Richard Birchett is a Professional Wildlife & Conservation Photographer from the United Kingdom who has recently moved to Ontario, Canada. He has spent the last 22 years in the UK Military as a Survival Specialist. He adapts his skills as a pathfinder to allow him to track, stalk and photograph wildlife in all environments.
He has worked with various media channels & wildlife organisations including; the BBC Wildlife Magazine, BBC SpringWatch, BBC Countryfile and The Wildlife Trusts.
He is a Nature First, Tragopan and f-stop Ambassador. He is also works with companies such as Vallerret Photography Gloves, Revolution Race and many more. He is also a photography guide for Eco Terra Adventures based in the UK.
His channel is about ethical Wildlife & Nature Photography, fieldcraft techniques, tutorials, reviews and adventures in the outdoors, exploring new places and sharing his experiences with you.
To work with me contact - richardbirchettphotography@gmail.com
Hi. Great video. I'm still on the original firmware 1.0 or something like this. I've no issue so far. I would like to know if there is a way to back up the current firmware before updating to eventually go back in case of.
Hey Roy, thanks for watching. I don't think you can save the current firmware setting and if you install a later version and try to revert back I also don't think that's possible, but I could be wrong. Will send Canon CPS a message and see. Cheers R👍
@@RichardBirchett Thank you for answering so fast. That's the reason I didn't update so far but also because I use a Viltrox speedbooster and at the launch of the R7 some users said that upgrading made the speedbooster unusable.
Great video Rich. We’re in the USA at the moment on a ‘canyons’ road trip. Was out this morning photographing Rufous Hummingbirds. So hard to track with 800mm f11’s tiny focus area! But beautiful to see. Keep up the great work! Mike 👍
Thanks Mike, Wow, that's cool I hope you have an amazing trip! What a beautiful bird, Oh yeah with the 800 f/11 and the limited area would be quite tricky! Would have to push that shutter speed up! I bet, will do and thanks R👍
Hi Richard wow that was truly amazing the birds are stunning to see, having this as your local patch absolutely fantastic mate really enjoyed it, stunning photos and video footage, we go out of evening and managed to see three Marsh harriers the other evening it wasn’t local but worth the drive , thank you for sharing your fantastic video with us. Martyn
Hey Martyn, Loved just checking out new areas local to me before I head off and explore the wider area. Sometimes it's tempting to head further afield but it always amazes me how much is on our doorstep. Wow, three Marsh Harriers, maybe one of the offspring or all three?? Such a cracking bird. Thanks again Rich
I know where you are shooting and they don’t usually cut it, but you won’t find short eared there. We did have great grays there one year but not in the meadow, rather in the wooded area a bit further down . There are saw-whet owls also in that area. Snowys and short eared hang out more in the farmers’ fields. We had northern hawk owls in the Ottawa are too last couple of winters. There was a pair of coyotes where you were , they had den a couple of years ago .
Hey, thanks very much for watching and for the information on the area. Really glad they don't cut it, maybe it's on a rotational basis to stop it turning back to forest, as some locals have since said it does from time to time. Wow, would love to see a Grey Grey, what a bird but I'll take a lovely Saw-whet as they are also delightful birds. Fingers crossed for a good season for Owls as I'd love to see some more species. Thought it looked good for Coyotes, will do some more observation to see if they are still around. Thanks again Rich 👍
@@RichardBirchett I know that in the Spring and summer the NCC doesn’t cut it because of the Canada Geese. A couple of years ago they cut some back but not the whole area. There are foxes along there and the river as well. I am not sure if the coyotes moved on. There was a report of great horned further up the road in the more forested area too.
@@patricianadarajah6833 Thanks, that's all really good to know. Hope we might get to bump in to one another out in Nature one day, always nice to meet new people and have a nature chat. Fingers crossed on Foxes, still not see one in Canada yet! R
Lovely location to have on your doorstep. Sparrows used to be my least favourite bird before I moved here, now I adore them. The variety here is fantastic with such wonderfully different calls/songs. I swear I find a new one every year - this year it was the fox sparrow! Just beautiful. Can’t wait to see what owls you find there 😁 ~Dee
Thanks Dee, I know they are sometimes rather drab but when you see them up closely they really surprise you and the song on some of them is amazing. So many to see here in NA, I'm not sure I'd be able to name most of them but that Merlin App is darn good. Thanks again R👍
As always, it's a great blog Richard, thank you. That sparrow at 11.31 might actually be a Savanah sparrow, with the yellow eyebrow and not a Song sparrow. However, you can hear Song sparrows singing away, just earlier. Nice job. Haha, I should have let the video run on a bit. You caught it. Sorry
Thanks Martin, nice to spend some quality time with the smaller species and I generally get caught up with Birds of Prey, lol... They all need a chance to be enjoyed I think. Lol, yeah I had to get the App out later as it was song tastic! Cheers Rich 👍
Cracking stuff again Rich! THE best time of day to get out there, & great to see so many different species on your local patch. Love them American Goldfinches & the Monarch butterflies too, remember watching an Attenborough documentary that included them & their mass migration to Mexico a few years ago; there were literally hundreds of thousands of them! Lovely to see the waxwings too. Top drawer bud! Look forward to the next one down by the river, & hopefully some eagles, otters & beavers. 🤞 Keep on keeping on mate! Best, Nick
Thanks Nick, best time indeed! Also good to give the smaller birds a chance in the spotlight and to get a few insects is a nice change for me, I'm far too Raptor centric, lol... Yeah those mass migrations of Monarchs are incredible. Waxwings are certainly special smart birds. Thanks mate, the rivers proving tricky, lol.. R😬👍
Great walk Rihard! I started taking bird photos seriously only last winter and have been following your channel for about a year. I like your storytelling. It inspired me to start a RU-vid channel in the near future. Thanks for the inspiration.
Hey, thanks very much nice to be out on my local patch seeing what's about. Thanks for staying with me for the year and I am really glad you like the channel, it's not always easy to find new and exciting things to keep people interested but I try my best. Awesome, if you do please feel free to tag me so I can check it out. Thanks again R👍
Hi Tony, yeah me too! I can't wait to see the season start, they do get Great Grey here and if we get them nearby I will be sure to go and see them, one Owl I've always wanted to see and photograph. Maybe I'll get lucky this year. Cheers R👍
Great tour of your local meadow in the early morning, Richard. Yes, we are going through a particularly hot and humid spell, at the moment, here in Ottawa which really brings the bugs out. Next week is looking more comfortable and your video inspires me to get out again early in the mornings to see what I can find. 🙂 Cheers.
Thanks Phil, It was a tad emotional getting so hot and sweaty and then getting hammered by bugs, lol.. Still we must push through it! You are right, been out this morning and it's so much cooler now which makes things much easier. Thanks for watching Rich 👍
Awesome video! Winter sometimes makes it a bit easier to get a feel for where the mammals hang out, too! You see the prints and trails...Also.... you can just sit down and hang out in the deeper woods and not get bit by bugs😅 I still have many owls on the list to see for the first time! That giant grey owl + the little boreal owl (who I've only heard here and there) Seen a snowy while driving by if that counts ha
Thanks Jon. Yeah, I'm looking forward to less bugs and easier tracking of mammals and birds in the snow, and in the leafless tree canopy for Owls and Birds of Prey, the bino's will be on fire then, lol.. Yeah the Great Grey for you and me both, lets keep each other posted on that! I'll be straight over to yours, lol.. Snowy, what a dream bird! Cheers R
What pretty light in this video! You saw some good birds. How I miss the Goldfinch. They spend winters with us in Florida but are not brightly colored because they are not breeding. So lovely to see both them and the Chipping Sparrows all winter long here. Shared your video on my Facebook. Thanks, Rich.
Thanks June, so beautiful and quiet to be up at this time in the morning. I do love the Goldfinch and that lovely call really does make you smile, glad you get to see them but lacking the bright breeding plumage, especially in the males. Thanks so much for sharing, not sure if many do but I really appreciate it. Cheers and have a great week. R👍
I updated to 1.4.0 and got error20 like 5-6 times in a row with one shooting session. Put 1.5.0 in and it’s been flawless. Autofocus is still about the same.
Great to hear that it's fixed the errors, shame no major difference in the AF! I've changed some settings and and it's much better now. Thanks for watching. Rich 👍
I was considering this camera but the so called shutter shock scared me away. How bad is the shutter shock nowadays? Still the same or was that already addressed? Thank you 🙏
Hi there and thanks for watching. Shutter shock does happen when using Mechanical Shutter over Electronic. With mechanical shutter, there is shutter shock at lower shutter speeds but around 1/250s and completely absent at 1/400.. I only shoot with Electronic shutter which has zero shutter shock as expected. There should be plenty of forums that may be able to discuss this in more depth. Thanks R👍
Thanks Steph, really appreciate you sharing your local knowledge with me, I'll be sure to check those areas out. Sounds like an ideal location for birds, and I'm guessing Autumn and Winter is pretty good too? Thanks again Rich
I have been shooting on this update for a while now. The primary reason I did that was the last item on the list, the continuing shooting after shutter release. It would happen periodically and was annoying. Getting a bunch of extra shots, often while lowering the camera, was not helpful. Kind of embarrassing too since unless you are shooting electronic shutter, other photographers can hear that your camera is still shooting.
Thanks for watching Jeff and for leaving a comment and sharing your error experience with the R7, I've not heard of many so far! Yeah, that would be a little embarrassing, thankfully I shoot mainly ES so not really a problem for me. Cheers Rich 👍
Updated plenty of Canons over the years. Not really been affected by anything they have fixed from what I can remember. Same with the R7 (which I have updated once or twice via the app)
Great update video Richard. As an R7 user I’m off now to update my camera. I’ve had none of these issues so far but feel it’s better to prevent them possibly happening in the future
Thanks for watching Andy and glad you found it useful. I feel it's always better to keep up to date with the fixes, and usually leave it a week or so after it's out just in case there is an issue. Don't forget to set the camera to 'P ' mode for the update. Cheers R👍
Thanks mate, think you are right, quite underrated as a bird of prey but the males are especially vibrant! Still never got a decent shot of a full adult male! Maybe one day, cheers for checking it out 💪🏻👍
Thanks Julie, always excited to be out in nature and to see the hobby was a total surprise! Such a stunning bird. Thanks for coming along and for watching. All the best Rich 🙏👍
Fair one, I’m an R3 user but I find it okay in some circumstances and for the money, it’s not too bad. Mine is generally a backup and for on the go in good light out walking. It does okay. Cheers Rich 👍
Firmware should always be done with camera in P mode. I did experience Error 20 early on with the R7 and Canon told me to send it straight back for warranty repairs. As always were quick to have camera repaired and back to me. 3-6, being camera continuing to shoot when pressing another button with shutter button, was an issue l bought up in the first week of use so they gave me a new camera but it continued. I complained to Canon and sent the camera back a few times but they gave it back saying they could not replicate the problem and that nobody else had ever made the same complaint. I complained again just the other week and was preparing to send it in again when l came across the firmware 1.50 and there is a fix for it. I would suggest they cou8ld not replicate it as l doubt they used back button focus but l am surprised it took so long for them to realise the problem does exist as l knew l was no nut case.
Thanks for watching, that I didn't know! I wonder why you need it in 'P' mode? After all the years I've been updating firmware on my Cameras I've never heard of that and never had any issues. I've even spoken to Canon about it and the way I've done it is as per instructions but I appreciate you letting me know. I'll do some more looking into that, always find these things interesting. Bit of a nightmare time with your R7, must of been one of those unlucky ones with a defective camera, nice to hear than Canon have been good about it. Seems odd that they didn't fully check out the back button issue, let's hope this is now resolved and you don't experience any more issues! Thanks again for commenting and watching. All the best Rich
@@RichardBirchett it is in the canon manuals somewhere it is recommended but before l knew l updated in M mode & never had any issues l think it just recommended as it won’t work in auto.
I worked for over 5 years as a Canon DSLR technician and group leader in their DSLR Refurbishing department and we always updated firmware in the “P” mode.
@@RichardBirchett I’m not sure of the technical reason, but it’s more likely to hang up in other modes, requiring it to be sent to Canon to recover it. The old EOS XSi was particularly notorious for this.
Thanks for the heads up on the updates. I just did mine via the app, soooo easy to do. I haven't noticed any issue before but I will see how the camera operates in the field. Cheers
Hey Martin, my pleasure and I'm glad you found it useful. Yeah, it's very easy that way but I can't seem to get out the old way, lol.. Hope there is some improvement. Cheers Richard 👍
@RichardBirchett Hi, I field tested the new updates, about 1700 pics taken and I definitely see a better response to the auto focus and eye detection. I've never measured keeper rate in the past and have no bench mark for that, but I feel I am seeing more pictures in focus from moving targets BIF. Cheers
Hey Tyrone, Don't worry Power off the camera and remove the memory card. Insert a NEW memory card back into the camera with the *.FIR update, remove all attachments and accessories from the camera before powering it on, that includes the lens, flash, and any other accessory that may be attached to it. Then power the camera back on and proceed to update the firmware. It may take a few minutes for the update to complete. Make sure you have a fully charged battery and that you don't touch any buttons etc before the firmware has completed the install. Let me know how it goes. Rich 👍
Great to see you in your new digs and a fantastic house it is. Always happy when new firmware updates are released who doesn’t enjoy some new features, improvements and bug fixes. Hope you are settling in to your new patch as it looks awesome on your last video. I have had some Nankeen Kestrel interaction myself recently on a new location, such a beautiful bird with plenty of personality best wishes and support from Stu… 🖖
Thanks very much Stu, it's a cracking spot and I can't wait to get out and explore some more. Yeah, I always enjoy a good firmware update especially when they add new features and enhancements! When my R3 gor FHD at 240fps I love using it! Wowe, never heard of the Nankeen Kestrel, what a little beauty it is! Will read up on it some more. Thanks again Rich 👍
nice! fun fact: i had the mentioned issue soooo many times where i focused on a bird and the bloody camera didnt stop shooting. everything kinda glitched out. took a 50 photo series without me doing anything. very good! i am typing while the update is running same time. you said push all the buttons while updating right? 🤣
Thanks for watching, yeah I found it seemed to get worse as time went on, but thankfully it seems to be vastly improving now! Really frustrating as I've missed so many shots over the last year or so! Lol, Don't push that BUTTON!!! 😆. Cheers Rich 👍
@@RichardBirchett so i got triggered because of your video and wanted a good allrounder. i have 50mm 1.8 but thats a bit long for normal photos. and then i got the 100-400mm. took a dive today and bought the 24-105mm F4 L. paid afternoon. arrived the shop 3 hours later and i even had a bit time to drive to a park right at sunset for some test photos. jesus i got lucky... right when i arrived there, walked around a bit and thought it would be nice if a gecko or anything else just randomly sit on a warm sunlit branch and i shiat you not: 10 meter further a giant lizard just chilled there. took around 200 photos from half meter away. got everything from normal shots to close up portraits at 105mm. throwing the RAWs into lightroom as i type. lets see if this thing is good. if not i gonna blame you. 🤣
@@cloudpandarism2627 Lol, Sometimes it's nice to treat yourself from time to time! Plus that's a lovely lens and a good all round focal length and sharp! Here's hoping the L/R is going to show you some dazzling images which you are happy with. All the best and have a good weekend. Rich
Congratulations on the move to Ottawa. I move here from England 8 years ago. I am also into wildlife photography also but mainly a wedding photographer
Thanks very much, nice to hear from a fellow Brit! Nice to see your liking the Wildlife side of things, not as much money as a wedding photographer but still great job to do, although lots of pressure there! Thanks again for watching Rich 👍
I love how they’re able to keep their heads still when hovering. Ive had a bucket list shot of the wings blurred and head in focus since I began doing wildlife photography almost 10 years ago now! Yet to find a location and everything else to come into line for it. Great short Rich!
Thanks very much for watching, they really are amazing birds of prey and I especially love the American Kestrel here in Canada, although yet to see one here on Ottawa. Well I really hope you get that shot one day, and when you do don't forget to let me know as I'd love to see it. Thanks again R👍
Don't forget the mink. Stake out a few muskrat dens and you might catch an interesting mink on musk interaction. Check the paraglider launch and the falls in Luskville for Peregrines...they fly with us regularly...well, maybe fly at us would be more accurate.
Ah nice tips, I'll make sure I remember that! I've seen a few Mink but yet to properly get an image of one, not seen in a good light in the UK to the damage they cause and not being a native specie but what a successful predator they are! Wow, I will check them out, I do love a Peregrine! Cheers Rich 😀
Hi Richard - noted your comment about mossies and bugs. Next time you are back, grab some Bovril... a small spoon before you venture iout will stop the mossies and gnats, midges etc... as they don't like it in the skin as you sweat. I'm back up to Mullion this month... looking forward to couple of early mornings up there - so really appreciate your sharing of location.... I now love it there... even though still 350 miles from home. We move to Cornwall next year... can't wait!
Thanks for the Tip Clive, they are very problematic here but I can live with it, my son and wife on the other hand, lol... No so! That's okay, it's my favourite place on the planet so far so I can relate to that, although people can work it out it's always good to keep locations to yourself as best as possible, I know you are responsible when it comes to that. Enjoy and have a great time, and goodluck on the move. Cheers Rich 👍
@@RichardBirchett Thanks Rich, yes, gotta keep our wildlife for the future generations to enjoy... enjoy your new move... exciting things ahead... look forward to seeing bears!
