The highly secretive and stunningly beautiful Dartford Warbler photographed here among its health land habitat further North from its more Southernmost stronghold in the UK. A tiny, secretive bird, often only ever glimpsed darting between bushes on lowland heaths. They emit a harsh rattling call before vanishing into cover, only to reappear somewhere else having worked their way through the thick cover they love to live in. I have been really lucky to have seen this bird so close after travelling to many wonderful places in the UK on the lookout for this attractive bird with a hope of seeing and photographing its beauty. The Dartford Warbler is rare in the UK and lives almost exclusively in the South. It was first found in England in 1787.
To watch him was amazing, his lively and very nimble movements, hoping from one perch to another, twitching his wings and tail every so often. He spent long periods concealed in the vegetation offering only the briefest of glimpses, his bright red, angry looking eye peering at me from the thick, thorny thickets. Every so often he’d appear and gain the highest vantage point in which to sing from, his song was very distinctive and harsh and high in pitch once heard you never forget this call and then he’d vanish for a while. The first indicator he was around was his call, as it stood out among the other bird calls on the moors.
The challenge was to second guess where he’d appear allowing me a clean, full length photograph of him, using fieldcraft and blending in, as I was not using a hide making it hard to pin down a certain place he’d appear and come out from cover using the many natural perches open to him. The colour of these birds set them apart from many UK birds for me, a dark grey head and back with a dark wine-red chest and underside with white fine spots on and the most beautiful eyes you’ve seen in a bird, bright red, almost angry looking in appearance, just a stunning bird standing as proud as punch singing away among the heathlands, an amazing time with this amazing bird.
What truely amazed me was how well the different colours of this bird blended into his environment, where the colours of mother nature worked together so well in letting this shy bird completely blend in and become totally unseen. The rich colours of the heathland lending their colours almost identically to those of the Dartford Warbler , a clear view to just how wonderful nature his.
In the past the bird has been vulnerable to changes in climate and two harsh winters left just 11 pairs of the bird in 1963, but Britain’s most colourful warbler is spreading its territorial wings having returned to Wales, the Midlands and East Anglia, there are now more than 3,000 pairs – the highest tally for more than 40 years. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds says the recent rise in numbers – to an estimated 3,208 pairs from 1,890 in 1994 – is due both to milder winters and improvements in the conservation of heathland habitats.
But the latest reports indicate after the two harsh winters the birds numbers may have dropped significantly, Cold weather in 2009, 2010 caused a 90% reduction in warbler numbers across the South of the UK . However, freezing weather and snow in the early parts of 2009 and 2010 and earlier this year have caused great concern that these small birds could die out, with a crash in numbers in their southern stronghold of the UK.
A truely stunning bird with a call you’ll never forget once you hear it, just amazing to see these birds within their natural habitat and I will be going back soon where hopefully he will have stayed and may have a mate around as during all the time there I never saw a female and his behaviour would indicate with his ever present singing he was looking for the female, marking his patch, defending his territory from other birds, more so Stonechats that share the same habitat. I hope to photograph this amazing bird again during the year.
Over the last couple of days the weather seems to have become a little colder which results in those frosty, sunny mornings I love, where the cold hits the back of your throat while at the same time the sun comes up and bathes the countryside in a beautiful warm glow. Most of my wildlife photography is where I like to work the land, finding whats around me and the areas I visit, tracking through foot prints and waste food and droppings trying to build a picture in my head what has passed by or has visited recently. So over the last few days I have had a break from the Deer Rut and have been walking in my local countryside not to far from my Staffordshire home. A lot of the countryside at the moment has been harvested meaning sort, rough grazing and grass, crop etc ideal for one of my favorite UK birds, the Barn Owl.
While out walking over the last few days my attention was drawn to a few feathers, one a primary and the others being belly or flank feathers softer in appearance than the primary, white in appearance and in and around a prominent natural perch I had come across. There was also white droppings at the base telling me this was a popular perch maybe for a Barn Owl, I found a few small pellets or a mass of hair as they looked and upon separating them, something I loved to do as a child, tiring to rebuild the skeleton to found out what the prey was. I found a small set of bones and a jaw bone from a tiny rodent and I knew then that this area and perch were being used by a Barn Owl.
And here he was, with primary/secondarie feathers missing in his wing, the sunrise was amazing with a small blanket of frost all over the ground, not a bad frost but just enough to give that crunch sound under foot when walking, which by the way is not great when you are stalking a wild animal. I have spent a few days there and have watched this male hunt, he seems to have appeared from knowhere, as often Barn Owls do outside of the breeding season as they can become quit nomadic, wondering the countryside on the lookout for prey.
Amazing birds that I call the Ghost due to the fact without warning and no clue they can just turn up, hunt for a few minutes make eye contact with you as you witness their very distinctive appearance with a white heart-shaped face with no ear tufts and sharp black eyes all contributing to its striking appearance. Those large black eyes only let the Barn Owl look forward in a fixed position and cannot move to the side so consequently the Barn Owl has to turn its head to see to the side or back. Their hearing is amazing and the ability to locate prey by sound alone is one of the best in the animal kingdom.
Barn Owls are fascinating creatures and anytime I spend with these amazing birds is priceless. I have been back a couple of times and been able to capture him a few more times, I do feel with no sightings in the past here he may just be passing through so in the meantime its a very welcome treat for me among my other projects I am working on at present including; Mountain Hares, Short-eared Owls and my little female Kingfisher on the river Trent.
My advice would be to walk the land and watch and look for clues of whats around and you maybe surprised at what you find as this time of year so much wildlife is on the move in readiness for the oncoming winter. This for me is the true meaning of fieldcraft a word I hear used alot within wildlife photography, but fieldcraft means to use whats around you, reading the clues and signals all animals leave behind where most if not all the clues are right there all you have to do is just look that bit closer.
Your reward will be something you have seen and learned all about yourself and when the subject appears as did this Barn Owl its a great moment as you view a moment in their lives something I truly love. Its one of the main things I teach and show on my One To Ones and Workshops in order for the client(s) to take this skill away with them. So they can apply this in their own photography and get close to wildlife without impacting on the subjects life. If you would like any further advice or help on anything I have raised then please send me an email here many thanks.
Over the last few weeks I have found myself almost tied to my desk either compiling my four-coming trips to India and Kenya and so forth,editing images and making submissions,and processing images.So to find some peace and quiet away from these tasks I like the least I have found myself drawn to some of my favourite places within nature,places I have been so,so many times over the years.So on the odd days I’ve had spare I’ve replaced the pen for my camera and visited the coast,my Barn Owl and my Dipper sites to which I have committed myself to capturing these animals over a twelve month period,through the changing seasons.
Where I have resisted in parts the temptation to fill the frame with the subject on most occasions,instead capturing my style where I love to include some of the surrounding habitat.By doing this I feel the image can tell more of a story about the animal and it’s relationship with the environment.Where the subject itself may be very small in the frame,this helps to illustrate the scale of the landscape and something I have always been drawn towards in my work.But as shown below a large in the frame image works in giving a close up into their world.
Composition plays a key role in this type of image so its important to remember the Rule Of Thirds that I covered in a previous post on‘Composition’ remembering to place the subject away from the centre of the frame.
I have three Dippers sites I am visiting quite regular,time permitting at present,compiling images throughout the year, where all birds are all doing well in different ways within the Peak District,Derbyshire.These birds as you know if you are a regular visitor to my blog have amazed my from when i was a small lad,and they still amaze me to this day,with their character and constent ‘Dipping’ behaviour ever present when you first see these birds in and around freshwater.Dippers nest early and in alot of cases can have a second brood of chicks throughout the season.One pair I have watched are feeding around three at present,when their parent lands the cries and screaming from the chicks in the nest is deafening,piercing through the noise from the fast flowing water close to their nest.
I run Dipper Of The Dales one day workshops,where I take you to the best site depending on the time of year within the Peak District.Giving you the chance to see and photography these Master’s Of The River
Also on the same stretch of river is a family of Grey Wagtails,where I have enjoyed watching their intense and frantic movement gathering food for the chicks,with the male pausing for a second in these lovely shaped tree branches below before he entered the nest,with a bit of a chance shot of the bird taking off using a slow shutter speed below this,beautiful to watch all this happening as its a great time to go out and watch wildlife now,with parents feeding young,juveniles having left the safety of their homes all happening around you as you immerse yourself in nature.
I have also been able to have a few days at the coast photographing Seabird’s,with the Puffin being high on my wish list again.I just love the clown-like faces on these beautiful birds,which apart from the four months of the year they come ashore to breed they spend the other eight months,living and feeding at sea,now that’s a very hardy bird.
My image called Fighting Puffins made the final round of this year’s BBC Veolia Environmental Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2010,where I was chuffed to bits as it was the first year I had entered this highly prestigious competition,with ten images in the semi-finals,and one in the final round,below is the image of two male Puffins fighting over a woman.
Where if you click onto the link here it will take you to the site,put in craigjones00@hotmail.co.uk and the code 223682 and you will see the fore mentioned images.Good luck to all those that have won there respective categories and now go forward to the big prize..co.uk
With my most enjoyable time of late being in photographing Barn Owls in the lovely evening light we’ve been afforded lately.This is the male I have photographed from the beginning of the year who survived the prolonged cold spell,he’s doing really well and has young to feed at the moment.Here he is seen small in the frame with the surrounding habitat turning this beautiful red and orange-yellow colour as the sun had almost set,just beautiful.
A big thank you to all the interest I have had in regard to my Limited Edition Tiger prints,that are now officially on 21 Century Tiger website,promoting these images,where 50% of the profits go to helping Wild Tigers as I really wanted to help these amazing animals that I was privileged to see earlier this year in India.
MyTigers Of Indiaphoto-tour is now live on my workshops page,which promises to be an amazing adventure over the 8 days,also myAmazing Africa photo-tour is now live also .Where I am running a Photo-Tour to Kenya to photograph the Masai Mara Migration this year and next year alongside Paul McDougall who runs PhotographyKenya another amazing trip for wildlife photographer’s and enthusiasts alike.What ever you’d like to photograph it is really, as said a great time to go outdoors to photograph wildlife right now,where nature will always be challenging but when it all comes together there can surely no better feeling and satisfaction as a photographer in getting your images,good luck.
The trip so far had surpassed my wildest dreams in regard to seeing a wild Royal Bengal Tiger during my trip toRanthambore,India,so with the final few days approaching I was filled with mixed emotions as I wanted to stay longer as I’d grown very attacted to these beautiful animals and was sad the end was almost in sight.Some of the close encounters I had were indeed a mixture of things,one being my brilliant guides,Salim and Raj but also I felt lady luck had some how played her hand in this, as the whole trip took me 3 months to plan,my original flight and booking was lost due to the Volcanic plumes of air over British air space,yet through all the ups and downs,never giving in I got here.The biggest support I had through all this was my wonderful wife Vanessa,who had helped me so much with the trip,it wouldn’t have been possible without your help,so thank you to my lovely wife,Vanessa.
I hope I have done the RoyalBengal Tiger real justice with my photographs, below are a few of the images I got on the final days at Ranthambore,India,they are taken with a mixture of lens,from a wide-angled lens to a long lens all trying to capture these beautiful animals mother-nature made so beautiful in their natural environment.
All images of the Royal Bengal Tiger and various other wildlife from my India trip on my website are available to buy throughPayPal,alongside the other various photographs.I have been asked by people living outside of the UK if they can buy my images and the answer is yes as I use UPS .So if you would like to purchase signed,framed prints or Canvases @ A2,A3,A4 size, Printed on Fuji-film,High Quality Pro Lustre paper using Fuji Frontier 570 printers or the digital image(s) supplied on CD and you live abroad then buy them through PayPal on my Portfolio page as normal and the postage cost will be sent to you upon receiving your address/country.
Where each order is seen by myself before it goes out to the customer to ensure the highest quality. There will be a few Limited Edition Tiger images too with profits going to helping Tigers in the wild and a few going to ‘Help the Heroes’ charity,alongside my ‘Lone Poppy’ image so look out out for these in the future .
I had a wonderful time,thank you to Ganesh,Dicky,Salim,Raj and all the wonderful people I met in India,who have become good friends now.I am returning very soon to capture more Royal bengal Tigers,and I also have planned a small Tour/Workshop there next May,details very soon.
I have just come back from an amazing trip to Ranthambhore, India amd after three months of planning the trip was all I could have hoped for and much,much more. With British airspace being closed on the lead up to my trip it looked however I tired that I would be beaten by an unprecedented event in history-Volcanic dust in the atmosphere, but lady luck was on my side and a few days after my first flight was cancelled the airspace was reopened and I was back in business! Last Saturday I made my way to Heathrow Airport,Terminal 5. British Airways,who during the issues were great in the help to customers and I for one will always use this airline from now on. The flight was nearly 9 hours,very comfortable, good food. As we landed in Delhi Airport at 11.30pm local time the captain welcomed us and let us know the time etc and the temperture which at 11.30pm at night was 35c!
I passed through customs with no problems having sorted my visa some months earlier, and I looked for my driver who would be holding a card with my name on,we met, his name was Ellios, and ahead of me was a 373km drive to Ranthambhore Bagh seen above where I was to be staying throughout the 7 days there. The journey was hard and hot,the roads were hard and not like roads we know back home but I was on a high and the journey had to be done..I reached Ranthambhore Bagh at 08.30am after seeing the sun come up as I passed through small villages, it was a beautiful sunrise. I met my hosts and Salim Ali who was to be my guide during my stay. Salim had grew up in the area as his dad was a ranger/guide in Ranthambhore before him so I was in the best hands. I went to bed until around 02.00pm where a little dinner was put on and then my first safari at 03.00pm with Salim and Raj. I had a jeep on my own throughout the week, it was a great choice as this gave me great flexibility as I was using my 600mm lens and tripod alongside a 24-70 and 70-200mm lens with D300’s to hopefully cover many different images/angles.
The Ranthambhore National Park, which is a part of the much larger Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, a Project Tiger reserve, lies in the Sawai Madhopur district of eastern Rajasthan. It is right now the only forest reserve in Rajasthan state and in the entire Aravali hill ranges where tigers exist. The Chambal River forms a natural boundary of the Park towards the east, and on the eastern shore of Chambal lies the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh,this Project tiger reserve spans over 1334 sq. km of area, of which 282 sq. km is the Ranthambhore National Park.
During the 19th century there was excellent forest cover almost all over India. The population density was very low and exploitation of forests to fulfill local needs was negligible. During that period the forests of Ranthambhore were the private and exclusive hunting reserves of the Jaipur and Karauli royal family. These forests were managed by the Shikar Khana Department (Hunting Department) of the state. The local villagers were allowed to take many kinds of forest produces in unlimited quantities for their private use, after payment of an annual tax (called Babs). In selected areas of the forests, which were used for hunting by the royalty, grazing and tree felling were strictly forbidden, but there were few restrictions, elsewhere. However, due to the low population density, there was hardly any damage to the forests.
By the end of the first quarter of the 20th century, the need for conservation of forests was being felt all over India. The population was growing rapidly and the forests were coming under pressure. In Ranthambhore, the system of “royalty permits” for commercial felling (mainly for firewood and charcoal) of entire blocks of forests was taking its toll. In 1925, the Jaipur state created a post of Superintendent of Forests and in 1939 the Jaipur Forest Act was enacted. The Rajasthan forest Act was enacted in 1953, giving these forests some legal protection. In 1955, these forests were declared as “Sawai Madhopur sanctuary” and the practice of sale of forest produce through “royalty permits” came to an end. This was when the forests received their first “real” protection. However, legal hunting continued unabated till 1973 and by then the tiger population was almost totally decimated.
In 1973 a part of this sanctuary came under Project Tiger Scheme. At that time there were 16 villages inside the sanctuary but between 1976 and 1979, 12 of these villages were shifted outside the sanctuary. In 1980, in order to give greater protection to the forests, an area of 282.03 sq. k.m. of the inner part of Sawai Madhopur sanctuary was declared as national park.During the 1970s, tiger sightings were extremely rare in Ranthambhore but by the mid and late 1980s, as a result of the decade long protection given to the forests, Ranthambhore became the best place in the world to see wild tigers. Ranthambhoretiger reserve attained notoriety for illegal poaching of tigers in the year 1992.. Since then the forest authorities became very strict and now, generally speaking, poaching is not a serious threat in these forests. Since 1992, the tiger population has gradually recovered and in 2002 the Park boasted of nearly 40 tigers, a density of nearly 10 tigers per 100 square k.m. – which is one of the highest in the world,with the present count around the same which is great news for the Tiger within this area of India.
There are seven’ old’ gates within the national park and twice a day we passed through the gate called ‘Mishra Dhara Gate’ as seen above on our way to one of the 5 zones you are allocated before each trip,with each zone being around 25 km plus in size where your jeep has to stay on a small path which takes you around the chosen zone,with a very strict code of conduct on board eg.no shouting/loud noise, you cannot get out of the jeep, its all controlled really well with the Tigers welfare being paramount. The terrain of Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve is mostly rugged and hilly,with day time temperatures of 45c its very hot and dusty. For me carrying my 600 as we drove around over the bumpy terrain was hard at first as I rested it on my forearms as the roads were just to bumpy to place it any where, with your heart in your mouth all the time as to that magic word you hope to hear all the time -‘T’iger’! Then seconds to compose yourself and your camera before the Tiger has gone.
On my first trip on the Sunday we didn’t see any Tigers, but I got a good idea of the place,how it worked a little, where the sun came up and set etc. I can connect with a new place really well and get a good or bad feeling almost there and then, most of the time being proved right, I call it my ‘Sixth Sense’ or luck who knows! On this occasion I had a good feeling I would see a Tiger for the first time in my life since my fascination with Tigers after receiving a book called Animal World from my late mum for my 8th birthday, the book forms part of my Profile images on my website,and with some thirty years now passed since I first received this book my dream of seeing a Tiger was about to happen!
The routine in the morning was an early start at 05.00am, get my cameras+lens ready, the staff would make me an Indian coffee which was the perfect start to the day for me, Salim+Raj arrived at 05.40 and we set off to the park on my first morning. I always relax when trying to find nature as I have found if you put pressure on yourself then the nature just doesn’t show up! My first morning there was beautiful,we had a lovely sunrise,the noises of the place were so different to that of the UK wildlife I am use to, so many different calls it was just an amazing time!
I watched Great and Little Egrets fishing, Night Herons watching the sun come up, India Lapwings, male Peacocks displaying, and so many different species of birds I’d only read about before that were just all around me here!
All of this stunning nature around me I was in heaven! and I had’nt even seen my first Tiger yet. As we drove around our given zone, I saw so much different and interesting wildlife it was amazing, just then my guide said ‘Leopard’ and pointed up and to my left I swung the camera,600 and tripod around and just managed a few images before this very shy, rare animal vanished, Salim told me you must be lucky Craig, sightings of leopards are rare here with around 30 living here they are very hard to see and I had just seen this beautiful animal with its real distinctive face and big, round eyes. Wow!
He was gone in a flash but I really felt blessed I’d seen a Leopard, indeed very lucky, what a first morning. The safaris are from 6-10am and 3-6pm in the evening, and on my first morning we were in the final hour when we spotted my first ever, wild Tiger, I froze for a second, stood up and there she was, T17, a 3 year old female walking along the dirt tracks the jeeps use, with the Tigers using them too.
As we got closer the sheer size of the Tiger became very apparent to me, Salim went down another track hoping to get in front of her should she continue on this path, we managed to get in front and a nervous wait of a few seconds to see if she’d gone into the forest or had carried on,then I heard something,she was there walking towards our jeep T17 full front on view,wow she was beautiful,she was heading to a very small pool of water to our left, I captured her drinking with the 600, I then switched to another camera with my wide angle on (24-70mm) as she had finished drinking and carried on walking our way. I wanted to capture her within this habitat as she came closer, my heart was beating so fast I could feel the beats in my neck!!
T17, female tiger walking towards me, taken with a wide-angled lens as I leaned out of the jeep for a lower view point, it was a beautiful, surreal moment for me and one I will never forget, after she’d gone my driver and guide drove us back while I just sat there going over what I had just witnessed in my head, completely amazed. Just after the image below was taken she went into cover and was not seen again, but the memories will be with me forever.
My first encounter of a Bengal Tiger was just amazing, thirty years ago when I was eight my interest in Tigers began after receiving a animal book with a roaring Tiger on the front cover, so on this day my dreams had come true with a beautiful moment I managed to capture not only with my eyes but also with photographs. I am completely taken with these beautiful animals and with each safari I would see even more of the Tigers of Ranhambhore, some days I’d see 4 in a single trip, not all can be photographed as with the dense vegetation and the brilliant disappearing skills its a lot harder than you think to compose a good image with the small amount of time you get upon first seeing these stunning animals.
That evenings safari brought more beautiful encounters for me as I was living up to my nickname of ‘Lucky‘. We were in another zone now, and we lay in wait at a popular watering hole used by 1 or 2 different Tigers. Nearly an hour had gone by and nothing, the temperature was 45c and I was melting, 2 litres of water in the morning and two litres in the afternoon, a must as dehydration can creep up on you without warning, I also had glucose/mineral salts to to replace what my body was losing, it was a constant battle to rehydrate yourself and be on tip top form for the Tigers and the rough roads. The surrounding animals give a warning that you don’t forget when a Tiger is about and I heard this, the next thing a male Tiger, T7 I was told was heading for the waterhole, but for a moment had noticed the jeep and give me a look I managed to capture below.
Much bigger than the females, with a totallydifferent attitude/approach I found, quite shy on one hand but outwardly more aggressive too. These two images clearly show just how well camouflaged they are within their own natural habitat which amazed me, because away from these surroundings they really stand out with the beautiful markings.
The first two days were brilliant and my first sighting was amazing. Over the next few days I will update my blog with the rest of the special days I spent there, in the meantime I hope you enjoy these images of this most beautiful of animals, the Bengal Tiger.
On February 14, 2010, the Chinese lunar calendar moved into the Year of the Tiger,an animal that has captivated me with its beauty from the moment I received my first wildlife book as an 8 year old,with the face of a roaring Tiger on the front cover-I was hooked.This book started my love and interest for wildlife and more so the Tiger,as I’d trace around the Tiger,copying it on all my school books.The book is an integral part of my younger years and forms one of the many images on my ‘Profile’ .So with this year being the year of the Tiger it was a wish of mine to visit India and hopefully photograph these beautiful creatures in the wild,so at the beginning of the year I contacted my friend and fellow wildlife photographer Ganesh H Shankar who lives in India, asking could he help in this matter.
Ganesh has a brilliant ‘Compositinal’ eye with stunning vision,he strives very hard in the field to create a unique and artistic composition, not bound by the rules of conventional composition.We met on ‘Flickr’ some two years ago and have become friends over the years,where we share the same vision in our photographs we take.Below are a few images Ganesh has taken,showing his unique style of wildlife photography
Ganesh wrote a few words “Close usual portraits of subjects in nature stopped impressing me long back and found myself a comfort zone in portraying my subjects small in the frame yet drawing enough visual attention. I didn’t know any nature photographer who liked her subject small in the frame till I discovered Craig through a nature photo forum Yes, Craig and me seem to share some common
interests when it comes to composition and treatment of light in our images. Very happy to know Craig is visiting India to to see tiger through his lens.
Looking forward to see his wonderful creations in the new future !” Ganesh April 2010
His help and advice on my four coming trip to India has been second to none.I am flying from London to Delhi then a 5 hour train journey to Sawai Madhopur,a district of the North Indian state of Rajasthan and staying with his good friend Aditya ‘Dicky’ Singh who owns and runs a small lodge on the outskirts of the Ranthambhore tiger reserve in India.Aditya’s help and advice has also been great and it promises to be a trip I will never forget whether I see a Tiger or not.The title ‘Raw India’ will be the name I’m giving to the blog entries I’ll make covering the trip,as I am doing it alone,going to heart of India in a ‘Raw’ manner,hoping to seeing parts of India far removed from the tourists eye.
My wish is to capture some beautiful Tigers images and help the profile of this beautiful creature,as the plight of wild tigers is suffering greatly where three subspecies having already been driven to extinction in the past century alone and experts estimate there are as few as 3,200 tigers left in the wild.Tigers are being persecuted across their range – poisoned, trapped, snared, shot and squeezed out of their homes,there is hope for them in this Year of the Tiger,as there has never been such a committed, ambitious, high-level commitment from governments to double wild tiger numbers alongside top wildlife experts,photographers all helping in their respective ways by highlighting the Tigers case both domestically and worldwide.
The WWF are doing brilliant work in raising the plight and profile of the Tiger.They are securing habitats with their partners,working with local communities trying to give sustainable alternatives to logging,also they are creating forest ‘corridors’ to allow Tigers to roam and breed.The programmes are working and have helped the Amur Tigers in Russian come back from a population of around 40 to its present day total of 500.The WWF with your help can save the Tiger by just giving what you can, also you can Adopt a Tiger for as little as £3 pounds a month,with all the money going towards helping the world in which Tigers live and roam
21st Century Tiger do a great job in Giving wild tigers a future whilst raising funds for wild tiger conservation since 1997 with 100% of funds raised going directly to wild tiger projects. Tiger Awareness founded by Phil Davis from Leicestershire do a brilliant job also,a voluntary non-profit making charity, giving free talks to schools, the public, and other organisations with all donations and funds raised going towards tiger projects.I spoke to Phil recently and I’m hoping to help him with this charity anyway I can in the future when I return from my trip as I feel we can all do a little to save this stunning animal from disappearing from the wild,with only captive ones to remind us of the beauty and what they looked like,not a choice in my book as its never to late to do something to save these beautiful animals
I will update my blog on how I got on India with my ‘Raw India Dairies’ once I have come back.
I have just spent the last 3-4 days in Mid-Wales photographing some of the beautiful wildlife this part of the UK has to offer.I was invited by my friend Ken along with a number of fellow wildlife photographers who have a annual week in this breathtakingly beautiful place.First on my wish list was a trip to Gigrin Farm to photograph the amazing population of Red Kites that live and feed here.
The Gigrin is a family run upland sheep farm of approximately 200 acres, owned and farmed by Chris Powell, and Mrs Lena Powell.The land is 700 feet rising to 1200 above sea level giving wonderful views of the Wye and Elan valleys in mid-Wales.Gigrin became the Official Red Kite Feeding Station in the winter 1992/93 following a request from the RSPB who had witnessed the late Mr Powell feeding the kites.Red kites being hungry when they awake, will hunt for food during the morning and early afternoon, so Gigrin is a top up or emergency ration for them and is not intended to replace their wild food source.
On the day we were there the weather was a mixture of overcast and cloud with the odd ray of light piercing the cloud cover,this added a great atmosphere to the place and shows what ever the weather throws at you there will always be a photograph you can obtain from the day.Being my first visit there I wanted to try and capture a few different images from the normal portrait of this beautiful bird that at close quarters is massive.With the light and overcast conditions I was able to create some images from Gigrin that were a little different,encapsulating my trademark of strong composition,with the poor,overcast conditons turned around to help and aid my images.
While photographing the Red Kites this ‘Leucistic’ Kite turned up.It has started to visit the feeding station more and more after being born in 2003 and until recently had’nt been seen for some time I was told by the owners of Gigrin.Leucistic means that the colouration is mainly pure white and not the usual red or black of the normal kites and not to be confused with an ‘Albino’ as these lack colouring and have pink eyes unlike the yellow/blue eyes of this beautiful Leucistic Kite.
I also tryed out a few ‘Arty’ shots using a slow shutter speed which results in capturing the sense of movement within an image,giving the photo great impact like the two I have included below with the first one capturing the Red kites trademark of ‘Diving’ for the food which is placed out for them by Chris.There is also a small in the frame image I have converted over to ‘Black+White’ which has brought out the cloud patterns on the day.They have done a wonderful job at Gigrin over the years and its well worth visiting.
During my stay in Wales we all covered a vast distance,traveling to different location,from the Osprey Project at Cors Dyfi Nature Reserve,three miles south of Machynlleth.We were able to see the Osprey on the CCTV screen but a little to far for photography.We headed for the coast,where I photographed the returning Waders,I managed to capture this Oystercatcher feeding away,turning over Shell’s and breaking open mussels.
Wales really has so much to offer in the way of different habitats,and various wildlife,from coastal to reedbed/marshland we covered it all,with the weather being very kind,the odd night frost thrown in just for good measure as I was camping.I had brought the essentials through;Tea Bags,Bacon,Fresh Bread and HP sauce all so important when you are camping as a warm drink and food are the best tonic,in my case a bacon sandwich.
The trip was great and thanks to Ken for inviting me,thanks also Brian,Tom,Phil,and on the last day before my drive back home to Staffordshire I had my best shots of the stunning Willow Warbler within this habitat of ReedBeds,with the sun behind me setting it was a real treat to end a great trip.
Having just returned from the beautiful Isle of Mull where I’ve been working on a few of my favorite subjects ie.Otters,White-Tailed Sea Eagles, there and finalising the ‘Magical Mull’ trip/workshop planned to this beautiful island in early June,co-hosted by my friend and award winning dutch photographer Jeroen Stel.
The Isle of Mull lies on the west coast of Scotland and it has a breathtaking coastline of 300 miles, the climate is a mixture of rain and sunshine.From the moment you step onto this beautiful island the wildlife is everywhere and the scenery is stunning. Our accommodation during this workshop is overlooking the harbour of Tobermory,where each room we have booked has a sea view,with fine cuisine in the restaurant,prepared from the best locally sourced ingredients to make your stay even more memorable.
Mull has a breathtaking landscape and offers you some brilliant chances for landscape photography,with beautiful morning light.My main targets when I come to this island and that of the trip are Otter’s, White-Tailed Sea Eagles and Golden Eagles,with the weather feeling like winter again while I was there,with pouring rain/snow it can be a bleak place to be.
Due to a lovely couple who had booked but now are unable to get the time off work a couple of places have come up,so if you are interested in coming then please drop me a line here or see my website page under Workshops and I’ll answer any questions,queries you may have.
The meeting place is the Scottish port of Oban,where while we are waiting for our ferry there will be very good opportunities to photograph the healthy population of Black Guillemots that live in and around the port.You will meet myself and Jeroen here and board the Ferry,we have a mini-bus booked,so this with be our mode of transport around the island,driven around to the key sites on the island with the only thing you’ll have to worry about is composing your subject(s)A great trip is planned,where I/we look forward to passing on our passion as wildlife photographers, in helping you to take better images while learning more about nature and reconnecting with the natural world.
I was able to capture a few interesting photos that are going towards forming my collection of photographs called ‘The Beauty Of Nature’,which are beautiful,powerful images from the natural world chosen to connect with the general public,young and old to engage them with the beautiful wildlife we have all around us,creating an interest which will hopefully not only help their own lives but also have a positive response in helping the natural world in these troubled times of threatened extinction of both domestic and worldwide plants,animals.
I have teamed up with local Staffordshire wildlife artist Paul Horton who paints images of nature,landscapes and after a chance meeting recently we plan on bringing beautiful,emotive visions of wildlife,environment created by the lens and brush to people through our joint exhibition in Libraries,Schools,Town Halls,General places where the public frequent hopefully having their lives brightened by the ‘Beauty Of Nature’.I also plan on putting some sort of display(s) on for troubled youngster’s,those in care,Barnardos etc, that rarely see the countryside and what it has to offer in terms of beauty,where the power of nature may just help heal wounds,and show by getting back to nature there is always hope.
The future David Attenborough’s,Bill Oddie’s and alike need to be found,where the love of nature can develop amongst the urban jungles in which they live,where the future is in keeping alive the charities,projects that help keep alive many species of wildlife. So in bringing images from the natural world to people who’d never get the chance of witnessing the beauty nature has to offer is more important than we give it credit for.My aim is to tap into this forgotten generation with simple exhibitions of nature seen through a wildlife photographer’s eye and wildlife artist’s brush,at the same time bringing much joy to their lives
Not a day goes by where we don’t read or see some politician on TV telling us that we must help nature before it’s to late,laying out their plans to save the world,drawn up for them by their adviser’s,using words many people don’t know or understand or are to frightened to ask, fragmenting the different classes,while failing to engage with ‘Broken Britain’ as we are told its called.The future is in educating all irrespective of your postcode or start in life,I have found those with the most passion are sometimes the ones with very little in terms of materialistic possession’s but an unmeasurable passion and knowledge for nature that needs to be put to good use in showing the importance of conservation and the need to preserve our national heritage.
Dates and venues are being planned as we speak and I’ll update my blog as to when and where these will be,our plan is to start local in the heart of Staffordshire,and maybe further afield.Any suitable venues within the Staffordshire area that my like to display Paul’s and my work that we haven’t already contacted then please drop me a line here or Paul Horton
