I’ve always lived in Derbyshire, so it was a great thrill for me when I was approached by Derbyshire Life to write a series of articles about my photography. The first one has just been published and the others will follow in 3 month intervals. I couldn’t be happier tbh :-)
I’m really enjoying delivering my lectures via Zoom - I’ve done 8 so far & have another 15 booked over the next couple of months. It was a bit strange talking to myself to start with but I find the chat facility keeps me fully aware there’s people watching. Anyone can ask a question at any time using the chat box; I see the question come up & then answer at an appropriate point. Works a treat!
But of course the main thing is that the audience seem to be enjoying them too & the feedback below (from the E.Mids RPS region) is pretty typical. It’s such a shame that the scaremongering over privacy issues has scared a few clubs away from trying it - such a shame.
My saltwater crocodile has made the shortlist - here’s a slideshow of all the shortlisted entries in my category.
One (small) advantage of lockdown is that it’s giving me time to do more processing and I’m currently working through the images I took on a trip to Mexico last November. The primary target was to photograph the sea lion colony which lives on the small outcrop of rock known as Los Islotes, an hours boat ride from Baja California Sur's capital of La Paz. Sea lions are very friendly, interactive animals - it was a great experience & I’ll write more about it over the next few weeks.
We also made a three day excursion to the Cabo Pulmo Marine Reserve which was reached by a 4 hour drive over mostly uncomfortable roads - but it was worth it. Our sole aim for the trip was to experience the huge shoals of Horse-eye jacks (Big-eye Trevally) that live there. They’re a relatively large fish, average around 50cm & 8kg, and the shoals are simply enourmous - many 1,000s of fish. Just like a flock of starlings they move in coordination, forming streaming sinuous shapes - it’s very beautiful to watch. It was one of the most amazing natural spectacles I’ve witnessed underwater & this image is my favourite from the 100s I took. The diver is another member of our party and her pose was not set up - it really was one of those situations were you just had to stop & marvel at the wonders of nature.
Take a look at the short video below & you’ll get some idea of how big the shoals are.
Homage to Nature
If asked I always describe myself as a pictorial photographer - I try to tell stories with my images. I’m less interested in the hard edges & imperfections of reality than I am in an idealised representation, one that hopefully elicits emotion in the viewer. Never is this more true than with my underwater images. Although competition rules severely restrict what I can & cannot change I still try to pick images that give you an idea of what it was like to be there.
This image of cormorants hunting in a sardine shoal does that I think. As an image it has lots of technical imperfections, so it’s unlikely to do well in competitions, but I love it. Hope you like it too :-)
Cormorants Hunting in a Sardine Shoal, La Paz, Mexico
I appeared in the Daily Mail today :-) I was shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards which had 193,000 entries worldwide, so pretty pleased about that.
