Last weekend, thanks to May Day holiday well placed on a Thursday, I was able to spend four days at the "Po Delta Birdwatching Fair", an annual fair dedicated to birdwatching and natural photography, held in Comacchio, a little ancient city nearby the Po river delta, and in the middle of the shallow waters "valleys" which are now a natural reserve where many different kind of birds reside, or rest for a while during their annual migration from and to Africa and Northern Europe.
Each day a photographic workshop held by natural photographers working especially in that area, and covering different aspects of this kind of imaging, from ethical considerations to posprocessing, paved the way to excursions lead by the same photographers in one of the best places to capture excellent image.
Several interesting booths were present ranging from wildlife protection organizations, to specialized travel agencies organizing travels to explore wildlife in very different parts of the world. The technical side was covered also, with Canon, Celestron, Novoflex and some Italan photo gear resellers present with booths showing their nest offering for natural photography and birdwatching. Canon offered the chance to test its line of supertelephoto (400/2.8. 500/4, 600/4 and 800/5.6) and several other lenses and cameras. I was pleasantly surprised by the EOS 100d, a very interesting little camera to keep at hand.
Novoflex showed some of its vey well designed and interesting macro accessories, something missing from the Canon catalog. But of course the best time was spent outside, even if in a variable weather that luckily turned good enough in the afternoons. On day one the "Valli di Comacchio" were full of flamingos feeding, but they were not the only guest as the photo here shows, and heron, and a egret which looked like good friends looking for a meal :) (click the image to see more photos)
The reserve of "Punte Alberete", is flooded forest surprising you with a very interesting ecosystem of flowers, insects, molluscs, anphibians, reptiles and birds.