Hunting with a hawk has a long and distinguished history going back some three thousand years and is still practised as an art form, not only in this country but also across Europe and in many parts of the world. The world of falconry has always been held in the highest of respect, plus today, falcon experience days and falconry demonstrations are as popular as ever.
Each of Nick’s pictures is created from just a single feather, which must be cut and formed before being mounted on artboard, ready for framing. The feather sits proud of the board on pins, and this gives the 3D effect, but each pin must be pre-positioned before the feather can be cut.
Few of us waking on the first day of January 2020, to a new year and a new decade, could have ever believed what would happen across the world in a matter of weeks, especially as we were all still moaning about the none stop and continual rain.
Recently I was exposed to a media that, for me at least, had slipped past me a little, audio. This has had much the same revolution from tape to digital. So, imagine my delight and pleasure when I was recently asked to be a guest on a very popular and professional podcast.
It was a photoshoot I had long wanted to undertake. To be in the Scottish Highlands with a ghillie, deer stalking. But not just any ghillie. This ghillie had to work traditionally, using Highland Ponies to bring the Red Deer stags and hinds off the hill.
What camera did you use to take that? It is a question I am often asked, and I am sure one that many fellow photographers are also asked. But no matter how I try, I have never been able to fully work out the reason for the question!
The dark stormy sky with the sun falling, almost glinting, on the white graves stones I know would make a memorable photograph. Quickly grabbing my camera a small remote cemetery was my destination, after a short wait, and a massive downpour, the stormy shower started to pass overhead and the sun came through and I had just a couple of minutes to catch the moment
Losing a dog can be a traumatic experience and as someone who has gone through this many times, believe me, it gets no easier. I know it can be painful and best described as a raw feeling in the very pit of your stomach. But I think it is even worse when the faithful friend you say goodbye to is a working dog; the bond, trust and relationship you have shared over the years working together makes it even more distressing.
The dogs, including a sixteen-week-old puppy, needed to be photographed for editorial and website use. The requirement was for all the images to be shot against a seamless white background. With such a background you are able to drop the images into both web pages and traditional print, and the images bleed into the background, showing no edges …
With the arrival of the digital age, the workload of the photographer changed, out went the darkroom & chemical processes, replaced by computer processing & printing, and a less smelly workplace! The digital era allows me to capture images that just a few years ago would have been near impossible, or would have needed some powerful lighting, but it requires a new set of skills using keyboard and mouse and an ever-changing IT know how.
To quote a phrase the right place at the rights time, but with the right camera and right lens! But to see the end result I still find highly rewarding. As did the gent in the photograph, who was amazed when he found his image on the magazine rack in his local newsagents!
But it had to be shot at twilight, at very last light to give the images a set of dark tones, no white or pale coloured skies or light coloured backgrounds. The reason for this was the images will be used as the backdrop to advertisements and publicity in print and web with the copy and text set on top.
So after what appears to be a string of poor or wet summers locally, no one can argue that this year we have not had a memorable one. I have forgotten how many times we have eaten outside as the garden furniture has been well and truly used, as we enjoyed the warm summer evenings, and the smell of charcoal has drifted in the air on many an evening as people have fully enjoyed the warm summer. In addition, have you also noticed the number of summer butterflies & other insects this year?
By late morning on 13th May 1915 the Commanding Officer, his Regiment Sergeant Major and two Squadron Leaders were dead. As reported by Arthur Conan Doyle it was a most murderous affair and the Leicestershire Yeomanry were only driven from their trenches when the trenches themselves were blasted to pieces.
The great problem with a passion is you can get carried away with it and labelled by it!
This has happened a few times in recent weeks and months with conversations asking ‘Do you only photograph countryside subjects and dogs?’ Often from someone looking at a subject that requires a photographic commission in a non-rural environment.
A new dog can be exciting; but a new puppy around the home can be hard work and exciting, especially is it is lively young English Springer Spaniel! So imagine the Limb household when Islay came to live with us.
A telephone call from regular clients at Mouse House UK, a specialist marketing, design and branding company, asked if I could photograph a days clay shooting on a simulated game shooting day over on the edge of the Cotswolds.
But I still have a chuckle when I hear ‘Excuse me, but what breed is your dog?’ It may sound like a line from some TV sitcom, but it is a regular question when out with Mark and his Slovakian Rough Haired Pointers.