Exciting news

I have been invited to join a new Wildlife Photographic Tour company Focus4Nature and lead tours over the next year or so. The first tour will be a brilliant 6 days in Finland photographing divers and osprey and should be a rewarding trip.

F4N will be running tours accross the globe to some of the best wildlife locations and the price will include everything even flights. For more details check out the new website http://www.focus4nature.co.uk/ for mine and other exciting tours.

Golden eagle on the moors

A very enjoyable day last month saw me in some attractive moorland working with a small group of raptors on a bird of prey photography shoot. The beautiful golden eagle was the main target but a European eagle owl was also an excellent subject. One day (early retirement beckons!) I shall photograph eagles again in the wild but for now these shots will do.

Catching up and planning

This is a quiet time for my photography so I have started to catch up with processing the images from the year. These two were pleasing ones from the Shetlands. I never seem to tire of photgraphing puffins! Conversley these were the first decent common seal shots ever for me.

I have also done a bit of planning for the year ahead and booked some dates. I get very excited when planning projects and love having trips and local encounters to look forward to. 2011 is looking good too with a week in the Highlands, two possible trips to Finland and my first go at fish photography...watch this space!

Waxwings

With the waxwing invasion arriving in the Midlands and the sun shining, it seemed only right to don the gloves and head off to a rowan tree in Ludlow. Tricky light and very hungry and mobile birds meant that even with over a hundred to choose from it was hard to isolate any individual and capture a nice pose. I liked the background colour in this image though so worth the cold fingers!

Getting Started in Wildlife Photography

Following much demand and the great feedback from previous ones I am now offering another Introduction to Wildlife Photography Workshop at Middleton Hall. The day will run from 10-4.30 on the 3rd October. Cost is £28 per person and includes refreshments morning and afternoon.

The workshop is based around a presentation of pictures and illustrations interrupted with demonstrations of equipment and accessories. There will also be a practical session where attendees will get a chance to practice techniques with their own camera.

Each topic will be illustrated with a series of case studies and the day will be littered with top tips and tricks of the trade!

Topics to be covered include:

Camera equipment and accessories
Camera settings
Composing the picture
Learning your subject
Getting close to the subject
Using hides
Processing, printing and publishing

Interested? contact me at nick@martinimages.co.uk for more details and a booking form.

Kingfisher

Barely picked up my camera since the Shetlands but finally managed to get out and was well rewarded. Thanks to Mike for the opportunity.

The Shetlands

Back and finally managed to get a blog post online.

The Shetlands were great, loads of great wildlife and lots of lovely places to visit. Weather could have been a bit brighter but I guess it could have been a lot worse too!

Best bits were with bonxies, puffins, tysties and some very special encounters with otters.