Favourite photos from last year

Common Dormouse

This blog may have a few new visitors over the coming weeks from a project I am about to start for Samsung. I will announce what that is later this week, but thought I would share some of my favourite photos that I took last year.

For those that are new to looking at this blog, these also reflect quite nicely what my blog is all about. These are perhaps not always what I consider my best photos, but are my favourites. Ones I particularly like for one reason or another. Whether it is because I consider it a good photo, or it reminds me of something that happened, or it shows something that many people rarely if ever see... but due to my position and benefits, I get to see it and so like to share.

So, in no particular order, above is one of a Common Dormouse. Not so common in the UK anymore. I rarely get to photograph these beautiful animals, due to their nature and lifestyle... we don't like to disturb the animals unless we have too. But one afternoon last summer this one was up while we were chaining around her hazel. I took the opportunity to take a few snaps while the keepers were sorting out her home, then we put her back. About twenty minutes of her time as a model, and this was my favourite. Looking through the hazel at the camera.

With this, and the others below, if you search for the animal in the bar below you will see the other photos from each shoot.

Clyde

A classic example of favourite photo. Is it a good photo? To most of you, probably no, but I love it! It shows the connection I have with one of our pine martens, Clyde. I like the expression on his face, and the fact you know it is me because of my tatty ol' crocs. :-)

Those that are new here will soon realise I am quite laid back with my photography. I am an animal person and head keeper first, very much a photographer second. But I do love photography and taking pictures, and it is a great way for me to spend time with the animals I care for. Any photos I get out of that time with them is a bonus, and often I will sit in an enclosure with my camera and never pick it up... just sit there and watch the animals and have fun.

Badger

I enjoy using the light with my photographs too. And often here people complain about bad light, bad weather, any excuse to forgive their photos... Don't get me wrong, of course there are many conditions which are difficult for photography... and some that I don't go out in or try, but in many cases you can use these conditions to get something different. I was talking to someone one afternoon last summer with the sun high in the sky, and they were saying how it is pointless and you couldn't get any decent photo in that light with the harsh shadows. I was trying to explain the above, so took this photo with a high negative exposure and using the shadows to hide half the face.

Many won't like it, and that is fine, but I really do and it has become one of my most popular photos of last year.

Barn Owl in the Evening

Taking the lighting to the extreme, this is one of our barn owls on the reserve in the evening light. It is nice to get some backlit photos of them, and again just messing around I tried to lower the exposure even more to emphasise the golden light. Not sure on this one, sometimes I look at it and like it other times I don't.

Snowy Owl Feathers

I am working on another little, well big actually, side project which probably won't be in a position to announce for a year or so!.. But it has led me to take more "detail" photographs such as feather detail etc. This one above doesn't really show that, but shows some of the patterns you can create with the feather or fur of an animal.

Tawny Owl Grooming

Florence, probably our scruffiest owl, getting ready for a photo shoot. Different behaviour, however simple, is what I love most about an animal.

Red Squirrel

Another example of a "bad" photographic day. It was dark and raining. ISO was set high, aperture low, but again I was happy with this result. Any good blown up for a billboard? No, but for small prints and web use it is fine. Yes there is more noise than a lot of people would like... but I would rather have a noisy image that is sharp than no image at all. This one has actually been used a lot for the centres advertising.

Scottish Wildcat

One of my favourites. A wildcat walking out of the darkness, possibly symbolising them coming back from the brink of extinction? Time will tell...

Mating Adders

Another classic example of what I share on this blog. The photo above is not great at all, but what it shows is incredible. Two of our adders mating. Very rare to see this. Only happens every other year, and usually they go in to cover, as they did this time after a few minutes. But this year they were out in the open for a while, and I was lucky enough that a member of the Centre came and found me to let me know.

I like to share photos of things rarely seen, as I am lucky and privileged to see it myself, I want  you to see it to.

Wildcat Snarl

Above is a bit of a work in progress. I really like it, and it shows one of my benefits. I can of course go in with animals that no one else can, for various reasons... bit obvious with this one I think :-)

I am still trying for that really good snarl and swipe picture, that doesn't show the animal is in an enclosure, but I just don't know if it is possible.

With captive photography you should never tell people it was taken in the wild, but you should still try and make it look as if it could have been. That's what I think anyway... unless you are telling a story.

Wildcat

One of my recent images. A couple of months ago I had a small obsession with the wildcats, and their eyes in particular. Took several images and the above was my favourite.

Adder

I love the adders, especially while they are "dancing" in the spring. I wouldn't really classify any of my dancing shots as my best/favourite last year unfortunately, but I did like a few of my portrait shots I took while experimenting with a macro lens.

The above was my favourite of those, deliberately low aperture to just get those amazing red eyes in focus.

Otter on Ice

One of the very last shots I took last year of the otters on ice. I was trying to get Emmy here to run to me on the ice with the reeds in the background. Didn't work to well, I got one I liked, but the others were not good.

I did get this one though in the same shoot. Closer to me with out the reeds, but i still liked it. Currently have it as my wallpaper on the Mac.

Tawny Owl over Bluebells

Bluebell season of course, and I had to include this photo. My biggest award this year. Ironically not my favourite photo of 2014, far from it, but possibly my most popular and seen so thought I should include it.

Thanks for looking, and more to come this year :-)

Badgers

Badger

Spare a thought for our British badgers today as the second year of the four year trial cull begins. If you haven't come to this blog from the BWC blog, then head over there to find out more about it. This is just to show off some pictures of badgers without the negativity.

Badger

We currently have two badgers at the Centre, above is our female Honey.

Badger

When first discovered they were thought to be a member of the bear family, but are in fact the largest member of the weasel family living in the UK.

Badger

The badger is one of the worlds fastest digging mammals.

Mushroom, mushroom

How did that get in here?..

Badger, Meles meles

Half of their diet is made up of earth worms, and they can eat over 200 in one night while looking while out foraging.

Badger cubs

Even from day one they have the classic black and white striped face they are so well known for.

Young Badger

It is that classic marking they have that makes them one odour most iconic animals! Even if you have never seen a badger before, most people know they have a black and white striped face... and it is the logo of the Wildlife Trusts.

Young Badger

Rarely seen out in the day, they are a very shy, secretive and nocturnal animal. Our badgers having been hand reared come out in the afternoon to forage and play, and are visible in their sett during the mornings and winter.

Badger in the Snow

Despite what many think, badgers do not actually hibernate. They cut down their activity a lot, and spend far more time underground keeping warm during the winter months, but do still venture out to look for food.

Winter Badger

Badgers have a delayed implantation. They can mate anytime of year, but will always give birth early the following year usually around the end of February early March.

Badger through a Fish-eye

I had to finish on a fish eye photograph didn't I. It seems the ones I take with this lens are love it / hate it photos.

Thanks for looking.

Photo Talk Tweaks

Barn Owl

I am doing a photography talk in a couple of weeks time. I do a lot of talks about the Centre and the work we do here, and of course use my photos to illustrate these, but have only done a few talks specifically about my photography... 

I always promote the Centre in these too, and try to make them educational about the animals as well as photography and convey my passion for British Wildlife. Although photography is a big hobby for me, I still see it only as that... a hobby, a way to enjoy time with the animals and always see myself as an animal lover and British wildlife enthusiast first. 

For my talk in a couple of weeks, I am combining two of my other talks to make it a little different. While doing this I am updating some of the photos and a few other tweaks. While doing this I thought I would share a couple of photos, old and new, that I may be putting in.

Above is one of my latest, and one of my favourites, of Big Pete in flight. The light was a little to high still for the back light I like, but it still came out alright. I enjoy playing around with exposures and metering whenever I get the chance.

Red Squirrel

 One that I have not used before, a very simple and softly back lit portrait of a red squirrel.

Deer on the Run

A couple messing around with panning, a slow pan with the deer above.

Super Owl

And this one is a much more extreme panning shot. Any slower and I think it would be unlikely to know what it was flying through the shot.

Flying Florence

Above is another I haven't used much before. Florence flying on one of our owl days. The light looks quite strong, which is probably why we did it side lit.

Badger

This one I only showed a little while a go, but is possibly my favourite badger photo I have. I don't take to many of our badgers, but was lucky to get this one evening a couple of weeks ago. The light was strong, but again... using it as side light and setting the right exposure and metering created quite a nice effect.

Evening Eagle Owl

A simple portrait, but in the nice warm evening light... taken out on our nature reserve in the autumn, giving the nice warm autumn colours in the background.

Watching the Sunset

And finally, one used before... but not often. I messed this one up a little, but still like it :-)

Thanks for looking.

Few pics from last few days

Badger, Meles meles

Just a few quick pics from the last few days this time, a bit of a mix. Above is possibly one of my favourite Badger photos at the moment. I changed the exposure and metering in the camera to emphasize the harsh shadow and still keep the detail in the lit side of his face.

Polecat Kit

A few photos of our polecat kits, they are growing quickly aren't they?

Polecat Kit from the Left

I do a lot of photography with the animal looking into the frame... for two reasons really, one I just like it! And two, it gives Liza space on the opposite side of the animal for text for advertisement and articles.

Polecat Kit from the Right

So here is one of a kit looking in from the other side too :-)

The Beautiful Susie

While photographing the kits, I couldn't not miss out on spending a bit of time with Susie. Same as many I already have of her, but she is so beautiful I couldn't resit another portrait.

Red Squirrel Stare

We had a few walnuts, so I gave them to the squirrels for something a little different to what they are used to.

Wide Angle of a Squirrel with a Walnut

They have had walnuts before, so they knew what to do with them.

Red Squirrel with a Walnut

I particularly like this one as it shows off the remaining wisp of his ear tuft :-)

Mother and Calf

One of the evenings I spent a bit of time with red deer, mainly trying to get a few photos of the calves. It may sound easy to do, but they are so wary and don't come that close at all until they are much older... and the mums are more wary too during this time. I keep my distance as I don't want to upset them.

The Creche

This was one of the mothers looking after four of the calves while the others were eating some of the food I took out with me. 

Red Deer Calf

After some time, one of the calves got brave enough to come and see what I was doing.

Startled

I quite liked the expression on this hinds face. She looks startled, but she is actually just eating and I caught her mid chew.

The Boys; Albus and Olivander

The boys! On his own Olivander looks the business, but then when he is next to Albus he really looks quite small!

Albus, Master Stag

Albus, still the Master Stag. Not sure how much of a rut there will be this year, Albus really is the bigger stronger looking stag.

Back Lit Barn Owl Flying

Finally, Monday night myself and the rest of the keepers went onto the reserve to fly big pete, before going to off to watch some wild barn owls. This one was back lit to show off the wings, only just got away with it as the sun was still a little too high and ideally needed to be taken half hour later, but we were watching the wild barn owls at that time.

Side Lit Barn Owl Flying

And a simple side lit one to end on...

Thanks for looking.