I’ve said it numerous times in previous posts that it never ceases to amaze me the richness of urban wildlife in London and it’s surrounding boroughs. Well, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’m going to say the same again in this post.

To put this post in perspective, I must mention that I grew up on the south coast of NSW, Australia – a country, as you know, famous for it’s diverse & rather unique flora and fauna. Wildlife was never too far away from home, with national park bush-land being minutes away in the car – but despite this when it came to our back garden, a major mammal event didn’t go beyond our cat, Patchy, chasing an errant field mouse. Yes, there were encounters with a few reptiles, like the ubiquitous little skinks that zap too and fro on the porch, and to the less frequent, once in a blue moon appearance, of the slovenly blue-tongued lizard. Unlike other Australian households which encroached on bush, we didn’t have the privilege or annoyance of a possum in our roof or a visit from a wallaby. No, we were in the Aussie ‘burbs.

In the somewhat larger ‘burb of London, however, encounters with wildlife appear to be the norm. Last year, perhaps making up for the absence of a childhood “possum-in-the-roof” experience, I blogged my chagrin about the family of grey squirrels living in our eaves and breaching my loft. And that was in London. We recently moved further out into neighbouring Surrey, and the urban mammals have just gotten larger. Foxes! Red Foxes in fact.

For a while I’ve noticed an adult fox sauntering through the undergrowth at the sides of our house, and on occasion stopping to rest under the swings in our back garden, usually in late evening. I have been endeavouring to take a photo, as she seemed quite predictable in her movements, but alas, by the time I had camera in hand, she had scarpered under the hedge at the back of the garden. I did finally manage to get a photograph through the conservatory window a fortnight ago, in rather bad light, as you can see below. But, I wasn’t content with this shot. Light poor, far too much grain and not sharp. I was resolute to take better photos.

Foxing the Fox

The challenge become even more titillating, when last week, the fox numbers multiplied. My wife took a photo of the same adult fox, but this time with 4 young cubs (or kits as is the other name for a fox young’n). As the squirrels had invaded our territory in inner London, these foxes seem to have claimed our back garden as their own. The shot below was taken with a Canon Digital Elph point and shoot camera, through our kitchen window.

Fox Family

In observing them in the late evenings, these cubs turn our back garden into a veritable playground. They spend a good hour play-fighting and rooting through our shrubs, occasionally tossing one of our garden bed lights aside when it gets in their way. Then on the weekend, I happened to have camera to hand in anticipation and this vixen and two of her brood decided to play underneath our back garden swings in the late evening sun. Much better light, and they were quite relaxed. Below were two photos I took.

Vixen and Cub

Scratch

I was naturally happier with these photos, but I know I’m not going to get sharper unless I get a longer lens, or indeed set up a camera on tripod with remote trigger. I may try the latter in the coming weeks. I’ll make the most of viewing their antics, as come later in the summer we plan a repair of the rear fence, which will end their back garden incursions.

It’s not everyday you get to see the leader of a country, let alone be one of a small audience that has the privilege of listening to a prime minister make the case for his re-election. So, when I heard that MSN UK were sponsoring an election briefing with Gordon Brown this week, I jumped at the opportunity. As part of MSN’s election campaign coverage they sponsored this event, which saw questions being directed to the UK Prime Minister from people on Twitter, the official Labour web-site and of course MSN UK. In addition, those in the audience had the opportunity to ask questions directly as well. It was fascinating to watch, but what made it extra special was that I was able to photograph him freely, just like the number of official press that were capturing the event.

I used my Canon 5D2, and a 70-300mm lens. I favoured this lens as I wasn’t sure how close I would get to the Prime Minister to get some good shots. As it happened it was a good choice. I was photographing him and the event host from a short distance of 3m away. Additionally, I hadn’t brought a flash gun with me, as I wasn’t sure whether I’d be allowed given it may interfere with the coverage. So I opted to use a high ISO, ranging between 2000 and 2500 to capture the scene. The 5D2 revels here, and there is barely any discernable grain in the photos taken. I did some black-and-white post processing on a number of them too. There is something about black-and-white, which really reveals more of a subject’s character in the photograph.

Below are a sample of photos, although more can be found on my Flickr Stream and on stephenjkennedy.com in due course.

Portrait of a Prime Minister

Counting Policies

Of course the event concluded with the Prime Minister walking by me, so I took the occasion to shake his hand, and came out with the feeble “Thanks Gordon”. In retrospect, I wasn’t sure, what I was thanking him for exactly. But, I was certainly grateful for the opportunity to photograph and listen to him. I did find him very human and candid in his answers. And quite relaxed too, given the media onslaught he has had to bear in the last 12-18 months. No matter what your political opinion he does command a great deal of respect. All, I need to do now is think about who I’m actually going to vote for on May 6th. Yes, I’m still undecided.

While it is still barely the 25th January here in London, the 26th is well underway Down Under and of course marks Australia’s national day. To celebrate Australia day this year, I have a sister in London who is baking the enigmatic Aussie cake the Lamington, another sister in Birmingham who is baking Anzac biscuits (a bit early on that one), and as for me, well, I indoctrinated my 3 month old son, Ronan,  into all that is Green and Gold this evening, by donning him in Wallabies kit, the official baby-grow for the Australian rugby union team. So as not to make him feel left out, Margaret and I also sported a Wallabies jersey. It was easier convincing Ronan of the merits of the Green and Gold, than Irish Margaret. But, my wife, will get her revenge on St Patrick’s day.

Happy Australia Day

I’d love to celebrate Australia Day with a schooner of Toohey’s New in the Australian bar in Covent Garden, but given my schedule and task list at the moment, I will be content with Vegemite on toast.