Halls Farm, Two page article in Amateur Photographer magazine

Amateur Photographer magazine published a two page article on the 3rd May 2014 featuring the Brown Hares at Halls Farm Norton. The article and main image are reproduced here.

Amateur Photographer 3rd May 2014

Brown Hares appreciate the open wheat fields of mid Suffolk where food is plentiful and they can easily sense potential danger. I often see them in late winter and through the spring before the crops start to grow. However, they are too far away to photograph.

Hares are shy and they hear, see and smell very well. At the slightest sign of danger they run, fast. Brown Hares are also unpredictable. I may see a few in a field on one day and none the following day. Getting interesting close up photographs of hares is a challenge.

Fortunately, Brown Hares are most active at dawn and in the evening when the light is best. The run up to the long days of May and June is a good time to photograph them; nights and crops are short and hares have a distracting social life. Photographing hares relies on predicting where they will be and not scaring them when they do come close.  They come to field edges, farm tracks and road edges in the early morning and evening. If it has rained they like to dry off here too.

So how to get close? Hares are used to cars and, given time, will approach a parked car, especially if they have seen it before in the same place. I have taken many hare photos from my car parked at the end of a farm track half a mile from home, but it takes time. Our spaniel knows instantly that we are going hare watching when I pick up my camera on an early summer evening. Hares will come very close provided I am quiet and still, but it can take days to build their confidence.

Local farmers allow me to put up my mobile hide for several days and hares learn to ignore it. I enter the hide an hour before I expect to see anything. A hide with a black carbon coat inside absorbs any smell. However, patience is required as hares are unpredictable and on many days they do not come.

Hares either run (I have many photos of the backs of running hares) or lie down if they hear a shutter but long lenses counter this. Lenses I have most success with are the Canon 800mm f5.6 and 400mm DO f4. The 800 allows me to get images beyond shutter sound distance, the low weight 400 is excellent for fast action. High ISO’s result in sharp images in low light and the 10 FPS Canon 1D IV captures fast action. In the car I use a bean bag and in the hide, a tripod with Manfroto 393 head.

Finally, I always try to have a camera in the car, some of the best opportunities to photograph hares come when least expected.

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