2015: Catch Up

Harvest Mouse on Daffodil

All this Samsung over the past couple of months... I can tell you, it was lovely picking up my old Nikon again. You forget how much you get used to a camera :-) There will lbw a couple more Samsung posts, but that will then pretty much wrap it up... they seem quite happy with what has been done already, despite it not being how it was all originally intended. Oh well, if they are happy, I'm happy :-)

These are a few photos I have been taking outside of the Samsung experience this year. Not much has been done, but I did have a little shoot with a harvest mouse on a daffodil. It didn't go to well to be honest, but I was happy with the photo above. I really like the way the yellow of the petals is reflected on the underside of the mouses chin!

Water Vole

We put a new family of water voles out on our display island a couple of weeks a go. They normally take a little time to settle, and indeed are this time too for three of them, but the fourth is really bold! Often out on the feeding tile with people around watching.

I spend many an evening down there just watching them, and last night David (the owner) joined me. It was nice to just sit there with no camera and watch them all buzzing around and jumping in and out the water.

Baby Adder with Adult

You all know how much of a soft spot I have for adders, and it won't be long till they start dancing! To warm up though I have been watching them the past few days. The above is one of my favourite adder photos to date. A youngster curled up against mum... nothing maternal there, but it show how tiny they are next to an adult.

Baby Adder

A close up of the same neonate. I have seen three at once since hibernation, youngsters that is, and all five adults are now out and in the process of shedding. I would guess they will start dancing within the next week.

Baby Adder

Even from a young age they look quite fierce, but they also look quite cute don't you think?.. No?.. Maybe if you squint, and keep squinting till you can't see them?.. There ya go :-)

Thanks for looking :-)

What to expect...

Grinning Fox

Welcome all to my new blog, "Matt's Photos". I am looking at this blog as a sister blog to the BWC Keepers Blog, and as a place to share some more of my photos. For more about this blog click the link above. There are also links above to find out more about me, the camera gear I use and links to the BWC blog and my photo sharing sites etc.

For this first post I thought I would just show you ten photos from over the years. These will give you and idea of what to expect on this sister blog. Hope you enjoy.

Above is a photo of Flo our friendly fox, taken with a wide angle lens which gives it an almost comical feel. This was the first photo I took which I was REALLY pleased with. It took a while to grow on me, but is now one of my favourites. It is a lovely portrait, but a little different. Not taken with a remote trigger as many think, I was actually behind it at the time.

Winged Assassin of Bluebell Wood

Above is Florence flying over the bluebells. I have been lucky enough to have many photographs in the papers over the years, but this is possibly the most famous.

Day Old Badger Cubs

Working at the BWC I am lucky to see many unusual or very rare sights. Above is not a great photo, but it is something I like showing people. It is of two, one day old badger cubs. Even from day one you can see that they have the classic black and white striped face!

Lucy Flying a Barn Owl

I have a very hard working and dedicated team of keepers, that work hard to maintain the high standards of welfare and presentation we have at the Centre. It is like photographing them in action, and if possible unaware, to get more natural poses. It is good for the records and as souvenirs. It is a shame the barn owl was moulting above and so had half a tail, but you can only work with what you have got.

Dance of the Adders

Different behaviours are always fascinating to me, and arguably my most anticipated every year is the "Dance of the Adders". This is one I took in the first year I had a camera, and still possibly my favourite. Taken from outside the enclosure, and so shows the great opportunities you can get here even with out the exclusive access of our photo days.

Fox Smelling Daffodil

My favourite fox, Pickles, sadly non longer with us. Sniffing the daffodils. This is the first photograph I took that got noticed and encouraged people who have never been to the Centre to follow my photography.

Autumn Hedgehog

 I love using the light, and backlight in particular. I also love colour, and the above shows both nicely.

Fisheye Otter on Ice

I was once told that a fisheye lens is good, but you can't use it for wildlife. After this I was determined to prove them wrong. I love my fisheye lens. It takes great quirky portraits, but can also be used well in other ways. The above is my most highly awarded photo, being Highly Commended in 2012's British Wildlife Photographer of the Year. It was amazing to see it in the gallery alongside other great amateur, and many amazing professional photographers work.

Beautiful Bonnie

One of my first, and still one of my favourite, of all photos. Showing Bonnie, the pine marten, off to her beautiful best. It is not the best technically, but still I love it and that is all that matters.

Vole's Eye View

The editing I do is minimal, and tends to only be slight tweaks in levels and cropping. Apart from the obvious photoshopped images for fun, I could probably count on one hand the number of images I have actually "manipulated". The above is one of the ones I did manipulate, it is also a little soft and not of high quality. But it is unusual, different, and so one of my favourites.

Thanks for looking.