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A wildlife dinner party – come dine with the birds

A Montezuma Oropendola displays to attract a mate

October 29th is the RSPB’s national ‘Feed the Birds’ day. A very worthy cause indeed – it helps to ensure that, as the seasons change, we don’t forget about our vulnerable feathered friends in our own backyard. If you want to make a difference, visit the RSPB website to find out more.

In celebration of our feathered friends, I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you some of our favourite bird pictures from recent years (above and below).

Happy Feed the Birds day…..and, of course, don’t forget to feed them, though not just today – but all winter!

Grey Hawk, Costa Rica

 

This Must Be How Normal People Would Feel If They Could Attend the Oscars Or Go Backstage at Glastonbury…

Wildlife / Photography Conferences – are they worth it?

We’ve recently attended the Wild Photos 2011 conference in London, UK. It was a big comittment both in finance and time to attend, and I was reluctant at first, wondering what we would obtain from the experience. From conferences I have previously attended (for work, not pleasure) I have been lucky if I have been inspired by one speaker, and I rarely come away completely inspired. Wild Photos was different, VERY different.

I had expected amautur photographers like Ali and myself to be in the majority – I expected the auditorium to be filled with budding photographers eager to learn something new. Instead, we found ourselves in the minority – everywhere you looked were our photographer heroes; Mark Carwardine, Andy Rouse, Chris Packham, Jonathan Scott and Florian Schulz. You could mingle freely with them, ask them questions, learn about their work (or just admire them from afar).  It was an amazing opportunity to rub shoulders with the best in the business.  What’s more, I also found new heroes in the conference speakers – Bence Máté,  Thomas P Peschak,  Daniel Beltra, Alex Badyev and the incredibly talented and humble  Sven Začek  (an hunter turned photographer who inspired us all with his incredible shots of his native Estonia. His work is incredible!)

I learned so much and was humbled by the professional photographers who, already at the top of their game, continued to be inspired by their colleagues.  It was a lovely atmosphere and a welcoming gathering of professionals. Despite feeling incredibly starstruck I was continually impressed by how friendly the professionals were, how they felt such a sense of duty in their work and how approachable they all were. There was a lot of discussion about taking young photographers under their wings and a real sense of purpose and pride in their roles. What’s more, they clearly enjoyed doing what they do and their passion and enthusiasm was very infectious.

It wasn’t all work and no play – many of the speakers were not only engaging and great teachers, they were also hilarious. There was tales of naked photographers in the field, speakers who ran overtime were threatened with water pistols / foam gun pellets and Saturday morning’ s session kick started with Chris Packham shooting a picture of Frans Lanting onstage 🙂

We’ve talked non stop about who we’ve met, what we have seen and have come away itching to get our cameras out. It that’s not proof it was worth it then I don’t know what is.

I’ll be sharing some of the key lessons from the conference on this blog – so keep an eye out.

Winning the Veolia Wildlife Photography of the Year Competition: The Judge’s Top Tips

A close up of a lioness

At the recent Wild Photos conference (London) we had the opportunity for an impromptu Q&A with Mark Carwardine, Chairman of the judges for the Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the year competition. This provided a great opportunity for us to find out more about the judging process and receive some tips on submitting potentially winning photos.

Here’s the top tips and best bits:

  • Use a picture that tells a story – the adage that a picture tells a thousand words is very true for this competition.
  • Don’t overlook common subjects – the judges are often bombarded with pictures of African wildlife and Japanese Macaques.
  • Look for new and unusual ways of portraying wildlife, for example unusual behaviour, alternative poses, new angles
  • Don’t copy winning styles from previous years – judges see this time after time and disregard ‘copied’ photos
  • It is permitted to resubmit photos year after year. In fact, some shots have been resubmitted three times and only won on their third submission. If you believe you have a truly winning shot it is worth repeat submissions.
  • The most popular categories are animal portraits and animals in their environment. Less popular – but becoming increasingly more so – is nature in black and white, urban wildlife and in praise of plants. Submitting into the less popular categories might increase your chances, but only because there is less competition.
  • Judges love spume 🙂
Other observations we have made both from the conference and the exhibition itself are:
  • Birds are very popular and are a trending submission, especially blurred and mass / flock shots
  • Shots that show wildlife half under the water / half out of the water (split level views) have been popular winning shots this year
  • The same photographer can submit similar shots of the same theme and subject and win year after year.
To see a selection of winning photos from the 2011 Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition visit the NHM website, or if you’re in London, make a visit to see the exhibition, it’s well worth a trip and is very inspirational!

An Occasion For Celebration

Icebergs Passing in the Night

Well, it’s not so often we’ll opt for a public and self congratulatory pat on the back, but TarajiBlue have some amazing news that we have been keeping under our hat for many months now…

We reached the finals of the Veolia Wildlife Photography Competition of the Year 2011!   This was an incredible achievement for us and one we are so, so, so proud of. Over 40,000 photos were entered into the competition. 7 of our shots got through to the semis, and a further 1 to the finals.  This is a competition which is open to professionals and amateurs so, for several months, our photos were considered alongside those of the photographers we idolise and follow.

The photo that made it to the final is the one provided above. We’ve named it “Icebergs passing in the night”. It was taken on 17/09/2010 at 11:47pm in Ø Fjord, Scoresbysund, Greenland. GPS Latitude: 70˚ 28′ 20.72″ N. GPS Longitude: 28˚ 5′ 3.34″ W.

Whilst resting overnight in Greenland’s Scoresbysund, our ship was struck by an iceberg just before midnight. Running onto the top deck of the ship in my pyjamas, I watched as our captain used powerful search lights to explore the surrounding fjord in an attempt to find a navigable path out of the jigsaw of icebergs that had surrounded us as we slept. As the single beam of light danced over the water, icebergs emerged out of the black of night, silently creeping towards us. I captured this image, heart in my mouth, wondering what the beam would illuminate next. Everyone fell silent, only the hum of the search lights could be heard. I shivered, and not because of the cold. It was a night to remember.

Technical details

Canon EOS 7D

Lens Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC Macro

ISO 1600

Shutter speed 1/3 second

Aperture f/2.8

Focal length 50 mm

Exposure bias 0 EV

Exposure mode: manual

Converted to Black and White using Bibble 5

Photo of the week – Minster Yard, York

This is a departure from my usual style and subject for photography, and I have chosen it as my photo of the week for two main reasons:

1) It was inspired by my recent trip to France. Whilst visiting the Loire Valley I took great pleasure in exploring the region’s old towns and cities. I loved capturing the spirit of the place through its old and crumbling buildings. I reflected on this on the drive back from our holiday, and pondered why I never take the time to do likewise at home. I have the luxury of living in the city centre of one of England’s most beautiful cities, yet I so often find myself longing to travel further afield for photography opportunities. At this moment I resolved to take more time to photograph my locality – and this was the result. I like the fact that it’s quite European in feel – the abandoned city bike adds a certain ‘something’ to the shot, its pristine white paintwork contrasting against the various colours of the crumbling brickwork. I also love the texture and colours that the wide angle lens (Canon 10-22mm) was able to pick out – to the extent that this has required very little post processing work at all (aside from a small crop and sharpen).

2) My second reason for choosing it is that it’s a building I seldom notice. Given that is is directly opposite York Minster, my attention is often focussed elsewhere. When at the Minster I am seduced by it and I rarely turn my back on it to view the buildings that are, quite literately, in its shadow. To this end, I like the fact that my recent photography trip in the city I call home has caused me to notice buildings and detail ordinarily overlooked

This image was taken at at f/5.6 at 22mm, ISO 400. Other pictures from York are available in our York and Yorkshire photo gallery.

 

 

Go Lewis!

Lewis Hamilton driving the McLaren Mercedes MP4-25 during the Turkish Grand Prix 2010

In celebration of Lewis Hamilton’s pole position for tomorrow’s Korean GP, I wanted to share with you this shot taken at last year’s Turkish GP. It was taken during quali and features Lewis Hamilton driving the McLaren Mercedes MP4-25.

It was a great grand prix which, sadly, will not feature in the 2012 calendar.  Having visited The British GP at Silverstone in 2009, the Turkish GP presented a rare and unusual  opportunity to see teams fight side to side for position, on a track which allowed spectators to get up close and personal with the cars both during and after the race.

All the best for tomorrow Lewis!

Photo of the Week – Like a Sore Thumb

Three sunflowers in bloom stand out in a field of decaying sunflowers

It’s been a while since I have posted my photos of the week… but here’s my choice for this week. It’s called ‘ Like a sore thumb’ and is an image of a sunflower in bloom amongst a field of dying sunflowers.

It was taken in the Loire Valley, France, in early September. I was initially disappointed to see that the sunflowers were all dying, but I grew to love the contrast between the odd flower in bloom amongst the ordered rows of dying and decaying flowers. It provided a contrast of colour, texture and mood.

This image was taken with a Canon EOS 7D, using the 100-400mm Canon L Lens  at 400mm and f/8 and ISO 100 in the late afternoon sun.

Optimising travel with music

Whenever we hire a car for our adventures we take a host of CDs for the journey. This has meant that several holiday memories can be recalled simply by playing a CD on our return home. I love the evocative memories that a piece of music can bring – it can take me back to mountain passes, paint precious vistas in my mind and relive several great experiences of our life on the road / ocean / air.

In a similar vein, we always try our best to experience local / regional music of the places we visit  – and bring some of it back home to keep our holiday memories alive.

Here are some of our favourites – both music to travel too and music we have discovered on our travels;

  1. Paul Simon’s Graceland quickly became the soundtrack to our self drive around Costa Rica. Played on large journeys, we’d whack up the volume of the CD player in our ancient battered and bruised Mitsubishi 4×4 and sing along to ‘Call me Al’ and ‘Graceland’ at the top of our voices. As we travelled across mountain passes, through tiny villages and along dusty deserted roads we’d bounce along with Paul. It was the perfect jubilant sing along that seemed quite fitting for the adventure. We’d wave to locals mid-song, sing to the worst of our ability with windows wide open and enjoy the refreshing breeze in the humid car. Perfect! Since our return we’ve played it a lot and renamed Graceland ‘Costa Rica Music
  2. On our American Road trips we decided to fall victim to the ‘traditional’ American rock / road music and plumped for old school drive time hits like Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Survivor, Queen, The Police, The Beach Boys et al. Any of these artists take me back to Route 66, desolated gas stations and desert roads across Serra Nevada. These artists accompanied us through bush fires towards the Grand Canyon, across Death Valley, through Yosemite and onto San Francisco where we cruised the crazy rush hour traffic to ‘Eye of the Tiger’.
  3. When on our first visit to Kenya we were introduced to The Safari Sound Band’ through the song ‘Jambo’ (Hello /Hakuna Matata… welcome) which was sung to us as a welcome at many a lodge, shop, restaurant and hotel. This song, alongside the chorus of ‘Jambo’s’ shouted by locals as we drove by, became the soundtrack to the holiday and I was delighted to discover the CD at Mombasa airport – it has become a firm favourite on my playlist since 2004.         …When we had the pleasure of visiting Kenya again in 2009 I was delighted to see the tradition continued. My face would light up at the mere sound of this song starting. I’d sing along (badly) with glee in the bar of the Mara Safari Club each evening with sundowners, sharing my love of the song with staff. So much so, that on our last evening there, the entire staff turned up at our table with a cake to sing this and other African songs to us. I cried into my cake, the icing went soggy and I realised this was a country I loved more than any other – it broke my heart to leave it. I’m just thankful that I have songs like these to help me re-live these memories and take me back to my soul-land. My favourite song ‘Jambo’ is on YouTube.
  4. On our visit to Norway in 2006 we stumbled across a street band playing make-shift steel drums in Oslo town centre. With my parents we stood, enraptured, listening to this beautiful metallic music. We could not resist the urge to purchase a CD as a keepsake and reminder of this moment. If you’re interested in seeking out the band, they are called Rhythm of the Hung. I cannot seem to find a website for them – but if you come across them be sure to check them out.
  5.  Whilst on an Arctic voyage we had the rare and unexpected treat of being introduced to a range of Arctic and traditional musicians. My favourite, by all accounts was Jim Payne. A folk singer from NewFoundland who regaled us with two fantastic evenings of folk songs onboard the MS Expedition. He was one of the expedition staff on the ship and a great fun guy to be with / around, not to mention a cracking musician. His sea shanties had me singing from Svalbard to Reykjavik and many a day since. He lives primarily in my mind not only as an inspirational musician, but also as the guy who offered to ‘drown’ in a bowl of ice cold water on board to demonstrate how sea mammals breathe 🙂  He very kindly permitted us to video his second performance on board the MS Expedition, and every opportunity since then I have played his music as loud as possible every Friday night. There is nothing like a good sea shanty at the end of a hard week to remind you of greater and grander places – of a natural wonder that captured your heart and to which you long to return. We have introduced his music to family and friends and I urge you all to look him up. His songs’ Wave over Wave’ and ‘Ballard for Sweet Hannah Grey’ are among two of the most powerful that never fail to cause me to sing along and cry in equal measure.  I highly recommend you to check out his SingSong Inc website and YouTube for videos / footage.
  6. Whilst in Greenland we were introduced to the music of Rasmus Lyberth, a wonderful and powerful folk singer from Greenland whose music stuck with me from the first time I heard it onboard the MS Expedition. We had barely docked for 12 hours in Reykjavik when we’d logged onto Amazon to purchase a CD so it would be awaiting for us on our return home. It was not a disappointment – largely because we’d purchased (by mistake) a Christmas Carol CD which has now become a staple for our CD player every December. What better memory at Christmas than being transported to memories of frozen and bewildering Greenland 🙂
  7. Whilst in Greenland we took the opportunity to visit a village and, whilst there, noticed a pile of CDs for sale in the local store. Not able to translate the Greenlandic, we scooped up a handful, bought them regardless and as a result have been introduced to some amazing Greenlandic bands we’d otherwise never hear of.
Where-ever we travel, we try and take the opportunity to bring some of the local music home. It helps to keep your travels alive 😉

It’s World Animal Day Today

On an afternoon safari in the Maasai Mara, I spotted a lioness on the horizon. Requesting that the jeep stop to allow me to frame the shot provided a timeframe for the lioness to amble towards the vehicle. The vehicle created a rare shadow in the harsh afternoon sun, one which the lioness immediately took advantage of. Lying right by the side of the vehicle, panting, she'd cast a cursory but soulful glance towards the vehicle's occupants. Framed in the eyes of this lioness, is a reflection of the safari vehicle I occupied.

A leopard prowls in the dried stream beds near Kicheche Mara Camp, Maasai Mara, Kenya

It’s World Animal Day today, and to celebrate all things wildlife I have chosen to highlight a selection of my favourite animal photographs from the last few years.

Featured above is a close up of a female lioness and a leopard on the prowl, both were taken in the Maasai Mara, Kenya

And to prove that small is also beautiful, featured below is an image of a tiny hummingbird from Costa Rica.

A Coppery-Headed Emerald Hummingbird in all its glory, Costa Rica