortion. Alex brought along his newly purchased Canon EOS-1DX camera body, which attracted the attention of other customers in the best possible way. The camera uses two DIGIC 5+ processors to handle up to twelve 18 megapixel RAW images per second and a DIGIC 4 processor for autofocus/exposure calculations. The image quality is excellent; I've yet to handle a more technologically advanced and responsive camera. I should think so too, given the £5229 price tag! My Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III seems quaint and stately in comparison....

Earlier this year, I booked a second autumn holiday at the Old Manor House Pig Barn in the pretty Saxon hamlet of West Dean , East Sussex. Former Eastbourne hotelier and amateur archaeologist Julian Martyr runs three holiday cottages here, called the Dovecote Garden . The cottage is probably the oldest building I've stayed in, easily trumping the Lower Farm Cottages in Blockley and Whitewells in Herefordshire by at least three hundred years! Aside from photographing the already familiar Abbots Wood and Friston Forest, I had Brede High Woods and Camber Sands earmarked on the map; the unsettled weather that makes coastal photography so interesting, never materialised, so unfortunately I didn't make it to Camber Sands on this occasion. The first four days of my holiday was accompanied by thick fog; I've wanted to capture autumn woodland shrouded in fog for many years. Thanks to the proximity of Friston Forest, the misty glades were just a five minute walk away. The wet...

It isn't long until starlings begin their migratory journey from the rapidly cooling European continent to the milder shores of the British Isles. This year, I will be equipped with the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III and a borrowed Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM. I cannot wait. I've been practising my bird photography on Brighton seafront recently; swift, agile gulls provide the challenge I need to bring my rusty bird tracking skills up to par. I am awaiting news on whether my starling picture story will make it into the newspapers. HotSpot Media interviewed me during the summer and constructed a story based on my answers; the copy features references to Alfred Hitchcock (if I could have a pound for every time people have mentioned The Birds to me, I could buy the Canon EOS-1DX). Although HotSpot Media have sent the story to all daily national newspapers, the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph are most likely to run it. Some of my best friends are Daily Mail readers; I will ...

I trust you are preparing yourselves to forgive me for the lack of posting. Late summer and early autumn is always a lean time for wildlife photographers. Most animals, except Fallow deer, have finished mating; the butterflies are mostly deceased; the countryside is preparing itself for the winter. I have used this quiet period to complete 98 pages of my upcoming book on wildlife and nature. There is still work to be done this autumn, before it is ready in time for Christmas. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the photograph I took at the weekend on Hove beach.

Two weeks ago, I met with sports photographer, Alex Lawrence , in a busy Hove café , to receive a very special piece of equipment : the Canon EF 500mm f/4 L IS USM lens. I first met Alex on Brighton beach in March; our last rendezvous was only our second and so it is a rare privilege to be offered custody of a £ 7500 lens for one month. Alex knows I have form for destroying L series lenses; the Canon EF 100-400mm and 28-70mm lenses have both, on my part, succumbed to accidental obliteration. Never again, is what I swore, the time before. I have to credit my other job in adult social care for developing me as a person; I often meet several new people in one day and I need to gain their trust very quickly in order to help them. I'm sure Alex saw this in me. My experience with the Canon EF 500mm lens brought forward the purchase of a replacement DSLR; I had been saving for the brand new Canon EOS 1DX, but, at £5299, the money would be better spent on a used DSLR and the rest p...

Every so often, a collection of unpublished photographs accumulates in my archives. This time around, most are from spring and cover familiar locations, such as Cuckmere Haven and the South Downs. I am delighted to include my first image of the summer, a female Roe deer, seen on the Sussex/Surrey border. Having concentrated my energies on landscape photography for six months, I am gradually refocusing on building a strong portfolio of wildlife photographs. There's a reason for this. Expect to see a new, coffee table book on Sussex wildlife by the end of the year. It is quite exciting to speculate on what I might find over the course of summer, if indeed, we are fortunate enough to have one.