Macro at the RBGE

I went along to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh on Sunday to do some flower and insect photography, as I haven't done many photography-specific trips this year. The overcast skies meant that the colours of the apple blossom and of all the other blooms were strong and bold, but not harsh like those colours created by sunny weather. It made sense to focus on capturing the overwhelming pinks and white of the blossom, so here I used a soft close-up focus which was spot-focused on the pollen.

Plant photography is not my forte, and I much prefer photographing insects and macro life instead. There were plenty of flying ants and flies which were both easy to approach and quite photogenic. Creating a small depth of field, I 'threw' this green leaf out of focus and the lovely silvery shimmer along the midrib into focus, which happened to be where this fly was also sitting. Can't remember the last time I went out to photography insects, but glad to see I haven't entirely lost the knack! 

Opening Night of 'Spectrum' @ The Portico Gallery

Yesterday evening was the private viewing my new exhibition 'Spectrum', as well as for 20 other art exhibits on display at the Portico Gallery during the Dulwich Festival 2012. It was nice to see how people reacted to certain images, particularly those of insects and macro subjects, and being able to show them a side of nature that most people (especially in the city) don't usually, if ever, get to see. 

Quite a few people asked me about the technical execution of each image, and many were surprised to hear that I don't use photoshop or any high-tech editing software. As a nature photographer, I really only want to do the most minimal post-processing work to my photos, keeping it faithful to how I saw each scene - so where the colours are most vibrant, it is either because I used a diffused flash (such as with the black and white macros) or because the colours really were that vibrant. 

'Spectrum' runs until Sunday 20th May at the Portico Gallery, every day from 11am-6pm. For more information, visit the website: www.wix.com/collinsp/dulwichfestival. 

Studio Photography

I'm back in the UK for the next couple of weeks for my new exhibition 'Spectrum' (I'll be talking more about this in my next few posts). One of the photos that I am exhibiting, 'Rock Paper Mushroom', inspired me to do some studio photography on Tuesday - something which I haven't done since I took that photo over two years ago. Once again, I decided to photograph a portobello mushroom, focussing on the textures of the gills. Here I shot down across one side of the mushroom, using a very low aperture and centre spot focussing to give the impression of a 'hilly landscape'.

I changed to a wider aperture for this next shot, include the white flesh of the mushroom annulus (the 'tree-trunk' part of the mushroom, above the main stem). I really love the combination of textures, heightened by the direct side lighting, and the upward sweep of the gills around its base. 

My studio was very minimal - a couple of A4 sheets of paper, placed flat on a desk and also up against the wall, and two ordinary study lights, bent at varying angles and from various positions. I composed this photo deliberately to make the mushroom look like a rising sun, and lit it with directional side lighting; one lamp was pointed slightly downwards from the other to create the shadowy golden effect. I had to increase the yellow in post processing a little, but I think the effect has been achieved. 

A final, more typical monochrome photo that is quite close in style to 'Rock Paper Mushroom'. This is however a direct overhead shot, less shadowy and focussing more on the 'gathering' of gills around the annulus. These photos remind me of waves touching the base of a cliff, with a sense of movement.

Keep reading for updates on the exhibition, which starts this Saturday. First prints are back - take my word for it; they are absolutely gorgeous.

Paul 

Lake Garda - Herons and Swallows

My first post from Italy, at long last!

I've just had a friend from Edinburgh come up for a few days who left to Verona airport early this morning so, after waving her off at the bus stop, I took a short train trip to Peschiera, situated on the south-west corner of the idyllic Lake Garda. We had been there the day before for a walk and picnic, so I had already gotten a sense of the fantastic wildlife that I should find, not to mention the awesome landscapes. 

There was plenty to choose from - the grating 'honks' of great crested grebes courting their spouses, the reed warblers rattling in the reed-beds, the elusive water rails squealing quite literally like pigs, and the hundreds of swallows hawking for insects over the lake itself. 

It was just beyond Peschiera, at Lazise, where the swallows were closest to the shore, swooping among the docked boats. I didn't have my tripod with me to do any successful attempts at slow-shutter pan shots, so I mainly focussed on creating slightly under-exposed fast-shutter images - this one being my favourite with that gorgeous tail trailing behind. Below is my best attempt, in my opinion at least, of the slow shutter technique, although really I should bring my tripod next time if I have any hope of getting anything good. 

After a short while, a grey heron came along and within seconds caught a few minnows and a small eel. I set up camera on the heron and sure enough, barely a moment later, it caught a tiny fish and gobbled it down. Only had one attempt at this, but not too bad - and a lot more cooperative than the heron who I used to photograph at the London Wetland Centre back in 2005. 

It had a thing though of flying off to test new spots whenever it had caught something, so I had to follow it up and down the shore a few times. Most of my flight shots are worthy for the bin, but this one of it landing made me smile, as if the water was still a little too cold! 

That's all for now, but after the huge amount of fun I had this morning - including the unexpected joy at watching a singing cuckoo for a full half-hour in a sunny vineyard whilst eating chocolate ice-cream - I'm bound to go back in the next week! So stay tuned for more herons, swallows and perhaps a cuckoo or two...

New Exhibition

I've just come back from the Portico Gallery in south-west London who have kindly agreed to exhibit a collection of my photographs this May! I will be showing 16 of my most recent wildlife photographs as part of the Dulwich Festival and their Artists' Open House scheme,  http://www.dulwichfestival.co.uk/content/artists-open-house-3, from 11th-20th May. I will post a link for my exhibition in the next week or so, where you will be able to find useful information and also view all of the photographs on show.

Keep an eye here for more information coming very soon! 

Hong Kong photos

Well I'm back from Hong Kong and it was a fabulous trip. Although the photography opportunities were few in the forests of Tai Po Kau, it was great to see so many exotic species and to get a sense of what the area is like. All good research for future trips!

Here are my two favourite pictures. As you can see, one is of a peacock, which is not a wild bird but is part of the small collection at Kowloon Park. I took the photograph in colour and then converted to black and white in post processing, cropping it as well to create my window framing effect. 

This next image is on the other hand of a very common native bird, the oriental magpie robin. I saw these everywhere I went, whether it was in Kowloon Park where this individual was photographed or in the depths of the Tai Po Kau forest reserve. They were very approachable but often hopping along tarmac, so rarely offered photogenic opportunities. This is hardly a brilliant picture, but it's a classic portrait shot of an attractive bird on a perch with out-of-focus background. 

Most of the time however I spent watching the wildlife rather than photographing it, which, to be honest, is really what I prefer doing. I think any wildlife photographer would say the same thing, that they would rather sit back and watch a beautiful animal than constantly click away at it through their SLR. I have written up a birdwatching report here, with some additional photos (albeit all ID shots), for those who might be interested in what wildlife watching in HK is like: 

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=227285

Stay tuned for photos from Italy and Normandy within the month. 

Thanks for reading, 

Paul 

Hong Kong tomorrow!

I'm off on holiday tomorrow to Hong Kong and the outlaying islands of Lantau and Cheung Chau, where I hope to indulge in the first serious wildlife photography I've done in months. I expect to find a great variety of birdlife such as red whiskered bulbuls and fork tailed sunbirds around the city parks and also in the forest reserve of Tai Po Kau, which is reportedly the best place in HK to see forest birds and the feral rhesus macaques. I'll also be spending a whole day at Mai Po, which at this time of year is the absolute greatest birdwatching, and fingers crossed photographic, experience.

Back on the Committee!

I'm in Edinburgh all this week, not for photographic reasons though. However, I had a short but lovely meet up with the past year's committee of PhotoSoc (Edinburgh University Photographic Society). I'm now filling the exciting role of Trip Organiser for the 2012-13 committee, and aim to organise plenty of Saturday day-trips and a couple of bigger trips around Scotland with a good mix of people of all levels.

Another Competition Success with IGPOTY!

This morning I received an email from the judging panel of the IGPOTY (International Garden Photographer of the Year) to notify me that three of my photos reached the final round of judging in their 2011 competition! The three photos were 'Sunset Promenade', 'Rock, Paper, Mushroom' and 'Peeping Through Foliage', the latter which recently won the Edinburgh University Photographic Society's 2012 competition. Having been an IGPOTY finalist in 2010 with my photograph 'Three Chinese Swallowtails in a Line'  and a semi-finalist with 'Alien Encounter' and 'Hawker Nymph', getting this news is another huge confidence boost. But I must try harder!

Link to the IGPOTY website can be found here: www.igpoty.com 

Competition Win!

I received an email the other day from the Edinburgh University Photographic Society, of which I was a former committee member, to tell me that I have won their 2012 competition entitled 'Best of PhotoSoc 2012'! The photo that I submitted was 'Peeping Through Foliage', which seems to be a favourite with many people that I show it to. It is both a technically strong image and also a very cute one!

Link to the Edinburgh University Photographic Society (PhotoSoc) website can be found here: www.photosoc.com 

Upcoming Trips

Here are a few upcoming trips I've got planned for the next few months!

Bologna 

This is my current location, and I'm hoping to photograph many spectacular summering birds up on the East coast marshes of Comacchio near Ravenna - bee eaters, hoopoes and black winged stilts in particular.

Rome and Picinisco
Early March

In springtime the mountains in Picinisco are home to many types of beautifully coloured butterflies and insects. This will be the first time I'll have used the macro lens since last July with marbled white butterflies in Normandy!


Edinburgh
Late March

This is not a wildlife trip by any stretch of the imagination; however, I hope to resume plant photography at the Royal Botanical Gardens and to photograph sanderling and other waders at the North Berwick beach.






Hong Kong and Cheung Cheu Island 
Early April


Again, this isn't a particularly wildlife-specific trip, although there are plenty of opportunities considering our location. I am hoping for many early morning starts to photograph local bird life (fork tailed sunbirds, sulphur crested cockatoos and red whiskered bulbuls in particular) and perhaps some other wildlife like vine snakes and mudskippers too.




Normandy
Mid May

Need I add anything more? A week in Normandy to photograph pond and meadow wildlife with the macro lens from dusk till dawn...bliss...

First Post! Purple Sandpipers in Hythe

Hello! This first post is just to get the blog off its feet, and it shows a selection of photos that I got at the start of this year. I had been bird-watching in Dungeness on the South Coast with my former school friend Charlie, who had accompanied me on many trips around the UK and also on our school-lead expedition to Alaska in 2009. Before heading back to London, he suggested making a small detour to the town of Folkestone, where a flock of purple sandpipers had been reported reliably every winter for at least five years. I had few photos to show from the past few days and, given the fantastic sunlight and knowing how approachable waders on a beach can be (not to mention how unusual it is to see purple sandpipers so far south), I heartily agreed.

I had to drop off my heavy bags at a hotel once we were off the bus, meaning that in the end I only took the camera and the 400mm lens with me onto the beach. That worked perfectly for me though, as the sandpipers were perfectly positioned up on the rocks to play around with depth of field. It did take some time though to clamber up the rock groin to get into the right position, but it was worth it in my opinion.

Once I had got myself into place between a couple of rocks, I knew there were a couple of things that I wanted to experiment with: the colours of the sand, the rocks and the rising tide; the wavy patterns on the rocks, as well as the complementary shapes that I could create through my choice of composition; and the use of foreground objects to lead into the image. I decided to experiment with my 'window' technique which I had previously used for photographing capercaillies in Aviemore and chipmunks in Canada, using the big boulder on the left to lead the eye towards the sandpiper and over the wavy-formed rock. I took a couple of portrait shots, but the landscapes compositionally seemed to just work better, especially when the sea rose up the beach.

Canon EOS 400D SLR, EF 400mm f/5.6L USM, 1/200sec at f/7.1, ISO 100

Canon EOS 400D SLR, EF 400mm f/5.6L USM, 1/200sec at f/7.1, ISO 100

Canon EOS 400D SLR, EF 400mm f/5.6L USM, 1/200sec at f/7.1, ISO 100 

Eventually, all of the sandpipers flew off, except one amongst a group of turnstones on the far end of the groin, positioned against the sea and the sun. I got these shots almost directly into the sunlight to 'blacken out' the birds and then converted them to black and white afterwards. They're technically not perfect, but I like the discs of light and simplicity of the landscape shot particularly.

Canon EOS 400D SLR, EF 400mm f/5.6L USM, 1/160ec at f/9, ISO 100

Canon EOS 400D SLR, EF 400mm f/5.6L USM, 1/500sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

Next photos will be coming from Italy, so keep checking for updates!

Paul