I have just processed pics I took the last time I was out with our Otters, which was a few days before Christmas...oh yeah and Happy New Year everyone! What a terrible start. Anyway having just gone through the images I am pretty sure this Otter above , who is called Éowyn, is pregnant. Look at her belly in all these images and there is a definite bulge. This is incredible news and means we should have a family in our main territory again in the next 3 or 4 months, just in time for nice warm spring and summer days!!
I spent an incredible day in my hide which is the first time it has been used since I dug it in to improve the photography angle and to stop it getting destroyed by every storm. Usually this is where I would then say 'to get great images you need to do this and that etc' which is what most photographers write about. I have decided to take a different approach mainly due to my slight (to great) incompetence on the day. Rather than hide my head in shame, I decided to do a 'how NOT TO guide' to wildlife photography in our loch side hide.
As some of you have read before if you follow anything I do, one of my main ambitions over the last year with my business is to try and incorporate effective and useful citizen science into our photography workshops. It means when you come along, not only do you get to take amazing photos (hopefully) but you will be contributing to the protection of that animal or the enhancement of it's environment. Due to Covid a lot of my ideas did not happen this year. However our Otter project did kick off and I have absolutely loved it!!
Common animals are all around us. And generally let us get very close to them which makes them ideal subjects for wildlife photography.
This newsletter I am so so excited to say for the very first time I can combine my environmental work with delivering new workshops. Here's how it works. For most of my tours and some of my workshops next year, not only will you be able to get some incredible images and experience some world class moments you also get to genuinely help the animals or their habitat that feature on the tour or workshop. Here is a flavour of what we are doing: Red Squirrels Hours of incredible photography combined with tree planting to create more habitat for these amazing wizards of the forests. Beavers Great photography combined with helping the Argyll Beaver Centre with their camera trapping monitoring program. This is vital work for the national re-population of beavers in Scotland.
Wildlife in 17mm, the challenges which you can now try too.
Mirrorless - the rise of new tech, new vouchers available, NO to Kelp dredging.
New workshops, new studio and our wonderful Otters