Hungary: Fabulous Wildlife Photography

If, like me, you love wildlife photography, this trip is an unmissable treat, and one of my absolute favourites! The week involves unlimited and exclusive use of up to 24 of the best wildlife photography hides in the world (the precise number depends on the season).

Designed and built by my great friend, multi-award-winning Wildlife Photographer Bence Máté, they offer dazzling perspectives (including treetop and water level shooting) in some truly wonderful settings. Bence pioneered the use of one-way windows in photography hides, which enhances the experience beyond belief.

One thing I can’t stress enough is that anyone with an interest in wildlife photography will benefit - beginners and experienced photographers alike. Don’t worry if you feel you don’t have enough photographic knowledge or the most impressive kit, I promise you'll get some wonderful images and experiences out of the trip. I’ll be on hand to help, of course, and will spend time with you in the hides as you practice and perfect your skills. And, if you’re experienced, the week will open a whole new world of stunning photographic opportunities.

So what’s a typical week like? After a short-haul flight to Budapest, we travel to Bence’s clean and comfortable farm a couple of hours south, and this is our base for the week. There's wildlife absolutely everywhere. It's like going back in time to the wildlife-rich Britain of 100 years ago - with the added bonus of a plethora of strikingly healthy bird populations from Eastern Europe too.

We have lunches and dinners together, usually sitting outside, with ground squirrels at our feet, swallows filling the air above, and everything from lesser spotted woodpeckers to turtle doves in the trees around us.

We rave about the most recent half-day shoot to the ever-present soundtrack of cuckoos and golden orioles, and plan who would like to go where for the next half-day shoot. There's a lot of flexibility - if you fancy starting at 4am, that’s fine; if you’d prefer a lie-in and to start later, that’s fine too. It’s entirely up to you. Depending on the season, we can even shoot overnight, with natural and artificial lighting.

We don’t have to travel far to find our subjects each day - there’s a smorgasbord of charismatic species, unaware that we're watching them a few metres away behind the glass, just a short walk or a short drive away.

Depending on the season, we’ll be photographing everything from white-tailed eagles, bitterns, little owls and hawfinches to spoonbills, black woodpeckers, European bee-eaters and hoopoes, with otters, hares and roe deer, thrown in for good measure. We’ve even had pine martens at some of the drinking stations too.

I’ve never experienced such amazing hides anywhere in the world. They offer unparalleled photography opportunities (in comfort, too). For example, if you fancy shooting herons, egrets, storks and spoonbills from a few metres away you might choose the Theatre Hide (which is mostly underwater - you stay perfectly dry, but shoot at water level with fantastic perspectives of the birds).

If you’d prefer to shoot blackcaps, green woodpeckers or sparrowhawks up-close, you might choose one of the drinking stations. Or you might fancy a morning photographing hoopoes or bee-eaters from one of the specialist hides.

How about swallows collecting mud for their nests right in front of another sunken hide? Or kingfishers diving into the water for fish? You might even prefer a change from birds - otters, for example, or ground squirrels. I’ll rotate between hides to spend as much time with everyone as possible.

By the end of the holiday, I guarantee you'll have a stunning collection of new wildlife photographs, and you’ll leave feeling inspired with lots of thoughts and creative ideas. On average, I take 20,000-30,000 photographs in a typical week at the farm. And, of course, we always have a lot of laughs along the way.

You can find out more about our photography holiday in Hungary from Mark himself - check out the below video to watch our Bird Photography in Hungary talk.

Interested in joining Mark Carwardine in Hungary? Find out more about our Wildlife Photography in Hungary trip, or contact our friendly team to find out more.