A brief update and images from work!

Well, the summer seems to be drawing to a close if the weather is anything to go by, definitely a good catch-up day today, with the schools have gone back so I am finally getting some time to get on top of all my work. Over the last month or so I have been busy re-vamping my website, although it has to be said not without some problems along the way, but I am almost done and will be live by tonight so do pop along and have a look at the changes. I have re-organised the galleries and changed around some images, not mention making plenty of space for Madagascar! But it hasn't all been computer work, at the beginning of August I photographed the Bath NTS tournament which was a lot of fun and good chance to work on my sports photography, if your interested please have a browse here: Bath NTS, I have also been carrying my small compact camera around with me at work and have found some pretty cool stuff so here goes, WARNING contains a spider and a really cure mouse! 

Found this little girl running around on the path to the cave entrance, nibbling away at crumbs dropped by customers. 

But it's not just cute mice, found a couple of really cool bugs as well:

A bloody nosed beetle, a little camera shy this one.

A cave spider with her egg sack

And last but by no means least, the monster bug of the wall! 

I'm now down to only working a few days a week at the caves, but this is giving me chance to get everything ready for the big adventure to Madagascar which is now less than 4 weeks away, very exciting and just can not wait to get out there, in the meantime I am now regularly writing gear reviews on a panel for Practical Photography Magazine, although there are occasionally gear reviews I can't quite help with, for example portrait photography! I also have a new toy which I am still getting used to but will really help with macro work but have to say I am absolutely loving it already! Not going to let on with what it is just yet, I'm afraid you will just have to wait! So until the next instalment, happy snapping. 

Hello again, hope everyone has been out and about enjoying the sun if you've had some! This will be my last update for a while as I head out to Romania on Sunday June 5th for two weeks to work on the Transylvanian Wildlife Project, it goes without saying that I am very excited and looking forward to meeting the rest of the team and getting stuck into photographing and studying the ecosystem out there. I will try to post a quick update from the field but no promises! I will however provide a detailed account when I get home hopefull with some wonderful images.

But for now back to what's been happening here in Somerset. I have had another day out on the levels with the macro lens and a great deal of success. Not only was it wonderful to be down there in the peace and quiet with all the wildlife around in the sunshine, but to see so many damselflies and dragonflies was fanatstic. So I have a couple of images from the day out on Wednesday, the first is of a damselfly. This image is a little more artistis and took some skill in capturing due to the strong winds blowing the grass in and out of focus, but I have gone for a shallow depth of field to give the impression of this little critter coming out of the green towards you, hope you like him!

The second image is off something that is rarely seen let alone photographed, look away now if you are scared of spiders! This image shows two mating soldier beetles with a crab spider biting the female beetle. By moving myself I managed to get the spider face on so you can see its face and all its eyes, and if you look carefully you can see the black heart marking on the back of the soldier beetles.

I've not only been busy with the bugs, I have also been photographing, as well as playing in, the Bath touch rugby summer league. I actually did a lot of sports photography when I was at school so it is really nice to have the opportunity to do it again now, even if it is just for fun! I've included the link to the summer league album, I will be updating it on a regular basis with images form the league and cup competitions, hope you enjoy browsing through them: Touch Rugby.

Well, time for me to go and get things organised and ready for the trip to Romania. Have a great bank holiday weekend and I will be back online soon. In the meantime you can keep up to date with images through my flickr account Flickr or why not pop over to my brand spanking new Facebook page: Facebook.