Fergus Kennedy

It’s never easy getting out of bed at 2:45 in the morning, but for me, if anything will do it, the opportunity of swimming with Britain’s largest fish species is well up there. The Basking Shark (Cetorhinus maximus) can reach a length of over 12 metres (40 feet) and a weight of 19 tons.  These giants of the sea feed on plankton, and as a result can often be spotted feeding at the surface, particularly in the summer months, along the west coast of the British Isles.  I had previously spotted these sharks on several occasions from boats and once had a very fleeting underwater encounter, so for years I had be itching to get a proper close-up encounter, so when Alex Tattersall of Underwater Visions got in touch recently, I jumped at the chance. Read more »

I was recently lucky enough to spend a few days staying in a beach hut on Mudeford Spit, near Christchurch in the south of the U.K. As well as being a very chilled and relaxing place to stay, it is bordered by some fantastic wetlands, with marshes and reed beds harbouring a profusion of plant and animal life. Going for a quiet wander with a camera on a summer’s evening is a very rewarding experience. I managed to bring my tripod, but forget my tripod plate, so all the photos are taken handheld, exploiting the great low-light ability of the Canon 5D Mark II. I also used a graduated grey filter for most of the shots. The photo on the left was taken handheld at ISO 3200, in near complete darkness. I had to illuminate the top lcd on the camera in order to read the settings. Click here to see the rest of the photos.

 Well, with the weather so awful at the moment in the UK, it’s been difficult to get much motivation for outdoor photography. Getting desperate I was poking around in our front drive and noticed that the moss has sprouted sporophytes. These gave me an opportunity to play around with some macro photos, with the Canon 7D, 60mm macro lens and a couple of wirelessly triggered speedlites. Having read a bit more, it appears moss has a pretty interesting and bizarre lifecycle (if you’re into that sort of thing!). Click the links in the text to get more info from wikipedia. I’ve put more of the moss photos into the macro gallery.

There’s a new article by Doug Harman up on the Canon Professional Network website about shooting video with Digital SLR cameras like the 5D Mark II and the 7D . It features tips from Richard Walch, Richard Jobson and myself, and covers a wide range of subject matter and shooting styles. Check out the article here

The Canon ‘Exlploring EOS’ DVD is now available in camera shops throughout Europe. We shot it in and around Cape Town, South Africa late last year and it includes lots of tips on using the Canon EOS 500D, 50D and 7D. It features Nadine Kagi, a photography student as she travels around the Cape area, learning from various experts in different fields of photography. Paul Brehem gives tips on macro photography, Lambro Tsiliyiannis helps out with portrait photography, Duane Howard explores the landscape possibilities and I am featured in the Wildlife Photography section (plus that’s me on the cover!). It was a fantastic experience, the trailer can be seen here.

I’ve just posted a small selection of photographs taken whilst shooting the ‘Exploring EOS’ DVD for Canon Europe. The shots were all taken around Cape Town, South Africa. Some in Buffelsfontaine Game Park, some (the whales) around Hermanus, and others around the Cape Peninsula area. It’s a fantastic place to visit, and I’d love to go back with a bit more time to explore. Click here to have a look at the gallery.

http://www.vimeo.com/8670550 I’ve put together a short underwater film from the Red Sea. This includes some recent (November 2009) footage shot on the Canon 5D Mark II and some older footage from the Mark II and the Sony HC7. It’s a personal perspective on Red Sea diving. Stars of the show include Green Turtles, Dennis the Dugong, Spinner Dolphins and Oceanic Whitetip Sharks.

Well, all the snow we’ve been getting in the UK recently has a few advantages. Yesterday evening I was able to get out for a quick session on the snowboard on nearby Mount Caburn. It is unusual enough to get any snow down here, let alone enough to ride a board top to bottom. The sunshine was the icing on the cake. Thanks to my Dad, Finn for taking the photo.

Here is the 60 second TV ad for the Canon EOS 7D that we shot in the Camargue, France. Produced by Dentsu London and directed by Martijn van Beenen. The video as well as the stills was shot on the EOS 7D.

I’ve just posted some photos from a recent trip to the Red Sea. Most photographs were taken whilst freediving on the house reef at Coraya. A few others were taken at Shab Marsa Alam and also Abu Dabab. View the photo album here, or right click and go to ‘fullscreen’ on the album above.

My story on wildlife photography in the Camargue (South of France) is now online on the Canon Website. I have also posted a variety of photographs from the campaign here. I will update with more details shortly, but it was a great experience making the film, photographing the wildlife and of course using a brilliant new camera. The photographs from the trip have also been used extensively in a print campaign in magazines and on billboards.

Today I went to Brighton, on the South Coast of England, in the hope of photographing a sunset and maybe the flocking starlings which roost under the piers. Bright sunshine when I set off, but 20 minutes later the skies were looking ominous to the South-west. I managed to snap off a couple of pictures of the derelict west pier before the storm and rain hit in earnest. Then went to the Palace Pier and managed a few shots as the storm-clouds cleared just before sunset. Used a grad-grey filter and a long-exposure (2.5s) at f13 for this one. Camera: Canon 5D Mark II, lens Sigma 12-24mm.

I’ve compiled some of the video clips from my recent South Africa trip into a short film. Shot on 5D Mark II, and a couple of surface shots on the 7D:

Two Days in South Africa from Fergus Kennedy on Vimeo.

Click the expand icon in the bottom right to watch the video full screen.

 I’m in South Africa, Cape Province. What a fantastic place! I have been working on a shoot for Canon, but afterwards took the opportunity to stay on for a few days and explore a bit more.  Kleinbaai is famous as one of the best places in the world to see Great White Sharks (Carcharodon carcharias).  David Newton (http://www.photopositive.co.uk/) and I headed out on a beautiful day sunny day when the wind had subsided. We got out there and waited as the crew baited the water with mashed fish remains. It took about half an hour for the sharks to turn up, but from then on the action was maintained throughout the trip. There were 15 people on the boat, and we took turns to climb into the cage and watch as Lance the shark wrangler dragged a tuna head on a rope through the water, drawing the sharks closer to the cage. We saw 6 different sharks, ranging in size from about 2.5m to about 4m. Their power and grace underwater was truly impressive to witness. Photographically, it was a challenging situation for a few reasons- because of the way the wind was blowing the sharks were approaching mostly from the direction of the sun, plus the thrashing of the sharks puts quite a few bubbles in the water, which stick to the dome port of the camera, so you have to make sure you keep brushing them off. The rocking of the cage and boat also makes framing a bit more tricky. But all great fun. We also shot quite a bit of HD video which we will edit and put online as soon as time allows.

We did the trip with Sharklady Adventures in Kleinbaai http://www.sharklady.co.za/ They provided a fantastic service, and have a brilliant information centre on White Sharks and other marine life at the White Shark Embassy on the seafront (sponsored by Save Our Seas Foundation http://www.saveourseas.com/). Thanks Kim.

Have a look at more photographs here

On 1st September Canon announced a new 18 megapixel, 8 fps digital SLR camera, the EOS 7D. I have been lucky enough to have a pretty thorough play with this camera prior to official release, and I have to say I’m impressed. In a nutshell, it’s responsive, has great AF for moving subjects and a great framerate as well as being weather sealed. It’s a great wildlife photographer’s camera and I’ll be posting more information and comments on its performance in the future. I’ve been involved in an exciting Canon project with this camera and will link to it as soon as it goes online.

More details on the camera can be found on the Canon Site.

Sharkquest Arabia is a two part TV documentary film project telling the true story of the status of Arabia’s sharks and the scale of overfishing throughout the seas of the Arab world for the shark fin trade to the Far East.

The website now has a 6 minute promo video, including some of my footage of Whale Sharks from Djibouti. I hope to be joining the filming expedition late 2009 or early 2010. Visit http://sharkquestarabia.com to see the promo, or click on the image on the left..

I’ve just uploaded some recent photographs to the ‘Little Planets’ gallery. These are 360 degree panoramic images, mapped into a stereographic projection, which gives them the appearance of being little planets. Click here to check out some of these fun photographs.

I’ve posted a short compilation of video clips shot between 2001 and 2003 in standard definition. Among other things, it features bottlenose dolphins, hawksbill turtle, green turtle (both underwater and nesting), a stingray, eagle ray, a false killer whale, and even a rare sighting of a blue whale.

Oman’s Marine World from Fergus Kennedy on Vimeo.

I’ve just come back from a week diving in the Red Sea, near Marsa Alam in Egypt. I was using my new Canon 5D Mark II in a converted Ikelite housing. I’ve posted some photographs from the trip in a new album.
I’ve also posted a short video from the 5D Mark II here.