Hen House

Hen House - Tim Irving

It has been incredibly misty around the east of England for the past few days, with the usual consequences, cancelled flights, long delays on the roads etc. The light during a misty morning is absolutely beautiful and transforms the mundane into something special, so I'm scouting for likely subjects during the day and returning to photograph them the next morning. On Friday I returned to my favourite hens in their misty, moody surroundings.

I've mentioned in a pervious post that chickens are difficult creatures to photograph. They are nervous, skittish and quick. They also follow each other around which is very annoying, so an isolated hen is soon joined by others, thus ruining any careful composition. The biggest problem is getting down to their level, which in this weather would involve kneeling in wet grass.

I solved the problem in two simple ways (a pincer movement). I'm sure you can't wait to hear!

1. I used a camera with a waist level viewfinder, which allowed me to view the hens at their level.
2. I gained the hens confidence by flicking lentils into the field. 

I would normally have used 400 ASA film for such a dull day, but I couldn't buy any locally. So I used 100 ASA film, 1/30th at f/3.5.