GOOD NEWS IN 2021...AT LAST!

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 11:55:10 GMT

We are having a baby!

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!!

Éowyn is part of our citizen science project with the Mammal Society, about logging and identifying individual otters and learning much more about their behaviour. It is just so exciting to see this now bearing some fruit. It was only a few months ago that she left her pup Merry (which at the time I had thought very early). It now makes perfect sense. I had not realised when I started as to how rewarding collecting this data would be.

There is a downside though, I now have to worry about her and her unborn family. I have 3 kids, a new rescue puppy, a wonderful partner that keep my life incredible but also I fret about them all being healthy and happy, now I have to add this into the mix........

...seriously though it will be really interesting to see how this little drama unfolds, I have a few things to do before I am back to otter photography, but should be out with my camera next week so watch this space...and instagram..and facebook..

How not to use my hides.....a professional guide to avoid my idiocy

philipvprice@yahoo.com — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 14:42:25 GMT

A how not to guide to using our new and improved Lochside Hide

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.

Lesson One

Don't get up really early and make a massive effort to turn up under the cover of darkness, forget a crucial piece of equipment go home and on the way back to the hide see one otter, one eagle, three buzzards and numerous crows all disappear into the distance from where you should have been all along! Luckily most of them did come back by some miracle, except the eagle.

Lesson Two

Don't fall asleep, really don't fall asleep, in fact just stay awake, otherwise the above otter may have finished feeding by the time you start taking its picture. Thank goodness I still got 20 minutes with it but I had not idea how long it had been there for.

Lesson Three

Don't forget to charge battery, or more importantly don't think that it probably will be a pretty sparse day so you don't need a full battery and thus at the end watch what would have been the very best picture of a buzzard backlit in sparkly light 6m from hide and not be able to take the picture. Your penance is to sit with the battery under your armpit to warm it up so you can at least get some images for the 4 hours in the hide you had to spend there.

Lesson Four

Don't forget to pee before entering hide. Otherwise you will have to perform some funky ninja, yoga cross manoeuvre to avoid peeing on the hide, the camera equipment and not get seen by the buzzards 10metres away. All done by the way!

Lesson Five

Don't forget you have kids and have to pick them up, but not wanting to scare the birds away from the hide, you will have to use your lunch box as a flying decoy flung from the back of the hide. All ended well as back in time!

Even having made all these gaffs I had a total blast and I am loving the images I managed to get in just one morning, showcased above. To be fair this is 3 years, 2 storms and 2 rebuilds down the line but definitely worth it.

I hope your adventures in the coming 2021 will be slightly better organised and less stressful than this was but equally as fulfilling.

Otters Otters Otters

Mon, 30 Nov 2020 12:47:46 GMT

Otters Otters Otters

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!!

The ambition is, over the next 10 years, to get a truly detailed picture of the movement and behaviour of individual otters. As far as I know this has never been done before and can only be done because of client images and the fact I will be working the same territories day in day out for years. I don't take a camera with me when guiding otters, too hard to deliver a top quality workshop if I am muscling in, so it will be your images that enables me to log which individual we are watching and what they are doing. This is really exciting as it shows that wildlife photography can really be a force for good.

Why is this important! Well if we know what individuals are doing, we know much better the population turn over and can link that too activity in the loch. Otters are apex predators and therefore what they eat and how they are doing is a great indicator of the lochs overall health. This means if Otters are going well, we can look at activities that have happened and do more of it, like our oyster reintroduction - see below. Likewise if suddenly Aragon and Merry disappear at the same time from the same territory then we can look to see if something has changed for the worse in the loch and campaign to stop it.

What has been surprising and really nice for me, and this is where the technical bit of this part of the newsletter comes in, is that it has given real purpose to my Otter photography beyond getting good images.

As a pro my ambition is to get top quality amazing images (please note the word 'ambition' in the sentence there!!). The main reason for my photography is to showcase and advertise workshops so people want to come out with me (and to a lesser extent for articles and rewilding work). Hence the need for the images to be as eye catching as possible. In our new instagram world we all live in, getting that stand out image can feel very daunting and an ever increasingly difficult task.

This means in the past when going out photographing Otters and I did not get good enough images, I had that weird mixed feeling where on the one hand I had had an amazing day out but on the other hand I felt disappointed I had not nailed that award winning or insta popping image!

The joy now, is that the pressure has eased and I am finding I am enjoying the photography process much much more. I still want to get good pictures but if all I manage is a few record shots then they are now really really useful to further this citizen science project.

In conclusion it has been very liberating as a photographer to know even the crap shots matter now!

Maybe you too can find purpose for your hobby and make it all just that bit more fun!

Don't forget what is all around us

Wed, 04 Dec 2019 11:15:37 GMT

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.

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!!!!!!

November 2019 - And we are back!

Thu, 14 Nov 2019 08:23:03 GMT

Eco - Workshops

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.

Otters

Great photography combined with a study project using your images to log what animals are where and doing what. Including activity levels, survey work and logging what they eat. This will enable us to monitor the long term health of this area and protect it against any threats that may arise in the future. On the last day we also do a fun litter pick to make sure our otters habitat is the best it can be.

Grey Seal

Top class photographic opportunities of one of the most epic wildlife spectacles in this country. Then to put something back we are teaming up with Seal Conservation Society to gather data to help both protect seals and also help with the rehabilitation of seal pups.

All our gift vouchers will be valid for these tours and workshops.

Apologies for the hard sell, but I really am super excited about this and would love to share wonderful photography and great conservation work with as many people as I can. Lets make the world just a little better!

Partnership working

Next year our eco tours also include partnership working with other organisations.

Scotland The Big Picture: Wilding out West

I will be guiding the first ever rewilding retreat on the west coast. This is not a photography tour but a way to learn and see first hand some of the very best examples of rewilding this country has to offer. This is run by Scotland the big picture who I have worked with on various projects over the last few year.

Argaty Red Kites

I am teaming up with Tom and co and Argaty to deliver some tours with a real contribuition to the wildlife on the farm.

Technical - The Weather

There seems a constant drive for images in magical light, with many photographers making this there unique selling point and sole purpose of being out taking images. I can see why, there is something utterly wonderful about this time of day, either early morning or late evening, with a low sun, diffused soft sunlight and simple magic. However I find that other types of weather beg for a photographer to be out with their favourite animal.

While sunlight is wonderful, even in the golden hour when photographing black and white animals it can be a pain, these black guillemots are a brilliant example of this, overcast conditions and keeping the background dark in my opinion works much better.

Sometimes dappled light is the way to go, just getting a hint of sun on an autumnal overcast day can add drama to a picture.

And then there is my very favourite weather condition rain, lucky really living here in Argyll! But to create the sense of drama and highlight how tough wild animals are then nothing beats rain. However good waterproofing (cut off waterproof trousers if you want to save a bit of money) and a monopod or tripod usually essential. With rain usually comes low light which means either upping the iso or keeping your camera far steadier to make sure the slower shutter speeds still result in sharp images.

Animal behaviour is probably the best reason to sometimes be out in less than ideal weather conditions. For example damselflies sit much better on cooler overcast days meaning you can get much closer and be more creative with these enchanting little insects.

I hope that helps inspire a bit of bad weather photography for you. My newsletters don't really exist during the season as too busy out there running workshops but I am going to try and make it a regular feature for my off season. So expect a few more out in the next few months. I hope they are helpful and you enjoy them. Thanks for getting this far and happy snapping.

Happy New Year

Thu, 20 Dec 2018 09:28:33 GMT

2018 'Highlight Reel'

In keeping with cultural traditioins, I thought I would do a wee highlights reel from the tours and workshops in 2018

February
My season kicks off in February. And 2018 was the first year for my new hill top hide. And what a year, brilliant views, amazing squirrels and wind sometimes so strong it would knock the squirrels off the trees!

March
Mainly involved Otters and was when I got to really know our wonderful Mum and Cub. They are legends, sometimes chilling and sometimes manically hunting. What a year we had with them.

April
Saw the launch of our new One Day Experience location and studio. The Boat Shed. A bit cold to start with (which I have sorted now) but a truly world class location and wonderful wildlife. I am very lucky to be able to call the boat shed my businesses home.

May
Preparing for beavers, trialing the whole canoe idea and seeing if it would work. And boy did it work!

June
Finally taking people out on our first ever canoe based Beaver and Otter photography tour (the otter bit was on foot). It was superb, way beyond my wildest dreams....once I sorted the canoes a bit. The first time we tried it was bit wobbly!

July
Heat and sun, heat and sun, heat and sun and wow it was incredible, and the fluffiest Otters I have ever seen. Mum and cub still going strong.

And we finally did it, we made it to the puffins and it was a proper sunset!!

August
August is a bit of a funny month for me as it is very transitional when it come to wildlife, but this year the Otters once again starred! Mum (pictured below) was hauling out incredible catches, Octopus, Conger Eels and giant lobsters to name a few.

September
This month is all about Seals and catching up with them. We had loads of action this year on our grey seal tours and workshops. But my highlight was seeing a new bull in town. Old one eye must have finally moved on or up!

October
My final month of my season and we finished it off in real style. Torrential rain followed by glorious sunshine. With no |Daisy around I was a little concerned as to how the tour would go but we got an incredible show. The rain actually made things better, although our kit would probably disagree.

Happy New Year
Thanks to all who have made it amazing. I hope to see some of you again this year for more fun and adventures.

Wildlife in 17mm - New Voucher System & Wide Angle Hide Set Up - Kelp, WE DID IT!

Tue, 11 Dec 2018 10:10:54 GMT

Technical - Workshop - Ecosystem

Technical: Wildlife in 17mm

I don't see myself as a just a photographer anymore, I call myself a wildlife communicator. I know that sounds very pretentious, but everything I do is about communicating something about the natural world. Whether it be getting clients on my workshops to love wildlife as much as I do or telling people about the amazing benefits of rewilding and ecosystem rebuilding through my Scotland: The Big Picture work, it is all about communication using whatever tool I need. My most important tool is still photography and when you are talking about ecosystem restoration and landscapes, shooting wide angle is the very best way to link an animal with its habiat. But it is hard, so very very hard.

Here is the truthful bit. I don't like doing this type of photography. It is so fiddly. Weather, wildlife, light and me all have to be working in sync. Using a wide angle lens like a 17mm lens means you have to be very very very close to the animal, usually within a meter or so. At that distance the picture will usually have an impact on the viewer and thus be useful for engaging people. Not only that there is SKY! Sky makes life hard as it is usually a lot brighter than the foreground and the animal. This requires the use of a neutral density filter, which is a piece of glass put in front of the lens. The top half is a see through grey that absorbs light with out changing the colour. The bottom half is clear, the two fade into each other so you don't get a hard line. This enables the picture to have a darker exposure on the sky but still have a nice bright foreground.

Or you can use fill flash to balance the sky contrast problem out. Both of which need a lot of kit, time and faffing.

Then if you camera trap there is a whole new world of pain with kit, cables, sensors, hoods, flash, tripods, mini tripods. Not only that but it usually all goes wrong anyway.

Long lens is usually just me, the lens and the animal and that is it....I love it!

And yet it can be totally exhilarating. When the animal is mere centimetres away, the light is incredible and I haven't mucked anything up, it is wonderful. Plus the impact of the picture can be breathtaking with so many interesting elements in it working together.

Will I give up long lens completely, hell no, no way, it is far too much fun and will always be something I do to advertise workshops and because I love it. However my wide angle stuff is here to stay and I just need to get over it!

Workshop: New Voucher Ordering System and New Wide Angle Perch at Hill Top Hide.

I have redesigned our voucher booking system after many requests for bespoke vouchers. Now the person who orders the voucher can then design their own bespoke voucher. A personal message can be added as well as choosing a bespoke image from a choice of 10. I hope this makes the whole process a bit more useful. Click here for more information.

I had my first day with the new wide angle perch. Whoa it was totally totally amazing fun. Weather been a bit ropy so not sure when I will get to use it again. Hopfully soon. We are also now doing gift vouchers for the hides we will have running in 2019. See here for more information .

Ecosystem: No Kelp Dredging - We Did It!

WE DID IT! The politicians voted to not allow mechanical kelp dredging if it takes the whole plant up in crown estate sea bed (which is all of the coast line around Scotland at the moment). Massive congratulations to everyone involved and the politicians who voted for it. We have just taken a step towards having a truly sustainable future!

Mirrorless - Vouchers - Kelp

Fri, 02 Nov 2018 13:28:52 GMT

Technical - Workshop - Ecosystem

Technical: The Rise of Mirrorless

I am now aware of mirror-less more than ever. Clients are using them, this year the most of all. In the past I have been fairly dismissive of the technology and with good reason; slow focus, bad in low light, clunky menus. However my wonderful guests and their cameras are changing my mind.

So I thought I would do a little test myself. I have a gh4 which I use for video and decided to use it for a shoot. Now this is an old camera and is being used with an adaptor on my canon glass - 300mm f4 and thus does not represent the recent upgrades in tech.
However even so I have devised a wee game for you. All the images of grey seals from our recent, amazing, trips to their colony are taken either with a gh4 300 f4 or a 1dx 500 f4 which gives similar fields of view. Your job is to guess which is which. I have kept the two sets of images roughly the same so it makes it a little harder. Answers at the bottom of the page.

The camera is so light and so easy to check focusing manually that it was a joy to use. However for me it is not quite robust enough and there is a quality that is not quite there yet. The new ones I think change this though. Answers here to which image is which from the top:
1 - gh4, 2- 1dx, 3 - gh4, 4 - 1dx, 5 - 1dx, 6 - gh4.

Where I am getting really really excited about mirrorless is no noise or movement. I do a lot of eagle camera trapping at the moment usually with out much success. The movement of the mirror and aperture and the clunky noise just does not sit well with a bird as sensitive as a white tailed eagle. I have manged to get it to work but I needed to keep the camera away and use longer lenses (see image above) . If it goes closer in the bird always gets spooked by the noise. So, for me, mirrorless certainly will be used for this type of photography going forward (this will be my first winter so will keep you posted on how I get on and which camera I end up using).

Just had a guest who sent me there images taken on an Olympus. We were down to 1/4 second and she was almost hand held and still sharp! Pretty amazing in body stabilisation. See images here

Workshop: Christmas gift vouchers now available and see your images

Christmas is fast fast approaching. So for those of you who know someone who likes an adventure, has an interest in wildlife or photography then hopefully our vouchers can prove to be a nice gift for them. Click here for more information.

Also we are, I think, fully up to date with images that have been sent in. WOW is all I can say! You are all brilliant! Click here to see images.

Ecosystem: Kelp Dredging - please no!

I do a lot of volunteer work with various environmental restoration groups and rewilding organisations and thought you might be interested in some of that. So from now on I will include a short, usually good, news story about some of the work/campaigns I am involved in.

Kelp dredging is not a thing yet, however a company has just applied to start doing this all around the west coast of scotland. This, in no uncertain terms is a complete disaster if it was given the go ahead. Luckily and quite amazingly so far it looks like our politicians have voted against it. However there is another vote in a few months so please write to your MP's and sign the petition on our local coastal group CROMACH facebook page (which has all useful links and info) and any other petition you can do to stop this happening. It is very simple, kelp is the foundation of pretty much all of the amazing life we see, particularly our wonderful Otters!! It would be devastating to start destroying this amazing habitat.

What a Year so Far

Wed, 26 Sep 2018 13:00:42 GMT

Puffins at Sunset

It has taken 3 years to actually beat the wind and weather and get to Puffins during nice weather and get that all elusive sunset. Last year we got within one mile but had to turn back. And wow was it worth the wait. For most of the evening it was puffins in nice light, then for a manic 10 mins the sun dipped low enough you could get the puffins in with it and it was all go.

As ever it was a pretty special group of people who really got what this was all about and why it was so special (some were on there 3rd attempt and were thinking it was getting personal).

Dates for 2019 now available to get your teeth into

New dates for 2019 online for all our tours, workshops and one day experiences - click here to find out more

New Workshop for 2019 - Golden Eagle

We have another new workshop. Following on some reccying by me and some test workshops, plus the huge success of the bird of prey tour I am now offering Golden Eagle Isle of Mull workshops. Click here to find out more information

Beavers, Otters, Eagles our new locations, studios, hides and even the weather all have done the job well beyond expectation so far this year!

But it is not over yet, still have grey seals (full) and roaring red deer (one space left) to go and I can not wait. Plus loads of one day workshops for all sorts which we do still have spaces on.

Beaver photography from Canoe was a major hit this year. Both in terms of how cool the beavers were with it and the incredible experience we had watching them!

We have had one of the best seasons ever in our Otter location. Mainly due to this amazing animal. This is mum from our mum and cub pairing from earlier in the year. They are still together and everyday I see them I am in awe of her hard work and wonderful parenting.

Will return to a bit more of a helpful newsletter next time with hints and tips section back in. Just needed to get this out now while I had 2 days in the office before October madness starts!

New news on new facilities and workshops....just all new!

Wed, 16 May 2018 09:12:04 GMT

New Workshop - Red Kites of Argaty

I have done something I never thought I would do and it is as much to do with people as wildlife. As some of you may know I took the decision to become a wildlife photographer and guide who specialised in a location, Argyll. Virtually all of my photography and workshop locations are in Argyll and I use them almost exclusively as most are reccied and built by me. However I have been doing a bit of work with Argaty Red Kites and I really like the family that run the set up. I love the animals (which we can not find here yet in Argyll) and the location is much much nearer to the vast majority of you, my wonderful guests, who make what I do possible. So I have decided to run workshops based at the Argaty Red Kite Center as one of my many workshop offerings. It means I get regular red kite hits (as any red kite addict will tell you is essential) and it means people travelling from most of the major cities in Scotland can do a workshop with me in a day trip. Together with Argaty we are developing lots of wildlife opportunities so the workshop will be so much more than just the wonderful red kites and you get to learn lots of photography techniques as well!

Click here to find out more

New studio up and running

Our boat shed studio on the banks of Loch Craignnish is now up and running. We have done a few workshops there now and so far so good! It is a simply breathtaking location and the studio is turning out to be a great learning space. We have solar power, direct access to the beach and coastal woodland, a stunning coastal and woodland bird hide and lots of great macro spaces. I feel very luck to be able to use such a unique and beautiful space.

Click here to find out more

A big shout out to our wonderful mum and cub who are still being utterly amazing

At the moment and for the last few months I have been privelaged to call this pair my job. My Otter workshops have been almost exclusively featureing this caring, affectionate and adorable family. They are still going strong and hopefully will be together for a while longer.
I have loads of guest images now online, brilliant... click here and please don't be too jealous !

Click here to go on an Otter workshop with this pair!

Loch Visions April 2018 Newsletter

Fri, 23 Mar 2018 09:23:20 GMT

The challenge of using the dreaded 70-200mm lens for wildlife photography

I am in a new phase in my career. I love long lens work but I need to make more contextual photos, both for showcasing the amazing locations I am lucky enough to be able to use to run my workshops and hides but also to tell important wildlife stories through Scotland: The Big Picture work. I have had lovely results with wide angle lenses as if you get animals close then the nature of the lens kind of does the job for you (see below) as the perspective has such a wonderful impact on the viewer.

The lens I struggle with the most is the 70-200mm lens. I have never taken a shot with this lens that I have been over the moon with. There is very little perspective with it and you don't get that lovely high impact feel like from the 500 f4 which is my main lens. So what does it do and why bother?

Well this tricky lens can be fantastic for increasing the balance of the landscape in the shot, ie making cliffs look bigger while still showcasing the animal or in the above case really getting a sense of the squirrel in amongst giant ancient temperate rainforest Oaks. Wider lenses either have the animal too small in the frame or shrink the background too much sometimes. The key is planning, planning and experimenting, failing then more planning!

I tend to take the lens out with out any wildlife around to take lots of test shots to see what I like. I use a cuddly toy in place of the animal so I can get context and scale. Then you need to figure out how to swap toy for animal. Usually a bit of food does the trick but sometimes knowing the animals movements well is all you need (lots of reccy time). Then you should see the images start to improve with this lens. It is a lens I am really only on the beinning of a journey with and hope to discover more of what can be done with this tricky mid ranger and of course share that knowledge through my workshops and tours.

New hide for rent: The Hill Top Hide

Set on the edge of a giant temperate rainforest with panoramic views over Loch Craignish this hide is designed so you can really push your own photography. This is a hugely creative hide with all sorts of possibilities allowing the photographer to get some truly unique images. All the above and below images were taken from this hide and you can book it online now. The hide covers portrait, scenic and action shots. You can also set wireless trigger wide angle cameras up and the squirrels are perfectly happy!
Click Here
or on any of the images to find out more

Otter family at one of our Otter locations

We have a new family in town!!!!! Otters are being particularly wonderful at the moment and we have spaces next week on a 3 day Otter Tour or you can book any available day as a Otter Workshop

New Guest Images Online

Check out winder wildlife image from our new hide and the first Otter workshops of the season - Click Here

New Locations, New Hides and New Friends

philipvprice@yahoo.com — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 09:03:38 GMT

Hides, Sea, Forest, Mountains and Snow

New Hides and New Locations

I am busy setting up new hides and locations for Loch Visions. Particularly our One Day Experience (our beginners and introductory workshop) which has moved from Kilchrenan west to a stunning coastal setting, see the above 360 image. It has been a slow start but I have been working the site now for 2 months and I think it is almost ready to do some images from. What am I aiming for???? Well the below characters and forest birds. Next newsletter should reveal all as I will hopefully hopefully have some images.

If your interested in coming along and doing a workshop in our new stunning location, it should be up and running by March and if you wish to gift this to a friend then all our vouchers will be valid for our new location.

Click here to find more out about our Christmas Gift Vouchers

Click here to find out more about the One Day Experience

The ambition with all my new locations is that you get the chance to do some amazing wildlife photography - portraits and action (like these taken from my old location) and you also get to experience some incredible locations and include that element in your photography. It is all about having an amazing experience and falling in love with your wildlife!

New Friends, Mountains and Snow

I had a wonderful weekend in the Cairngorms last month. The main reason for going was to meet up with the Scotland: The Big Picture team which I am a member off, to plan what we are trying to achieve in the coming year and to meet some of the team who I have not met before. It was an incredible experience, mainly because I get to work with a bunch of people all working towards a wonderful vision for a wilder Scotland.

However I could not come to a snowy Cairngorm and not experience one of its totally incredible and toughest inhabitants, the Ptarmigan.

There was absolutely no reason for taking these images, other than wanting to spend some time with one of the most beautiful and tough animals you will ever meet. Sometimes photography is not about getting that killer image or telling that important story, sometimes we just need to enjoy our wild places and wildlife in it. I certainly did!

Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. Next one I hope to have a raft of images from some of our brand new locations. All the best and I hope you all get some time to enjoy your local wildlife.

Island Adventure

philipvprice@yahoo.com — Tue, 21 Nov 2017 08:59:49 GMT

Where Grey Seals and Eagles only dare

As some of you know I have moved my business further west to the wonderful craignish peninsula, this is mainly to be closer to my two main locations for Otters and Beavers. However what it is doing is throwing up some other totally incredible locations for me to potentially take you all too! This island is one of them. Sandy a local boat operator took me to an island he farms to show me a colony of grey seals. What a place. Both wild and rugged but with the utter magic of the west coast!

We arrived and there sitting on one of these wonderful wee islands was an amazing Juvenille white tailed eagle, clearly hoping for some after birth from the grey seals, an easy meal full of vital minerals for them.

As we came into land on the island we realised not one but two eagles as this one soared over head looking eagerly around for the rich pickings this time of year can offer.

On the island there were three main pupping areas, all on grass which is very unusual to see them in. I am more used to rocky beaches or sandy inlets. So this was a different challenge as there were no nice boulders to hide behind. Methodology then became a slow and tummy crawl in which I was not really equipped for and hence got very very wet.

But it worked and becuase I was essentially just another seal on the beach the action started to unfold.

Considering this was just a recce run, the level of behaviour and decent photographic opportunities there were was very surprising.

There we have it, a wonderful island full of incredible animals. Now I just need to sort adminy and logistical stuff out and will start advertising this workshop very soon. I will announce it hopefully in the next newsletter. I hope you enjoyed reading this and thanks so much for being part of the loch visions story.

The ride home was not too shabby either.......

All our workshops, tours and experiences including this one once I have it sorted can be bought as gift vouchers for Christmas.

Christmas Gift Vouchers Now Available - click on image below

Autumn Fun

philipvprice@yahoo.com — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 14:41:06 GMT

Red Deer Wildlife Photography Tour Report

As usual our Red Deer venue was totally incredible. Not only did daisy play ball and let us have some magical moments with the wild stags of the highlands but we witnessed some really wonderful behaviour. Stags head butting mud puddles in an attempt to make themselves bigger and smellier, hinds looking on in confusion at what all the fuss was about, junior stags having a bit of fun and much much more. Here are some images from my time reccying. I hope you enjoy

New tour and workshop dates now available for next year and we have our Gift Vouchers now online and for sale

Loch Visions Newsletter

philipvprice@yahoo.com — Sun, 24 Sep 2017 22:16:03 GMT

Brand new website now live....

Sit back and relax enjoy my new website, new voucher system, online availability and online booking, new news page and guest galleries and lots of new images through out. I really hope you enjoy my new website and have some fun flicking through it all.

There is fun to be had and then sadness. An amazing 2 months with this incredible little guy but now sadly we think he has passed away