Pine Martens

Bonnie; Pine Marten, Martes martes

Where do I start?.. Umm...

I LOVE PINE MARTENS!!!

Okay. I appreciate there is a lot of photos here, but I wanted to show them all. I'll try to keep future posts to a few less photos than this, but can you blame me... look how beautiful pine martens are!

Above is one of the first photos I ever took, literally in the first 50 I took with a DSLR. It was a Canon lent to me by Gary K Mann, a member of the BWC. I wanted a souvenir photo of Bonnie, and this was the best I got... and still my favourite to this day! Yes, it is slightly out of focus on the face (focus is on the log), and there is a plank running through her back, but I love the pose and it shows "my" Bonnie!

Clyde

It only seems fair to introduce our other three martens too, so here is Clyde above.

Buttons

Above is Buttons, our elderly pine marten, and first ever pine marten I saw in the flesh.

Hamish

And finally, Hamish, small for a male but with a big personality... He really ttys to dominate through the wire with the others.

Me with Pine Martens - by Izzy Coomber

This is my favourite photograph of me, taken by Iz, of me feeding Bonnie and Clyde while they were in together a few years a go.

Bonnie, Old BWC Leaflet

The rest of the photos will just be of Bonnie or Clyde, they are by far the friendliest of them all. Although the others do hand feed, these two are happy to come out and spend more time with me while I am in their enclosure.

Above is an early photo of Bonnie, one of the first taken with my first camera, a Nikon D90. It was used as the cover of our leaflet 4 or 5 years a go now.

Award Winning Clyde :-)

This is the first photo that ever won an award!.. Best photo in the West Hoathly village county fair, don't knock it, it won me 50p.

Bonnie

A few of Bonnie now, it is very difficult to get a decent photo of our pine martens... they move extremely quickly, their pens are quite dark and not ideally set up for photography. This is why a lot of my photos of them are wide angle. I waiting to get that really good portrait photo I have in my mind!

Bonnie

A softer shot which is used a lot for our publicity, seems to be one of Liza's favourites.

Beautiful Bonnie

A peeking shot, showing of Bonnie to her beautiful best when she is in full winter coat.

Bonnie in a Tree

This is Bonnie peeking out of a hole in a tree. It is a set I took in to her pen a few years a go to try and get something looking a bit more natural... It didn't really work, but this was the best of the series.

Close-up of Bonnie

Close up of Bonnie, one of the more unusual ones I have of her.

Curious Clyde

Clyde showing off their inquisitive nature. They are such curious animals, and often tilt their head to one side like a dog when trying to take everything in.

Clyde

These few are of Clyde, the one above taken only a couple of weeks a go.

Peeking Pine Marten

Having the backgrounds so close, and wire often in the way, it leads to lots of close ups like the one above.

Clyde

These two are from a recent shoot with Clyde, looking a little scraggly as he had just started to moult.

Clyde

I was quite pleased with them though, and manage to take them in some softer evening light... always seems to help lift an ordinary photo.

Close-up of Clyde

This is an oldie, but possibly the first photo of Clyde I took that I was pleased with. It shows him just before his spring moult, his old winter fur bleached blond while spending so much time in the runs under the sun.

Bonnie with an Egg

We sometimes offer our pine martens eggs, and it is great to watch how they carry them off and try to crack in to them. On one occasion I watched Bonnie for a good while rolling an egg up the back at the back of her enclosure, and then letting it roll down again to hit the ground. Once it had cracked she started lapping it up.

Fisheye of Clyde

Had to include one taken with the fisheye lens :-)

Clyde Keeping an Eye on Me

And my current favourite, and new only taken 5 hours a ago. Love the look he is giving me.

Below I have included a video I uploaded last summer. Ignore the commentary, it is old and we have not just split them up... we have just introduced them, but thought you might like to see Bonnie and Clyde hand feed.

Anyway, apologies for so many, if you managed to get this far, thanks for looking, and I'll keep the posts shorter in the future. It's just that... 

I LOVE PINE MARTENS!

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.