Most photographs of small birds in flight are taken with very fast shutter speeds of 1/1000th or faster, so that the action can be frozen, but Martin Garnett has been developing a new technique using much slower speeds of 1/60th to ¼ second.

One might expect these photos to be blurred, but often they’re not and the results are surprising and aesthetically pleasing. All the photos were taken from his home near Dolgellau.

Martin is a retired wildlife biologist with a lifetime interest and love of nature. This interest and love has taken him all over the world, as he explains.

“I was born in Manchester in 1951 and educated at Manchester Grammar School,” said Martin.

“I had a gap year in 1969 as assistant warden of Skokholm Bird Observatory, before studying at biological sciences at the University of Lancaster and then, for my doctorate in Ornithology at the Edward Grey Institute, Oxford University.

“In 1976 I went to the Seychelles as warden of Cousin Island for the International Council for Bird Preservation (now Birdlife International) and then to Kiribati, in the central Pacific for the British Government as wildlife warden of the Line and Phoenix Islands, based on Christmas Island.”

The mid 1980s bought about another move, this time, to Wales.

“In 1985 I married Annie,” said Martin, “and we bought and moved into an old farmhouse on the slopes of Rhobell Fawr, near Dolgellau. In 1993 we moved to our present home, an eight-acre small holding/nature reserve/historic garden on the Nannau estate.

“Neither of us had jobs, but within six months we both had jobs with the RSPB.

“In 1991 I became wildlife ranger (and later conservation manager) of Dolgellau Forest District for the Forestry Commission, before ill health forced my retirement in 1999.”

Martin’s life changed forever when he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

Commenting on living with MS, he said: “This has affected me considerably, both physically and mentally, and was a terrible shock. Gradually and with the love and support of my wife I have learned to live with the condition.”

He went on: “I can now spend more of my time photographing wildlife and making wildlife sound recordings.

“In 2008 I took up wildlife sound recording as a hobby and in 2012 won national and international prizes for a recording I made near our home, of Black Grouse (https://soundcloud.com/wildlife-sound-recording/black-grouse).

“I am very fortunate to live in a beautiful and quiet place. Very few in the modern world are able to experience true quiet, like we often can.”

An ‘accident’ five years later led to a new creative outlet for Martin, as he explained.

“I have enjoyed photography for many years and in 2017 took, by accident, this photo of a Coal Tit.

“There was something both Annie and I really liked about this picture and I tried to work out how I had taken it. It was taken at 1/30th second and so I began experimenting and developing my new technique of using slow shutter speeds.”

The latest results of Martin’s photography can be seen on display in the free exhibition, ‘Birds in Flight’ at RSPB Ynyshir Visitor Centre, until Sunday, 30 June (open 10am-5pm), and can be bought from him at [email protected]

His photographs give the viewer a new perspective on bird flight, but have another purpose.

Commenting on another of his images, ‘Great Tit – 1/13th second’, he said: “Small birds like this fly with 25-30 or so wing beats per second – too fast for the human eye to take in.

“My photography allows us to see what is really going on. The photos are also, I feel, of artistic merit.”