News and Autumn Colours

Hello,

It's been a while as things have been crazy busy over the last few weeks with the webinar, which was a great success and for anyone that wasn't able to join us I will post the link to the recorded version as soon as it is available for anyone that did join us thank you so much for making it fun and asking lots of great questions and I must say a huge thank you to Dave and Giorgio from the School of Xcellence for a great webinar.

I have just announced the first two dates for my Creative Nature workshops which will take place in April in Somerset, I will be covering many different aspects of getting creative with your subject and awakening your more creative side. The workshops will take place on Saturday 26th April and Sunday 27th April (both days are exactly the same) and the day costs just £80 per person with a maximum of 6 people per day. This price includes a full days tuition plus lunch, teas, coffees and biscuits. For more details or to book your place here's the link, I'm hoping to announce the dates for autumn soon.

Workshops

In other news the Christmas craft market season has started! Unfortunately due to other commitments the dates are limited this year, but as some of you know I do these markets with my mum and we combine our talents to create some truly unique gifts made with love perfect for that special someone many of which are only available through the craft markets. So here are the dates for the remaining markets this year:

Friday 29th November

Lady's Pamper Night, High Littleton Church Hall, 

High Littleton, BS39 6HF, 8pm - 11pm

Saturday 30th November

Warminster Civic Centre, BA12 8LB

Warminster, 10am — 5pm

Saturday 7th December

Bath Guildhall, BA1 5AW

Bath 10am - 4pm

Sunday 8th December

Salisbury Guildhall, SP1 1JH

Salisbury, 10am — 4pm

I now have just a handful of 2014 Borneo calendars left in stock and once they're gone they're gone, I will be taking them to the craft markets but they will also remain available through the shop on my website as are the last remaining packs of Christmas Cards featuring dormice. I do have a few small and large gifts sets available through my shop as well. 

I have also added three brand new canvas sets to my shop, these are sets of three full wrap high quality 10 x 10 inch canvases featuring either British wildlife in sepia, poppies or frogs from Borneo. Each set is made to order and costs just £130 which includes courier service and I will have the British wildlife and poppy sets at the craft markets, so here they are:

I'm looking to add more sets in the coming months along with different sizes, as soon as these are available I will let you know. There are going to be some big changes over the coming months with a complete re-vamp of this blog and website and the way that prints will be available. I'm working on this now and hoping to launch it all in the New Year with other exciting news for 2014. 

Everything is still going very well in Transylvania with the research, footage is coming in thick and fast and I am busy going through it all and putting together another article for my Explorers Journal. You can keep up to date my clicking on the link to the left of this page. So that's about it for news at the moment, I have started a brand new project which will be kept under wraps for now but what I will say is that it is based right here in Somerset! 

Despite being crazy busy, I have managed a couple of outings with my camera to capture some wonderful autumn colours, so I will leave you with just a couple of images to wet your appetite and will post more very soon including fungi and the odd bird. Whatever you get up to in the coming weeks, have fun, stay safe and hope to see you at one of the craft markets.  

Liquid Gold - A lone leaf drifting along among the golden reflections 

Green to Rusty - the changing colours of the leaves

The Mighty Oak - Taken through the branches and leaves of an ancient oak tree

The Colours of Autumn - Acer tree with beautiful red colours to encompass autumn

Artistic Autumn - variety of colours in just one tree

The Colour Gold - Sun lighting up the beautiful golden yellow colours of the leaves

Orchids & Insects

Well hello, I am now writing this post from Transylvania where it is currently raining but it is very much needed here as I'm sure it is at home. I have been here nearly a week now and I can say it has been interesting, the water has been intermittent at best but there's always a way to cope and always fun finding those ways! Field trips have been frequent and we now have camera traps in the field collecting vital night time data for us, but to read more about that you will need to head over to my National Geographic Journal where I will post an entry very soon. For now though, this post is dedicated to orchids (something until now I have never photographed in the UK) and a few insects I found whilst looking for the orchids, so here goes......

First up is the beautiful bee orchid, the only one left in flower by the time I was able to get to photograph them, but what a beautiful orchid it is and I really went to town on this one, using a star burst filter and also monochrome for a more artistic image. 

Next up we have a variety of marsh orchids on all shapes, sizes and colours! 

And finally, to close the post a few of the wonderful buggies I found whilst photographing the orchids

And one of my favourite bugs of the moment, although they are a challenge to photograph especially on hot days, the humble grasshopper! 

So that's all from me for this post, time to edit some videos for my Explorers Journal and start preparing another entry, but don't forget there are still plenty more images to come including fawns, hedgehogs and froggies! 

Just before I leave you, here is a sneak preview of the new packs cards that will be available real soon from craft markets and through my website. Each pack contains 6 cards and envelopes, either one of each design (Borneo Wildlife, British Wildlife, British Flower) or two of each design (Poppies, Orang-utans). 

and the 2014 calendar which is available now to pre-order through my website, this year the calendar is all about Borneo and is available to pre-order only, it will not be available to buy through craft markets, but you have until 31st October to place your order! To order your calendar click here: Order 2014 Calendar

Ok, until next time, happy snapping and keep safe! 

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!