Squirrel hide for hire.

July 9 2010

After several years of fending it off, we've relented and decided to offer our purpose-built red squirrel hide for hire. It will only be available when we are not running workshops and only through the winter months - which is by far the best time anyway. If any blog readers have photographer friends visiting the Cairngorms this winter, please do alert them. See details in our Photo-tours pages.

Wild Wonders rolls on!

July 5 2010

This time in Prague at a rather splendid setting beside the Rudolfinum. The outdoor exhibition featuring 100 images from the Wild Wonders collection will be in situ until August 22...so if you're in the area...

On another note, I'm behind with blogging thanks to 3 recent trips to photograph (in order): very little, rather alot of gannets and some splendid sea eagles. A few images at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/Northshots?ref=ts

Wildphotos now open.

June 26 2010

The Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year has now been judged and there's the usual round of frantic phone calls to find out who has won what and who hasn't. Of course the official results are not announced until October when the awards ceremony will precede Britain's foremost nature photography symposium, WILDPHOTOS.

This unique two-day event at The Royal Geographical Society is well worth a pricey weekend in London and along with a viewing of the WPOY exhibition at the Natural History Museum just around the corner, provides all the inspiration you need for another 12 months of photography. Just look at it as photographic cocaine but cheaper.

Book at: http://www.wildphotos.org.uk/programme

John Muir Trust

June 23 2010

Northshots has become a corporate supporter of the John Muir Trust. JMT is the leading wild land conservation charity in the UK. Inspired by the work, spirit and legacy of John Muir, the Trust owns and manages some of Scotland's wildest areas, as well as campaigning for the conservation of wild land and wild places throughout the country.

One of the Trust's most impressive achievements is the John Muir Award which encourages awareness and responsibility for nature in young people. 100,000 awards have been given out to date.

www.jmt.org

Office blues.

June 18 2010

Whilst sat in my office sometime last September, I felt the illogical but somehow uncontrollable desire to photograph gannets (it's a long story). I was obviously too late for last year so booked to join a photo-tour this summer. Now, as a tour operator myself, it may seem odd to reverse roles and have someone else do all the thinking for a change! That someone was Guy Edwardes who's been running seabird tours to Ireland for several years - and a jolly fine job he does too! So for the best part of the last week, I've been breathing in the not-so-sweet smell of fresh guano and on one particular occasion, almost eating it too ( I knew I shouldn't have gone too close to that gull's nest!)

Thanks to Guy's group of like-minded seabird shooters - it was a blast!

www.guyedwardes.com

Is there any point?

June 11 2010

No puffins, no puffins, no puffins. I kept saying it over and over to myself. Travelling to Shetland recently, I was determined to avoid shooting puffins. Not because I don't like them, but because they've been photographed to death and beyond, so what's the point?

Perhaps the point is that we (or more accurately, I) can become over-obsessive about being different. There's a clear logic in not repeating what others have done, but that ignores a crucial element of nature photography: sheer bloody enjoyment!

So did I shoot puffins? Yes, and what's more, it was great fun. This is a fulmar by the way - not a puffin!

Straight out of the camera.

June 4 2010

I'm no Photoshop guru let me tell you. But I do often 'enhance' my images here and there - a little bit of contrast, a touch of saturation, that sort of thing. But to be honest, it's a pain. So if I can get it right in camera, I just leave it. This west coast fishing boat - complete with one of the most dramatic skies I've seen - is a case in point. As taken, no tweaking, no dabbling, nothing.

Off to Shetland in the morning so might be quiet for a week or so...but hopefully some half-decent pix to show then.

Communication & Collaboration.

May 29 2010

They're just two words right? No, I don't think they are. I think they are THE two words when it comes to furthering both conservation and photography's role within it. Pool resources, exchange ideas, optimise efficiency - that's Collaboration. And then there's the Communication bit, and that's the bit that excites me.

I've just spent two days at the opening of the Wild Wonders of Europe inaugural outdoor exhibition in The Hague. After the ceremonial stuff (which I have to say was a lump in the throat moment), I sat and watched reactions to the larger than life images. Young, old, man, woman, every shade of skin, every cultural background (Holland is a culturally complex country), they all stopped and looked. Some didn't stay long, some stayed for hours. The common reaction? A smile. Now that's Communication.

See a selection of snaps from the event at:
http://www.facebook.com/Northshots?v=wall&ref=ts

A Red letter day.

May 22 2010

I've photographed red-throated divers a few times but there's something special about capturing this most primeval of birds close to home.
Today is International Biodiversity Day. This diver, photographed this very morning on a flat-calm peaty loch, underlines why this stuff matters. Divers, the fish that divers live on, the insect life that fish live on, the micro-organisms that the insects live on. All of it. All that stuff. Big, small, ugly, cute. It keeps us alive.

www.countdown2010.net

Winter Wildlife 2011

May 19 2010

We've added extra dates to our Winter Wildlife programme for 2011. These tours book out quickly so if you want to join us for snow, snow and more snow (well actually perhaps not as much as this year), follow the link below.

http://www.northshots.com/photo_tours_view.asp?ID=9