Blossom and Bluebells

Hello! Sorry it's been a while, I'm not entirely sure where the last couple of months have gone, can't believe it's mid-June already! Time to play a little bit of catch up with my blog posts from the last couple of months, first up is blossom and bluebells.

Things have been busy and I've been out making the most of the good weather when we've had it trying out lots of new ideas and techniques for photographing nature. I've been challenging my self to come up with something new and different from the normal images you see of blossom and bluebells so here goes! I'm going to start with blackthorn blossom before I let you into what I've been trying out.

I always like to spend time with one subject and this really pays off whether it's a day, week, month or longer (as is the case with my green hairstreak butterflies coming in the next instalment). If you challenge yourself to work with just one subject you start to see more possibilities and photographs. I've stopped using flash in my work and instead have been looking at using other ways to increase light to specific areas of my images and for both the blossom above and the bluebells to follow I have been having a play with using a reflector in different ways to create a soft light and also harsh light. I'm still working with these and trying them in different ways and situations.

Ok, so I have let you into one of my little secrets, time to show you some bluebell photos.

That last photo is actually a multiple exposure (using two images) taken and combined in camera, something I will be playing with a lot more over the next few months. If you are interesting in learning some of my tips and tricks first hand or just want a little bit of help being more creative with your photography I have now confirmed more dates for my creative nature workshops with the option of Somerset or South Gloucestershire (in conjunction with Clifton Cameras in Dursley). For more information and to book here is the link you need:

Creative Nature Workshops

You may also notice my website has had a bit of a re-vamp! It took a few days but got there in the end, and don't forget you can also follow me on instagram: Instagram

Right, time to get back to some image processing and other work! Have a great week, next instalment will be dedicated to the stunning little green hairstreak butterfly.

Bye for now x

Grasshoppers, Nothing But Lovely Grasshoppers

Hello! Hope you are all well and have been enjoying summer (although today is most certainly an office day!), well I have been out and about a fair amount lately continuing with both my Somerset, Chapmanslade and invertebrate projects which are all coming together nicely, but as the title of this post may suggest there is nothing but grasshoppers here! 

People often ask me why grasshoppers, and indeed just the other day a lovely chap who was out walking his dog asked what I was photographing, was it butterflies? When I reply no he asked if it was dragonflies, again I said no and when I said grasshoppers he seemed very surprised replying "you don't often hear of people photographing grasshoppers people normally come here for the butterflies and dragonflies, why grasshoppers?" Well here is why: Last year I took what still remains one of my favourite images of a grasshopper and it was completely by chance as I had planned that day specifically to photograph orchids, before I go any further here is that photo:

I was actually photographing bee orchids when I noticed this grasshopper watching me, so my focus turned to trying to capture the expression on its face, and it was at this point that I fell in love with grasshoppers and wanted to really showcase how cute they are! And really that's it, I wasn't able to do much last year due to other work commitments but this year I have been out looking for them in numerous locations looking for different ways to capture their lives and comical facial expressions, during this time I have also been fascinated by the variety of colours and markings that they come in, including would you believe pink, orange and white! So here are the pink grasshopper (more about these later in the post including an explanation), the tango'd grasshopper and the ghost grasshopper (names I have given them). 

Away from the colours, there are so many creative photographic opportunities to be had. The next two images show two very different angles, the first (which is a Rufous Grasshopper Gomphocerippus rufus) peering over the top of a dead plant head. This was a difficult image to capture in focus as the head is not the biggest area to focus on plus on that day it was particularly windy! 

The second image, again a very tricky one to capture in focus (there were many failed attempts due to the wind) but also there were a couple of different compositions that I tried out and this one sticks out for me above the others. As you may be starting to notice by now I like to have a lot of space around my subjects when composing my creative shots but for me this helps to give a sense of place more than the close up images. 

My work with grasshoppers is very much ongoing and will continue through autumn and then start again next year when they start to reappear. For some reason not many people take the time to concentrate on grasshoppers as a photographic subject, which is fine by me as I'm happy to have them all to myself, but next time you're out and you see one just take a closer look. The more time I spend with these wonderful critters the more I start to notice, the other week whilst working with one particular individual, I noticed that as I moved my head to get a different angle it would mimic me and when I moved my head back it would do the same, this game went on for around five minutes!

Now, as promised earlier in the post some more details about the pink grasshoppers. So why are they pink?
Well, it is actually a little understood genetic mutation caused by a recessive gene similar to that which affects albino animals and is called erythrism. The mutation results in one of two things happening or a combination of the two: you get a reduction or even absence of the normal pigment and/or the excessive production of other pigments, in this case red which results in pink or sometimes purple morphs. Although the condition was first discovered in 1887 in a katydid species, it is still rare and not often seen. although there are more reports of them coming in but this could be that people are now actually looking for them!

So here are a couple more images of the pink grasshoppers I found in one particular location, I will be back next year to see if I can find some more!

I promise these haven't been altered in any way, they really are that colour! 

Right time for me to go and get on with writing an article about a bag, coming soon will be some beautiful butterflies like you have never seen them before! Bye for now and have a wonderful evening. 

Victoria 

Orchids

Hello again, I hope you enjoyed my post on adders I will be continuing to work with these over the coming years, there is still the grasshoppers to come (including some pink and oranges ones!) but this post is all about orchids. Unfortunately I have been a bit strapped for time to get out to photograph orchids this year due to other work commitments and their short flower period but I have managed a couple of trips that have been wonderfully successful to both old favourite spots and brand new ones.

I have found orchids in woodlands, fields and grassland and really looked at things differently this year as part of my Somerset Project. Instead of just taking beautiful pictures, I have both taken a step back and shown them in their habitat and got up close and personal to show their textures, so here are some of my favourite images.

Bee orchid - Ophrys apifera

Green-winged orchid - Anacamptis morio, both the normal purple variation and the much paler pink variation, both were in abundance at this new site.

Early Purple Orchid - Orchis mascula

Greater Butterfly Orchid - Plantanthera chlorantha

Common Spotted Orchid - Dactylorhiza fuchsii

Unknown orchid - I found this close to greater butterfly orchids but it doesn't look anything like them and can't find anything that looks similar so if anyone can help with an identification that would be lovely.

Well, that's it for orchids for now at least! These for part of my on-going project capturing the smaller things in Somerset and I'm hoping to produce a wonderful book to accompany the project which will be full of photos and the stories behind them but I have a way to go before that stage!

Next up will be grasshoppers and my work with them and then a new project based just down the road in Wiltshire which I have just started but very excited about. I'm heading away for 10 days but there will be plenty more when I get back and lots of new images from a different part of the UK.

For now, thank you for reading, please share with friends and family and take care.

Victoria x

Frogs, just frogs

Hello! Things have been a little hectic since my return from Romania a few weeks ago with getting stuff together for a fund-raising weekend and working on getting all the new stock together ready the autumn and Christmas craft markets. But I haven't forgotten about my promise of a post dedicated to frogs and here it is at last! All these images were taken in the pond in my parents garden so it just proves that you can create a wonderful wildlife habitat and don't need to go far for some wonderful images.For a long time I have wanted to photograph common frogs in duck weed, just one of those things I wanted to do and there certainly was a very thick blanket of the stuff on the pond. I had popped over to help clean up the pond and cut back the plants that had got wildly out of control and ended up spending a large amount of time photographing the froggies! Here are just a few of my favourite images from that afternoon/day working on the pond, I have to say they really are charismatic little creatures all slightly different in appearance and slightly different in attitude it would seem with oncoming closer and closer to the lens! Without further ado here they are both in colour and in black and white, enjoy! 

Well, I hope you enjoyed the images as much as I enjoyed taking them. I'm happy to say that we did complete the work we needed to on the pond that day although we are still working on some aspects to make it more wildlife friendly. Aside from the good population of frogs, there is at least one toad although a little camera shy, some newts and for the first time in years a dragonfly has been spotted! I feel I will be spending some time in over the next year investigating the pond and also the rest of the garden, you would be surprised how many of my images are taken so close to home! 

Time to go and get everything ready for the first craft market of the season, if you are in the area we will be at the Guildhall in Shaftesbury from 10am - 4pm with some of the new stock, including the brand new card collections and small gift sets. If you have not read it yet, my next journal entry is up and running just click on the Nat Geo link to the side of this post, it's all about arthropods and why there is so much diversity and abundance in Transylvania. 

I am now taking bookings for talks in 2014, so if you are a member of club that you think will be interested please do get in touch, I tailor every talk to the interests of the group I am talking too, so whether it's nature locally or from far flung places, I have something for everyone! 

Whatever you are up to, have a great weekend. 

The Last Month or So & some very cute Dormice!

Apologies for being a bit quiet over the last month or so not sure where the time has gone, November already! Things have been busy though with a couple of photo shoots and a whole lot of computer work in preparation for a webinar that I am giving for the Manfrotto School of Xcellence called "From Spiders to Sifakas: How to Capture Unique Wildlife Images". It has been quite challenging picking different images that show different techniques and the use of both colour and black and white, but I'm there and just finishing off the text to go with it which includes some tips and tricks to help capture different images and over coming practical obstacles of working in the field. If you want to register for the webinar that is on Thursday 15th November at 4pm UK time, here is the link:

Victoria Hillman presents From Spiders to Sifakas: How to Capture Unique Wildlife Images

The webinar and wedding planning have taken up a lot of my time, but have managed a couple of trips out in between the rain and have started work on Project X, trying out different techniques and settings, the main bulk of this project will actually take place next year after winter but here is a small taster of what I have been working on.

I have been lucky enough to be asked to take some photos for Secret World Wildlife Rescue of foxes, hedgehogs and dormice and had a very enjoyable day and even had a little help from the foxes! Some of these photos are now available to purchase through my website in the Majestic Mammals with 10% of sales being donated to Secret World to help feed and care for all the animals at the centre. Below is my favourite foxy moment from the day taken from very low down to get at the same eye level. 

So, onto the dormice. Earlier in the year some baby dormice were taken to the centre after being found, three of them survived thanks to the wonderful love and care they have been shown are doing well but will stay at Secret World until after Christmas, so we did a Christmas themed shoot using decorations and a teapot, I've now uploaded these to my website. If you are looking for unique and cute Christmas cards to send whilst helping to care for rescued wildlife you can purchase the following images as Christmas cards in packs of six or just as single cards, I have left them blank inside so you can add your own special message Just follow the link below the image for more details. 

Dormice At Christmas

I have also been working very hard with my mum to create lots of wonderful very unique handmade gift ideas for Christmas which will be available from all the following craft markets where we will have our Christmas and animal themed stand. 

Christmas Craft Markets

Saturday 17th November 

Craft Market at St. Aldhelm’s Church, Doulting 10am - 4pm 

Saturday 24th November 

Crafts at the Cheese & Grain, Frome, Somerset 10am - 3pm

Sunday 25th November

Warminster Christmas Market, Civic Centre, Warminster 10am - 4pm

Friday 7th December

Nunney Christmas Market, Village Hall, Nunney, 5pm - 10pm

Saturday 8th December

Christmas Bath Craft and Gift Fair, Guildhall, Bath 10am - 4pm

Saturday 22nd December

Crafts at the Cheese & Grain, Frome, Somerset 10am - 3pm

Competition Success

Hello, 

It seems that Autumn is well on it's way now here in the UK and rumour has it the autumn colours are going to be spectacular this year due to the weather we've been having, that is if the leaves aren't blown from the trees before they start turning! Things have been hectic the last month or so, but I'm slowly catching up. I have some fantastic news however with regards a competition I entered earlier in the year run by The Zoological Society of London. Firstly here is a little more about the competition: 

The ZSL Animal Photography Prize aimed for more than just pretty pictures, they were looking for images that would form part of the exhibition and ongoing collection of work which would challenge the viewers' perception of and relationship with the natural world and its inhabitants. 

The competition attracted entrants from around the world and the calibre of the work entered has been truly remarkable. The winning and highly commended images in each category of the junior and adult divisions will now form the basis of an outdoor exhibition to be displayed in the heart of ZSL London Zoo.

Now for the news:

I entered several images and two of them were short-listed, a few weeks later I received news that one of the images (The Weevil and the Fern) won its category and the second image (Mating Bubbles) had been highly commended and that both of these would now be part of the exhibition in the grounds of London Zoo until the end of the year. Both images are of insects and both taken in Somerset, they are available as prints via my website or as keyrings and magnets from craft markets (details later in this post). So here they are, the images and photos of me standing next to the images at London Zoo. 

The Weevil and the Fern - Winner in Size Matters category  Green nettle weevil taken at Westhay Moor Nature reserve on the Somerset Levels. 

Mating Bubbles - Highly Commended in Birds and the Bees category. Mating yellow dung files silhouetted against the sky in Shepton Mallet

In other news, I am now very much gearing up for Christmas and starting to prepare winter and Christmas themed products to sell at the craft markets, new dates and venues are been added all the time so keep checking the list on my website and why not pop along and pick up some wonderfully unique presents, cards or stocking fillers! 

Craft Markets

Right back to work on some very exciting projects which I will bring you more news about in the coming months but just to wet your appetite one involves tigers and India and the other insects!

Take care and keep safe

Mini Projects

Hello, just a quick update on what has been happening. 


Excitingly I was asked by Somerset Wildlife trust if I would write an article about my endeavours to photograph the dippers I have been following for several months now, of course I said yes and put together a lovely little piece complete with images and a short video, if you would like to read the article you can find it here:


Dippers on the River Axe


I have finally be able to get out and about in search for my beloved insects and have a fair bit of luck, I am still going through the photos but I decided that a little mini project would be in order, so I decided to try to photograph the complete emergence sequence of the Southern Hawker dragonfly. It has taken me a couple of weeks to collect all the images I needed and managed to get the last few just the other day of the dragonfly splitting the casing and first starting to emerge (this was actually the first time I had ever seen this stage!)


I have compiled an image and a short video of the images set to a piece of music of this wonderful event so here they are:

I hope you enjoy them, I am off for a friends wedding this weekend and back to a full week of work next week. But if you are looking for something to do the weekend of 11th & 12th August why not pop along to Upton Country Park (Upton House, Upton Country Park, Poole, Dorset, BH17 7BJ) where I will have a stand at the August Craft Fair. 

That's it for now, must go pack, so until the next update........

Dippers & Damselflies

Well, it has been a very busy few weeks, another very successful talk at the museum and just over one week left until the exhibition closes so if you haven't been yet, time is running out! The last day is Saturday 9th June and I will be there in person most of the day so why not pop along and say hi and you can ask me as many questions as you like.


I have been continuing to work at the caves part time which has allowed me fantastic access to a family of dippers on the River Axe and they have been busy collecting nesting material and feeding on the insect larvae in the river. I will be following their progress through the season and keep you up to date, fingers crossed for healthy and bouncing chicks in the near future! But for now here are a couple of images of their daily life so far....

Just coming up with an insect larva but before it broke the surface tension of the water








I will keep up-dating the album on Flickr as this progress so do please checking back, here's the link: Dippers

I have also been out and about with one of my favourite insects with all the good weather we've been having, the damselflies of the Somerset Levels. There is one particular photo I've been trying to perfect for some time now and finally managed it so here it is:

And something slightly different, I spent quite a while with this character as it made its way up the grass to the top and eventually started warmng its wings

but it's not just damselflies, as of a few weeks ago I had never photographed a mayfly so it has been on my list and I finally managed to capture the following image as they were emerging from the water

 I have a few more mini projects in the planning stages at the moment, so fingers crossed I will be able to bring you news and of course images and maybe even some video over the next few months! I have been trying out some new and more creative techniques (all done with in the camera of course) and these images will start to pop up on my pages so I shall leave you to hunt them out and let me know your throughts, to get you started here's one of a lovely woodland in spring sunshine complete with bluebells

I can see the next few months being very busy, with things picking up at the caves with school holidays, plenty of wedding planning and the mini projects I will certainly be busy and keeping out of trouble! Well, this is it for now what ever you have planned for the weekend and weeks ahead have fun.