Don't forget what is all around us
philipvprice • December 4, 2019
Technical - Common is wonderful!
I am slightly at risk of doing myself out of a job with this newsletter. Exotic wildlife, eagles, otters, deer are amazing, breath taking and worth the effort to see. This is why I offer them as a workshop subject. However I would like to champion the wildlife we see everyday and maybe think not worth the attention of our hundreds or even thousands pounds worth of lenses.
The joy of these animals is they tend to be in our lives all the time, meaning there is constant inspriation from these incredible animals. Because remember if an animal is common, it is has managed to adapt to a radically different world dominated by us and done well out of what we do. That is a magnificent feat of adaptability and should be celebrated even if we see these animals sometimes as a nuasance. What animals am I talking about?
Rock Doves, the pigeons we see in all our urban areas. A wonderful and unique animal. The colours are unique to the individual and can be tracked back through generations. The mating behaviour of these animals is wonderful to watch and they are are a real challenge to catch in flight. The best thing of all is they are easy to find, easy to be near and will allow the photographer to try lots and lots of different things.
Mallards, the most common duck in the world. Everyone knows where you can find them (if not then most ponds and lochs in our cities and the countryside). As a result often overlooked but they are stunning and if rare then would highly prized as an image.
The challenge for common animals is you need to up your game. Taking an ok shot of a mallard would not really be that impressive (but the same level of shot of an eagle certainly would be). So you need to get the shots technically very good. That means getting down eye level to the animal and trying to get creative with the bokah.
Drone Fly, don't forget the small world. This is where things can get really exciting. Not only do you have the chance to really challenge your photography, there is also a whole world of discovery out there. In half an hour you can go on a full on safari, seeing the apex predators hunting, the grazers moving around there mini Savannah, and mothers and fathers looking after their family. All on a leaf in your garden or down the park.
Grey Heron, animals that you see everyday allow you to plan projects that can use more difficult kit to capture interesting moments. The above is a camera trap image. Because the animal was there everyday I could experiment with composition and light regularly for different effects.
I hope by reading this you may take a new liking to that annoying pigeon that poops on your car, or the voles in your garden or whatever you find in your world, because having any form of nature in our world is a privilege and something we should cherish and is good for us.
Workshops - New Hides and Christmas Vouchers now Available
Putting this newsletter together has made me realise that most of my new images are not of common animals, I have not been following my own advice and I miss doing this sort of thing. This year I will be fixing that. I am half way through building a hide in the middle of a Heronry, this will allow me and hopefully some of you that chance to share some of this interesting animals most incredible moments.
Christmas Gift Vouchers
I have also finished our new bird of prey hide and upgraded the forest hide. I just need to get out and take some pictures (just waiting for this cough I have to go).
It is December and I have now fully Christmasfied the website, as it is allowed in December! The duck has its Santa hat back on, and our vouchers are available.
Eco - Meetings, meetings and more meetings
BAD News
I recently attended a meeting with Marine Scotland and Sepa about regulating fish farms. There seems to be no reliable way to regulate Scotlands most marine polluting industry (according to SEPA) in the pipe line, or if there is it is very far into the future. SEPA was a bit better but there are big loop holes in what they are doing. At the moment there are potentially 42 new farms or expansions with approx 62000 more tonnes of fish to be farmed annually in Scoltand. Unfortunately the sea is already at breaking point, with mowi operated local farms having to be emptied due to an outbreak of heart disease. The Sea needs our help and I am beginning to think the only way to curb the industry to levels that the sea can handle is to reduce demand. So I think the best thing we can do right now is to not eat Salmon until the industry goes to closed containment, where a lot of problems would disappear. If you are desperate for Salmon, buy Alaskan wild Salmon (they have banned fish farming and still have a sustainable wild salmon fishery). And it will taste better, yes there is the air miles issue but most of the food to feed our local fish farms is shipped in from fisheries all around the world so you do not gain anything buying locally on the food mile front.GOOD News
Our local communities efforts to rewild our sea maybe taking a turn for the better. We are trying to establish breeding Osyter beds again in our native loch, which would have a similar effect as rebuilding coral reefs in tropical waters. We are currently in the process of applying for a very large grant to get this done, fingers crossed!!!!!!
I have just processed pics I took the last time I was out with our Otters, which was a few days before Christmas...oh yeah and Happy New Year everyone! What a terrible start. Anyway having just gone through the images I am pretty sure this Otter above , who is called Éowyn, is pregnant. Look at her belly in all these images and there is a definite bulge. This is incredible news and means we should have a family in our main territory again in the next 3 or 4 months, just in time for nice warm spring and summer days!!
I spent an incredible day in my hide which is the first time it has been used since I dug it in to improve the photography angle and to stop it getting destroyed by every storm. Usually this is where I would then say 'to get great images you need to do this and that etc' which is what most photographers write about. I have decided to take a different approach mainly due to my slight (to great) incompetence on the day. Rather than hide my head in shame, I decided to do a 'how NOT TO guide' to wildlife photography in our loch side hide.
As some of you have read before if you follow anything I do, one of my main ambitions over the last year with my business is to try and incorporate effective and useful citizen science into our photography workshops. It means when you come along, not only do you get to take amazing photos (hopefully) but you will be contributing to the protection of that animal or the enhancement of it's environment. Due to Covid a lot of my ideas did not happen this year. However our Otter project did kick off and I have absolutely loved it!!
This newsletter I am so so excited to say for the very first time I can combine my environmental work with delivering new workshops. Here's how it works. For most of my tours and some of my workshops next year, not only will you be able to get some incredible images and experience some world class moments you also get to genuinely help the animals or their habitat that feature on the tour or workshop. Here is a flavour of what we are doing: Red Squirrels Hours of incredible photography combined with tree planting to create more habitat for these amazing wizards of the forests. Beavers Great photography combined with helping the Argyll Beaver Centre with their camera trapping monitoring program. This is vital work for the national re-population of beavers in Scotland.
Wildlife in 17mm, the challenges which you can now try too.
Mirrorless - the rise of new tech, new vouchers available, NO to Kelp dredging.
New workshops, new studio and our wonderful Otters
Using 70-200mm lens for wildlife, new hide rental and we have an Otter family!
