Forest photography

In early February, the weather in the south was already very cold, not to mention the temperature in the north. In this winter, I won't take pictures in the wild. However, due to work reasons, it is necessary to go to Makehe Forest Farm in Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve in Qinghai to investigate wild animals. I checked the local temperature-10- 15 degrees, and the altitude is 3500-4500 meters. When the temperature is low, it is necessary to carry photographic equipment that can prevent cold and freezing. When climbing a mountain at high altitude, you need to take portable photographic equipment to save your strength. The first thing that flashed through my mind at that time was: "Olympus"!

Finally, I brought Olympus equipment. This equipment is very simple, that is, a telephoto lens and two magnifiers are used for various combinations: EM 1X, M.ZD 300mm f4 is PRO, MC- 14 magnifier and MC-20 magnifier. I used this equipment to take many photos of various birds and mammals in fifteen days and share them with you.

Let's talk about the wild birds photographed first!

At the altitude of 2800-5000 meters on the plateau, the tit is the most common bird and one of the most common birds. They can often be seen moving in bushes, grasslands, rock piles and other places, and their calls are very clear, loud, distinctive and unforgettable.

(photo by Tit Zhao e)

(Ground tits like to "walk". Photo by Zhao E)

(Photo by Zhao E, tits foraging)

As the saying goes, one chicken is worth ten birds, but some chickens are so ordinary that it is less difficult to see them than others. Blue pheasant is an example. Because the local Tibetan compatriots are so well protected, some Tibetan families will come down from the mountains from time to time to let you take enough pictures, but it is difficult for you to get close. Unless you shoot with a car or in disguise, the blue pheasant will keep a safe distance from you.

(Photo by Blue Horse Chicken Zhao Wei)

(Zhao Wei took a few hair versions of Blue Horse Chicken)

After the sun rises, the sunshine will bring warmth, and all kinds of birds will fluctuate with the birds. Common birds such as white-browed rosefinch, early red rosefinch, rock pipit, brown rock pipit and rock pipit appear constantly, and their calls come and go, just like songs played in the morning. Olympus gives full play to the advantages of shooting woodbirds. It is easy to find and chase birds with its hands, and it is also handy to change angles.

(Photo by zhaowei, a male bird with white eyebrows and rosefinch)

(Photo by Suzaku female bird Zhao E)

(White-browed Suzaku "Meng" version Zhao Wei photo)

(Photo by Zhao Wei, Environmental Edition)

(Photo by Shu Hong Suzaku male bird zhaowei)

(Photo by Shu Hong Suzaku male bird zhaowei)

(Photo by Yan Yan male bird Zhao Wei)

(Photo by zhaowei, a male brown rock owl)

(Photo by Koko Rock Carp and Zhao Wei)

There will also be some very beautiful birds in the bird waves, including the colored finch warbler and the black-crowned tit, especially the colored finch warbler, which is small but unforgettable. Black-crowned tits are valuable. They hang upside down on branches for food, especially when jumping from one branch to another. Black-crowned tits will spread their wings to keep their balance, and the whole picture gives people a glimpse.

(Photo by colorful finch Zhao Wei)

(Photo by Zhao Wei, jumping and flying)

(Photo by Zhao Wei, Black-crowned Tit)

(Photo by Zhao E, Black-crowned tits spread their wings)

Noisy is the loudest bird, with a loud voice. Sometimes two or three birds can confuse me, but the noise is really beautiful, just like a jewel-encrusted lady with a high value. Olympus has also played the role of easy shooting in the forest, and each film is counted, and the number of films shot is indeed counted.

(Photo by Zhao Wei)

(Photo by Zhao Wei)

Magpies are the most common in Tibetan areas, but some ornithologists found that magpies in Qinghai are different from magpies, so they divided the magpies in this area of Qinghai into Qinghai magpies. So I managed to get close enough to take a standard photo.

(Photo by Qinghai Magpie zhaowei)

There are many pigeons in the stupa temple in Tibetan areas, all of which are rock pigeons. Rock pigeons, temples and monks constitute a harmonious scene of species living in their habitats. I took a close-up of the rock pigeon with Olympus and began to capture various photos of it flying between temples. The focusing performance and continuous shooting speed of EM 1X can meet the needs of my flying version shooting.

(Photo by Zhao Wei, close-up of rock pigeons)

(Flying Edition 1 Photo by Zhao E)

(Photo by Zhao Wei, Feitian 2)

(Photo by Zhao Wei, Feitian 3)

In winter, the Marco River and waterfowl didn't have time to add a magnifying glass. I took a picture from a distance, and I can see the eyes of ordinary merganser after cutting and magnifying. Although there are no details, there is no problem with the recorded photos.

(Photo by zhaowei, an ordinary merganser)

There is a stream in the gully of the forest farm, which flows into the Kyle River. The weather is very cold, but there are still birds flying, diving and preying in the stream. This is Wuhe River, which is very beautiful, at least much more beautiful than the common brown Wuhe River I photographed in the south. Of course, there are also brown river Wu in the forest farm, but my attention is attracted by brown river Wu and I can't move it away. He Wu on the ice and snow is also very cooperative, and the posture is very beautiful.

(photo by Wu He and Zhao Wei)

(Photo by Wu He visiting Zhao Yu)

Raptor will always be the overlord in Qinghai's vast world. The most common vultures are beautiful. When the weather is good, it can shoot a flying version of the blue sky, and the unique "Oba Blue" is pleasing to the eye. It's just that the vultures I met later, especially the adult vultures, flew very high, and I only managed to record the flight photos of an adult bird. Olympus shot this kind of flight version with pure background. Even if the background is complex, it can be adjusted to focus on five bubbles more accurately to capture them accurately.

("Obalan" version of Hu Diao Zhao E)

(Background version of Hu Weiwei, photo by Zhao Wei)

(Photo by zhaowei, a vulture growing into a bird)

Besides vultures, there are the most alpine vultures here. Like vultures, this product eats carrion, but from the appearance, vultures are much better than alpine vultures. To paraphrase a sentence, "One is in the sky and the other is on the ground". There are many opportunities to shoot alpine vultures, so I chose one without a magnifying glass and one with a magnifying glass. If the magnifying glass is useless and the viewing angle is large, you can take a flight version of the environment with the surrounding environment; If you use a magnifying glass, the angle of view is too small, so you can take a close-up flight version. Unfortunately, the weather was bad those days.

(Photo by zhaowei, Alpine Vulture Environment Edition)

(Photo by zhaowei, a vulture in the mountains)

(Photo by zhaowei, a vulture in the mountains)

Great bustards are rarely seen in Kyle River Forest Farm, and only a few can be seen sporadically when you go to the vast alpine pasture and meadow. This is only what I met on my way to Guoluo. Olympus and the double rangefinder are still far away, but after watching the movie, I am still satisfied with the out-of-focus and shooting clarity.

(Photo by Daxie Zhao Wei)

On the way to shoot the big bird, I met another sub-adult bird carved on the grassland. The distance is closer. With the cooperation of 2 times rangefinder, I won the game, and the details and picture quality were not bad.

(Photo by zhaowei, Prairie Carver)

The longitudinal owl is the only owl I photographed this time. It stopped on a telephone pole in a daze. After I locked it with Olympus, a car came in the distance. I estimated that it would fly, so I quickly switched the shooting mode to the low-speed professional shooting mode and set the focus to continuous tracking focus. So when the car passed by, it flew. I pressed the shutter and picked two. One is when it is ready to fly and spread its wings. Olympus made it easy for me to seize the wonderful moment.

(Photo by zhaowei, a little owl with vertical stripes)

(Photo by Zhao Wei at the moment of spreading his wings)

(Flying into the air, photo by Zhao Wei)

Let's share the shooting of mammals.

Before sharing pictures of animals, let me introduce the difficulty of photographing animals in natural state. If it can be summed up in one word, it is "difficult", two words: "difficult" and three words: "extremely difficult". Animals are different from birds. Animals have found you through hearing, smell, vision and so on, when you are hundreds or even kilometers away from him. It's not up to you to decide whether to get close to the camera or not, unless the animal allows you to get close, or you meet an animal who is curious about people in the wild, or you are lucky to meet an individual animal who is not afraid of people.

(Photo taken by Zhao E at Yakou 1 with her mobile phone)

(Photo taken by Zhao E's mobile phone at Yamaguchi 2)

(The author himself is more suitable for taking pictures in harsh environment. )

(The snow is flowing backwards, and the Oba lens is working normally. Photo by Zhao E)

It's hard to meet animals in Mark River Forest Farm, but there are exceptions to everything. The more we climb mountains, the more opportunities we have to meet animals. No, we met Maoguan deer, a national first-class protected animal. Tibetans called it "Black Deer", and we saw two different individuals that day. The first one is really curious. We filmed it, and it looked at us curiously. At that time, I was. Wild animals should stay wild, which is the safest for them. Olympus played a key role at this time. It snowed heavily that day. Olympus is not only very light, easy to carry, so I don't feel tired running mountains, but also very cold-resistant and snow-resistant. Before the snow fell back into the lens, there was no use problem after it was removed. EM 1X is also leveraged. It took a whole day and took more than 1000 photos.

(Curious hairy deer Zhao Wei photo)

(Photo by Zhao E, another crested deer who fled timidly)

Later, I met another national second-class protected animal mentioned by Tibetans, "red deer", which is actually called water deer. This kind of deer is very beautiful, but it is also very alert and not easy to get close to shooting. At that time, I added a 2X magnifying glass and took many photos of it. Because the focal length reaches 1200mm, the shooting sharpness of Olympus is amazing, so I use my mobile phone to connect EM 1X to shoot directly. The photos of defecation while eating fully reflect the behavioral characteristics of water deer.

(Photo by female water deer Zhao Wei)

(Photo by Zhao E, a water deer pulling while eating)

There is also a kind of deer called "big deer" by Tibetans, which is the national second-class protected animal red deer. I photographed this deer at a mountain pass at an altitude of 4300 meters. At that time, due to the icy road, the car could only drive to an altitude of 4000 meters. At that time, we saw red deer half a kilometer away, but they ran very fast towards the mountain pass, so we followed it on foot and really lost the compactness and lightness of Olympus. If it is a SLR camera, thanks to Olympus, although I used twice the range extender, plus the long distance, the picture quality is not good, but I am already very satisfied.

(Photo by zhaowei, Red Deer on the hillside)

(Photo by Zhao E, Red Deer on the ridge)

It is said that where there are pikas, there are hidden foxes. Sure enough, the plateau pika over there has driven me crazy. Every plateau pika is cute, colorful, fat and big. No wonder Hidden Fox likes it. Some Tibetan foxes in Qinghai are afraid of people, and some are not afraid of people. It's your luck when you shoot. Unfortunately, when I met a super scary individual, I could only take two documentary photos from a distance.

(photo by plateau pika Zhao Wei)

(Photo by zhaowei, a cautious plateau pika)

(Photo by MengMeng Plateau pika Zhao E)

(Photo by zhaowei, Tibetan Fox)

(Photo by zhaowei, a Tibetan fox looking back step by step)

I've seen all the Tibetan foxes. How can there be no red fox? Compared with Tibetan foxes with simple and honest square faces, red foxes are more like foxes, but they are not common in forest areas. When I left the forest area, on the way to Guoluo, the meeting rate was not low. After driving for two hours, I saw four. I used Olympus to record some photos of the snow-covered red fox from a distance.

(Photo by Zhao Wei, Snow Red Fox)

(Photo taken by Zhao Hua, looking back)

The "white ass" of Tibetan gazelle was met on the road, which was really not very scary. Of course, wolves will like places with Tibetan antelopes very much. The food chain always appears in nature. I saw these wolves walking a kilometer away. I took some documentary photos with Olympus first, and then drove over to get close to it. Who knows that they disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving only this documentary photo, but I finally took a photo of the wolves.

(Photo by zhaowei, Tibetan gazelle)

This man has a big horn and is going to cross the road. Photo by Zhao E)

(Photo by Wolf Zhao Wei)

(Photo by tickling Monkey King Zhao Wei)

(Photo by Zhao E, a macaque picking seabuckthorn fruit)

(Photo by Zhao E, a macaque with fruit inside)

(Photo by zhaowei, a macaque in the forest)

(Macaques are still alert. Photo by Zhao Wei)

After filming the eldest brother, it's natural for the second brother to appear. Wild boar as Nocturnal Animals, the encounter rate during the day is really low. Fortunately, the eldest brother brought out the second brother, so I was able to photograph this very difficult species in the wild. When shooting, the wild boar was digging up the soil, and our conversation caught its attention. It stared at us, finally gave up the attack and slowly left.

(The gaze of the wild boar in "Second Brother", photo by Zhao E)

(Endemic to China: Eriocheir sinensis in Tibet, photo by Zhao E)