Last week I was very very lucky to receive an email saying that I had won a place on a fantastic photography event with Olympus OMD at the British Wildlife Centre in Lingfield.

I was one of 10 Photographers picked to spend the day at the British Wildlife centre taking photographs and receiving tips from a top british wildlife photographer Dave Stevenson and getting very close to the animals at the centre, as well as being one of the first members of public to get their hands on the highly waited for and amazing new lens from the Olympus OMD range the 40-150mm 2.8 Lens as well as any other lenses and cameras in their range that we wanted to play with.

So you can understand how excited I was to be going, getting up close with the animals as well as spending the time to play with the new gear (every photographers dream to be one of the first to play with new kit). Now everyone their wasn’t Olympus their was Photographers who shot with Nikon and also Canon (I used to be a canon girl and currently making the full switch to olympus for many reason).

When we arrived we had a little chat with the olympus guys as well as Dave Stevenson who showed us some of his fantastic images and gave us some tips for the day. Then we got straight to it, hands on with the new gear, first on my camera was the 40-150 lens I have been waiting months to see it in action and get to have a play with it on my own camera and I wasn’t disappointed.

First we went into the Red Squirrel inclosure and had a play with this new lens, I also had a play while in their with the 75mm 1.8 which was equally as beautiful with a very impressive depth of field.

A few of my favourites while in here, I will try to upload more in the next few weeks or create a fantastic slideshow. They was amazing and they wasn’t scared of us, some even jumped onto us and used us as stepping stones to get from one place to another, they scared me a couple of times doing this.

 

 

 

Then it was the fox’s and I was surprised at how friendly they was, they would come up quite close really to use and wasn’t bothered by us being their, the staff their was fantastic as their had their favourite treats to catch their attention so they was coming close to see us, not that we needed them to with this fantastic lens. I was using here both the new 40-150mm 2.8 and also the 1.8 75mm both brilliant lens for different reason, the amount of extra light in the 1.8 is amazing but the versatility of the 40-150mm 2.8 is brilliant (if using the converter its even better distance but you do loose a little of the light and depth but this doesn’t effect the speed or the quality of the images the lens and camera produces.

 

 

 

 

 

Then We went to see the wildcats. Just like the domestic cat but larger and not as tame. Again I was surprised at how close they came to us.

 

 

 

Then We saw the Owls. 

 

 

Then the amazing Otters and their afternoon snack. They did remind me of my old dog as a child the way they would come out of the water and shake off and would roll over on their back to dry.

 

 

Then we had a little time to have a look around at some of the other animal as well as the stags.

 

 

 

 

As you can see we had an amazing day being able to get up close and into the enclosures with the animals, it was also brilliant being able to try new lenses (which has now added to the wish list and hoping santa is reading this so he knows that the 40-150mm 2.8 is their as well as the lovely macro 60mm lens). I would like to thank the olympus team for organising this amazing event, it was brilliant being able to be so close to the animals and only 10 photographers to experience this. It was also lovely meeting other photographers and hearing about what they thought of the kit and photography in general, especially those that are with another brand just like me before the change and that they now want to move over to the Olympus OMD range, the glass and the fast focus on the equipment is amazing and I am so glad I changed over and so happy that I was one of the lucky ones on this day. I did enter the competition for the next event for the Ballet so fingers crossed that I get another amazing experience like this one.

 

I will try to post more in coming weeks as I took so many beautiful images, these are a few of my favourites for now.