Bird hides are a great place to observe wildlife behaviour but as a photographer you are stuck in a fixed location. Wearing full camouflage over a wetsuit and risking gear in the water is one option but not something you pop out and do during a lunch break.

This is my first opportunity to try out a telephoto lens mounted to a drone as an option for wildlife images and even though the image quality is not amazing from my 12MP ½ inch sensor, the results are still quite stunning.

This image was captured with the drone hovering just above the water quite some distance away from the swan’s nest. At a full frame equivalent focal length of 162mm, the fact that the camera is being held as stable as a tripod is nothing short of an engineering marvel and I can wait to explore this new found capability.

Back to that quip about popping out for a lunch break, well yes this was indeed just such a photo opportunity.