Poppies

Hello! I have to say I am loving this great weather we're having here in the South West at the moment I've been out most days with my camera exploring new areas and new subjects reigniting my creative side and popped down to visit my friends at Secret World. I certainly have a lot of images to go through now ready to share with you, so I've decided on several short, image rich posts dedicated to the different subjects and outings I've so far managed to get in. Now I know it might seem a little early to be thinking of Christmas especially given the weather, but that it what we have been doing. Mum and I are busy getting stock ordered and made ready for the Autumn and Christmas run of craft markets which include some brand new small gift sets, a new range of cards and a Borneo 2014 calendar (will be pre-order only details to follow shortly).

First up are poppies, something that I have been wanting to photograph for a long time but always seem to miss the flowering but with everything being a little bit later this year has worked in my favour. I jumped in my car and headed just over the border into Wiltshire to a small field of poppies in lovely afternoon light armed with just a couple of lenses and a bottle of water. Up until now I have never photographed poppies so didn't really know where to start so jumped in and took a few general images to begin with.

From there I went for some more artistic images of a single poppy flowers and unopened flower heads and even used back lighting to highlight the tiny hairs on the stems. So here are some of my favourites from my afternoon with these iconic British flowers, I hope you like them, they have all been taken with a Canon 7D with a Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens by far my favourite combination. If you are interested in more technical details just drop me a message and I'd be happy to share. 

 

I have to admit flowers have not been a major subject of mine until now but having the chance to go to town on just one subject at the time I am really enjoying the challenge and will definitely be visiting this location again next year and for the first time ever these will be offered as a pack of 6 cards including envelopes with 2 of each of the following 3 images priced at £5 per pack from craft markets (list is now available on my website) or through the shop on my website priced at £8 or £10 depending on where you would like them posted, will be available in about a months time:

This is not the only new card selection available, there will also be British wildlife, British flowers, Borneo and orang-utans more details to follow in a future post, currently busy processing the images ready to send off to the printers for proofing. 

So this is it for poppies, still to come are orchids, insects, deer fawns and hedgehogs and full details of all the new card packs available and the 2014 calendar. It is also time for me to head back out to Transylvania for another 2 weeks in the field, don't forget to follow my stories from the field on my National Geographic Explorers journal, just posted a new article about a visit to a bear sanctuary. 

Stories from the Field

That's it for now, next post in a few days, time to start packing! 

Apple Blossom, White bluebells & 1st trip to Romania

After the wedding and honeymoon there have been a few quiet days to unpack, ease back into life gently, ok not the last part! Chris was back to work straight away as was I preparing for my first trip to Romania to head up the research but more about that a little later. 

I had a couple of weeks at home to get some photography in and I made the most of the bumper crop of apple blossom this year. I don't think I have ever see it so vibrant and smelly so strongly in my life and there was a lot of it too! Not one to miss an opportunity off I went with camera and macro lens in hand ready to get creative and here are just a few of the images (there will be more uploaded to my website in the coming weeks):

 

I do hope that we get the right weather and a good crop of apple this year there is nothing quite like picking an apple straight from the tree and eating it there and then! But it was not just the apple blossom that caught my eye, we have some stunning white bluebells in the garden as well and these (had we had a spring like 2012 were going to be a additional to my wedding bouquet). Not to worry, I now had a great opportunity to spend several days photographing these beautiful flowers. I have been trying to let my creative juices flow more with my photography as this is what I really enjoy and on this occasion I don't think I took a standard image, so here are just a few of my white bluebells:

 

 And my personal favourite which I have called "wedding bells"

I had a lot of fun getting creative with these flowers and love the results, as always you can see all the technical details for these images on my website where you can also purchase them in various forms. Unfortunately for now although I am busy taking photographs (when it's not raining) I cannot share them directly with you, but I can share the link to my National Geographic Explorers Journal on which I am posting photos from the National Geographic funded research in Transylvania, Romania. We are a team of four conducting the research and you can meet three members of the team along with an introduction to the work we are doing and also the area in my first post. I will be posting fairly regularly and this is the only way to keep up to date and see some of the incredible images being produced, so here is the link:

National Geographic Explorers Journal

I am currently in Romania and will be returning home on 19th June to continue with my work and also working on the identification work for the project. Hopefully I will have more images and news from my work soon. Until then, enjoy the sunshine I hear the UK is getting at the moment! 

Wedding & Honeymoon

Wow, what a couple of months it has been! We had the most incredible and amazing wedding, all the time, effort and work that we put into making it personal was definitely worth it and it was so wonderful to be able to share our special day with so many friends and family. Here are just a couple of photos from our day courtesy of  Thomas and Paul from Willowstone Photography, a huge thank you for capturing our day perfectly. 

 

We had a week at home to sort out work stuff and pack for what would be an incredible 2 week adventure to Borneo for our honeymoon. It was a long flight and by the time arrived in Borneo we were exhausted, we were welcomed to our first stop the Rasa Ria Hotel right on the beach and decided to just chill out and book onto a trip to see the orang-utans for the following day so all that was left was to get some sleep! The next day after breakfast we headed off to see the orang-utans in the forest, we weren't to be disappointed! After chilling out the rest of the day, we watched the most incredible sunset then had a wonderful dinner in a gazebo on the beach! 

Borneo Sunset

Orang-utan in the forest

Atlas Moth

Next stop was the Borneo Rainforest lodge, deep in the heart of the rainforest, we arrived after a short flight and 2 1/2 hour drive but wow, what a place! Paradise in the forest, just perfect and we would spent a few nights here exploring the area with our personal guide and enjoying some wonderful food! There was so much we wanted to see, but top of the hit list was the Wallace's flying frog, we saw not one but two at their nest site, not to mention many many more frogs along the way! We also saw several wild orang-utans, some otters on the river and an Atlas moth! So here are just a couple of photos from our stay at the lodge:

Wallace's flying frog

Frog silhouette

Forest lizard

 After an incredible couple of days it was time to hit the road again and head for the Myne Resort on the banks of the Kinabatangan River where we hoped to see proboscis monkeys, pig-tailed macaques, long-tailed macaques, orang-utans and maybe even the Borneo pygmy elephants and a trip to the Gomantang caves to see the spectacle of millions of bats leaving the caves at dusk and we would spend the next few days exploring the area by boat with the odd trip into the forest. A lot happened in these few days, we saw so much, too much to go into here, but there were definitely some highlights so here goes!!! 

Baby pig tailed macaque

Praying mantis in the forest

Baby long-tailed macaque waking up in the jungle

 And now for the elephants, we found them and spent and amazing hour watching them eating and playing by the banks of the river and even swimming in the river!

baby elephant

A helping push in to the river

The Eye

Elephant greeting

Playing in the river

Alas, it was time to move on again and this time to Sepilok and surrounding area to see the orang-utans, proboscis monkeys and then on to Lankayan Island for a couple of days of paradise to finish our trip around Malaysian Borneo. First stop were the proboscis monkeys, these really are funny creatures with their big noses and crazy soft grunting sounds they make, not only did we encounter these but also some silver leaf monkeys and ...... a baby get ready for some cuteness! 

Female proboscis monkey

Male proboscis monkey

Proboscis monkey in the trees

Captivating eyes

Orang-utan silhouette

Baby silver leaf monkey

A couple of shots from the island paradise of Lankayan, the restaurant and us watching the sunset with a nice glass of wine to end what was an incredible and very special two weeks.

These are of course not all the photos, so if you would like to check out more of the images then head over to my website or Facebook page where you will find all kinds of different images! It really has been the most amazing and special couple of weeks and I am looking forward to many more adventures with the most incredible and loving man in the the world, a huge thank you to everyone who helped to make these few weeks possible. 

So, what next ............. 

Well, I head out to Romania to start the Nat Geo funded research for the Transylvanian Wildlife Project, not before I've had chance to capture some blossom and flowers before I go (that will be in the next post) and for Chris, well it is time to get the athletes ready for the Olympics! Stayed tuned for another update soon. 

Focus On Imaging 2013

Hello, so thing have been quite quiet on the on photographic front due to some exciting developments and news as well as some serious wedding planning, only 9 weeks to go! So lets start off with the Transylvanian Wildlife Project, in my previous post I broke the news of being made research director for the project, a huge honour for me and something I am very excited about but also mentioned something about exciting news, well here it is:

The project has be awarded a National Geographic Explorers Grant for a 12 month project which will commence this spring and one that I will be heading up, I have already started the leg work ready to hit the ground running with a fantastic and very dedicated team where we will be monitoring the numbers of bears, lynx and wolves in the Carpathian Mountains of Covasna County in Romania. Alongside this we will also be running biodiversity studies of the areas in which we will be working. You can keep up to date with our progress on the following link and typing in "Transylvanian Wildlife Project" into the search bar where it says Find Project.

National Geographic Explorers

Away from Romania, I am delighted to announce that I will be attending Focus on Imaging at the NEC this year as a Local Hero of the Manfrotto School of Xcellance. Not only will I be giving two seminars titled "Nature's Beauty Through My Lens" but I will also be leading thirty minutes long one-to-one workshop sessions, both of which are free but space is limited so you will need to book. Full details of timings and the link to book are below. 

Seminar - Nature's Beauty Through My Lens

Sunday 3rd March 1pm - 1.45pm

Tuesday 5th March 11am - 11.45am

In this special seminar for Focus On Imaging I will talk about some of my most memorable images of both wildlife and landscapes and the stories behind capturing them. Looking at different techniques, colour, monochrome and more artistic takes on familiar species I will discuss the importance of knowing your equipment to be able to achieve the results you're looking for in camera. 

One-to-one Workshop Sessions

Sunday 3rd March 2:30pm - 3:00pm

Monday 4th March 2:30pm - 3:00pm

Tuesday 5th March 2:30pm - 3:00pm

Wednesday 6th March 12:30pm - 1:00pm

Here's the link for further details on the seminars and one-to-ones and links to book your place

Manfrotto School of Xcellance at Focus on Imaging

Outside of these times you will be able to find me on the Kata stand demonstrating and talking about their products so please come and say hello and ask any questions that you may have. I look forward to seeing you there.

Focus On Imaging promises to be a lot of fun and I'm really looking forward to it, but in the mean time I'm hoping to get out and about this weekend and photograph some snowdrops in between working my way through mammoth amounts of wedding preparations and drinking lots of tea! Fingers crossed I will have some results to post next week, but for now have a great weekend what ever you are up to, the weather's looking promising!