Van Wilder Road Trip to the Isle of Mull - Photos and Settings
In May 2023, I took a holiday with Alex and Brew dog to the Isle of Mull. Obviously I couldn’t leave my camera behind and every opportunity I got I snuck away for a little bit of photography. This means my photography was limited to what was near our camper van, but on the spectacular beaches that we stayed at there was always something to photograph!
You can check out my vlog for the experience above, but read on here if you want to see the photos with the settings that I used.
OM-1, 150-400mm f/4.5, 198mm, f/5.6, 1/2000s, ISO 400
Before we reached Mull we had an incredible encounter as the sun was about to go behind the hills ahead of us. A female red deer was feeding above us, perfectly rim lighted by the setting sun behind.
Luckily, Alex was driving and I jumped back in the van to get my camera. Shortly after the doe was joined by a male. This types of ephemeral encounters are always worth a stop for some photos.
OM-1, 150-400mm f/4.5, 500mm, f/5.6, 1/1600s, ISO 400
OM-1, 150-400mm f/4.5, 244mm, f/5.6, 1/2500s, ISO 400
Our first stop at Calgary Bay I didn’t find anytime for photography, so when I woke up at 05:00 next to Loch na Keal the next day I was eager to get out with my camera. As I went down on the shore I had a slightly painful, but well worth it session with some oystercatchers.
Day 1 Map
After I washed off the bird poop I’d been lying in I found a singing wren perfectly backlit on a willow shrub.
OM-1, 150-400mm f/4.5, 350mm, f/5.6, 1/640s, ISO 200
OM-1, 150-400mm f/4.5, 500mm, f/5.6, 1/640s, ISO 200
My second outing was probably my favourite for photography. I had a spectacular session with backlit ringed plover, rock pipit and a young pied wagtail. A highlight for me was seeing dunlin feeding on the shore, a rare sight for me.
I shoot in manual mode and as you can see from my settings, they stay fairly constant. My f-stop is usually as low as it can go to give me the most amount on light and to give me a shallow depth of field.
I try to keep a low ISO to get the best quality in my images and I control the shutter so that it’s fast enough to freeze the moving birds. My shutter speed wasn’t always fast enough with these settings, but most of the images I got were sharp. If the birds were even more active and I wanted to be sure I froze the action I would have increased my shutter and ISO.
OM System for Wildlife Photography Course
If you want more insights into how I setup my cameras for wildlife photography, the settings I use, and the special features do check out my course on the OM System for Wildlife Photography. In the course I dive into all the settings I use and show you how to set it up on the various OM System cameras including the newest OM-1.
I use DxO PureRaw 3 on almost all my photos to get a great quality RAW file and get rid of nice. I’ve also started to dabble a bit with Nik Collection 5 DxO Color Efex Pro to make some final touches to my images and I really like the results.
Try out DxO free for 30 days to see what you think. DxO constantly gives some excellent promotional deals, so if you like it keep an eye out for a good deal!
I then go further up the beach and continue the incredible session, this time a ringed plover and rock pipit pose perfectly for frontlit images.
Map Day 2 & 3
On my last outing I again tried for backlit photos and got to see to baby ringed plovers. Unfortunately the young ones never came out of their rocky surroundings and I couldn’t get a good image of them. The parent plovers however, were posing nicely back and front lit.
One thing I couldn’t have done without on this trip was my Jackery battery with solar panel. Our small solar panel on the van wasn’t enough for a week long holiday charging our router, laptops and batteries as we went and we don’t have an electric hookup for the van either.
If you’re looking for a way to keep charging as you’re on the road do check out the deals from Jackery, I made a review video of my setup a while back if you want to check it out.