WildPhotos 2011

I'm off to WildPhotos 2011 tomorrow at the Royal Geographic Society. It promises to be an excellent event, and is sold out - but there will be a few tickets on the door tomorrow morning if you get there early...

The speakers this year are as follows:

• Alex Badyaev
• Daniel Beltrá
• Peter Chadwick
• Bruno D'Amicis
• Jack Dykinga
• Ruth Eichhorn
• Jürgen Freund
• Erlend Haarberg
• Paul Hassell
• Bence Máté
• Kathy Moran
• Andrew Parkinson
• Thomas P Peschak
• Mateusz Piesiak
• Benjam Pöntinen 
• Michel Roggo
• Andy Rouse
• Cyril Ruoso
• Paul Souders
• Sophie Stafford
• Zoe Whishaw
• Sven Začek

More details of the event at their site.

Andy Rouse 'Vanishing Worlds' London Exhibition

Andy Rouse has an exhibition in London starting next Monday (19th October) - 'Vanishing Worlds'. It is at the National Geographic store on Regent Street.

I never miss an Andy Rouse book. I attended his talk at the Royal Geographic Society a couple of weeks ago - an excellent evening. Great images and a very good presentation - he is very passionate about his subject.

Full press release here.

(Further talk dates in the post from a few weeks ago here.)

Contribute to the ARKive via Flickr

ARKive now have a group on Flickr which allows users to submit images directly to ARKive:

"ARKive is leading the ‘virtual’ conservation effort, gathering together films and photographs of the world’s threatened animals, plants and fungi into one centralised digital library to create a unique audio-visual record of life on Earth.

ARKive is making this resource accessible to all, from scientists and conservationists, to the general public and school children, as a valuable educational resource and conservation tool.

It is ARKive’s immediate aim to compile audio-visual profiles for the world’s threatened species. In order for us to achieve this, we need help from as wide a variety of donors as possible and we would like to be able to add Flickr users to our growing list of contributors."

Find out more at the ARKive Flickr group and the main ARKive website.

Andy Rouse Talk Dates

Andy Rouse has scheduled a number of talks to mark his 10th year as a professional wildlife photographer:

• September 30th - Royal Geographical Society, London
• October 30th - Hartlepool
• November 11th - Stafford
• November 29th - Glastonbury
• December 5th - Wadhurst

More details on his blog.

WildPhotos 2009

The dates have been announced for WildPhotos 2009: Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th October 2009. Like 2008, it's at the Royal Geographic Society in London (an excellent venue.)

I always meant to write up WildPhotos 2008 as it was a fantastic two days with great speakers and superb images. However I never got around to it. Fortunately they did, and here's their writeup.

If you're a student, a professional wildlife photographer or just a wanna-be like me, you should go. Registration opens in June - you can get on their mailing list by visiting the site linked below.

• Wild Photos

Online UK Species Mapping

There's a fantastic resource for checking out species distribution in the UK, the National Biodiversity Network. It aggregates data from many different organisations to provide maps of species distribution throughout the UK. It's free to access and well worth a look - this map below was generated with their online tools, and shows the recent records of brown hare sightings in the UK. 

• The National Biodiversity Network

(For some reason I can't get this image into Blogger without it getting compressed massively. The original 30k PNG file looks perfect.)

Natural World: The Mountains of the Monsoon

Check out this excellent documentary about Indian wildlife photographer Sandesh Kadur. His shots are outstanding. The iPlayer link works until 13th March. It's definitely worth watching - he's a great photographer and it's a very well produced programme.

"Indian environmentalist and photographer, Sandesh Kadur, has traded a comfortable career in the family business to explore the natural wonders of the Western Ghats mountains. 

Just a few hours drive from the commercial bustle of his native Bangalore, Sandesh could be a world away. The monsoon pours six metres of rainfall each year on the remote peaks and isolated valleys of the Ghats. Alongside familiar Indian species like elephants, tigers and peacocks are more mysterious creatures that are not found anyhere else - a purple frog with a face like a shrew and a monkey with a lion-like mane and tail. 

Most intriguing of all, there is a chance sighting of a grey big cat, unlike anything scientists have seen before. To find out whether this enigmatic cat-in-the-ghat really is a new species, Sandesh must climb to the summit of these mountains. His journey is a reminder that in fast-track, modern India, this cloud-wrapped wilderness is more precious than ever."

• Natural World: The Mountains of the Monsoon on iPlayer
  

Free Photos?

If you've got an account on Flickr or on any other large photo-sharing site, you'll probably have been contacted by people asking to use a photo of yours for nothing. Thomas Hawk blogs about it here: Should You Give Away Your Photos For Nothing To People Who Can Pay?

I totally agree with his post. Here are some examples of mine:

• Eurostar: wanted it for nothing, didn't even reply when I enquired what they would pay
  
• Watford Museum: as this is non-profit, and I live in Watford, I agreed. This led to work from Watford Council. Watford Museum were absolutely brilliant to deal with.
  
• Construct Ireland: didn't offer to pay but when I brought the subject up, agreed to it without a problem.
  
• Numerous wildlife charities and research organisations: These all get them for nothing.

I urge you - even if you're agreeing to give it away - to make clear the terms of your license. If they have asked for it for a leaflet, make it clear that you are granting a license just for that one usage.

Leica Safari

If you've got a spare £6,700 and for some reason don't want to spend it on a DSLR with a very long lens, how about this?

It's an olive drab version of Leica's M8.2 digital rangefinder. The blurb in BJP says it has a "dark green paint finish, making it a suitable option for wildlife photographers." What's even better is that it's only about £2,700 more than a regular M8.2.

Is it April already?

PS I do hate myself a bit for wanting one

Lift-Off

Lift-Off
Originally uploaded by vlad259

I can definitely recommend Glenlivet Wildlife for guided wildlife watching in the Glenlivet estate. It's the first time I've seen mountain hare - it was a wonderful day.

• Glenlivet Wildlife
  

Gannets by Arthur Morris

Long a favourite of mine, Arthur Morris has a regular mailout that is always interesting. I found the June 26th mailout particularly informative: it concentrates on Gannets, mainly with a Canon 400mm DO lens. The pictures are stunning!

- June 26th mailout archive
- Full mailout archives (at the top there are instructions on subscribing to Arthur's mailing list.)

Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year

The Guardian Unlimited website has a gallery of some of the winning images in the 2007 Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. I particularly like the polar bears on the ice (Norbert Rosing), Bence Mate's Eric Hosking's award pictures, Graham Eaton's fantastic underwater mallard shot and of course Danny Green's lovely water vole.

The winning pictures are on show at the Natural History Museum starting from tomorrow 26th October.

Here's the link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2007/oct/25/wildlife.photography?picture=331055684

Gallery also at the Natural History Museum: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/onlineGallery.do

Martin Eisenhawer: Life in a Cold Climate

There's a good two page article on Swiss wildlife photographer Martin Eisenhawer just gone online at the Canon Professional Network. They have put a gallery up with 30 of his images - many people will recognise the crane and albatross images that did well in several competitions over the last couple of years.

John Isaac Reviews Olympus E-510

Most of the wildlife photographers that I meet are equipped with either Nikon or Canon. I've often thought that Olympus cameras were very suitable for nature and wildlife photography. I've seen some great results from Olympus E series cameras on Flickr, with all sorts of lenses.

The company has had a reputation for excellent optics since the 1960s, and their Olympus Trip camera sold 10 million units in nearly twenty years on sale - reputedly the biggest selling camera of all time.

The Four Thirds system (aspect ratio of 4:3 rather than the 3:2 of 35mm) has allowed Olympus to make their cameras and lenses smaller and lighter than the competition. The 2x crop factor is an advantage, too. All E series customers get a voucher for a free mount that allows use of older Olympus lenses, and many other lenses can be fitted. I've seen Leica, Voigtlander and Nikkor lenses used on an E-1 to great effect.

So it was with great interest that I read John Isaac's Olympus 510 Field Review (link below.) He's used an Olympus E-1 for all the photos in his new book, due out in 2008.

• Olympus 510 Field Review by John Isaac
• John Isaac's website
  
• Tengsama's photos on Flickr (great shots, and check out that lens collection!)

Yellowstone to Yukon: Freedom to Roam

German wildlife photographer Florian Schulz is featured in a new exhibit at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Washington. "Yellowstone to Yukon: Freedom to Roam" opened on June 16 and documents the effort to preserve wildlife corridors from Yellowstone National Park to Canada's Yukon Territories. These corridors would link existing parks and public lands to ensure the survival of one of the world's last intact mountain ecosystems.

This is a rare chance to see large format wildlife photography. Schulz spent 10 years roaming the Rockies to capture the images, and will give a lecture and slide show on Oct. 23. The exhibit is organized by the museum in collaboration with The Mountaineers Books and the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.

The museum is on the University of Washington campus, at the corner of Northeast 45th Street and 17th Avenue Northeast. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and until 8 p.m. on the first Thursday of the month.

• The Burke Museum website
• The website of Florian Schulz

Heather Angel Workshop

"World renowned photographer Heather Angel is gearing up for the 11th Wildlife & Natural History Workshops at Saint Hill Manor in West Sussex with Nikon U.K. on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th July 2007."

The press release is here.

News Roundup

• The first osprey chick born at the Loch Garten RSPB site. If you're anywhere near Loch Garten the RSPB centre is well worth a visit. With a very large lens you could get some decent shots from the centre itself, they have a great viewing section.
• BBC Springwatch finished for another year, doesn't Islay look nice!
• Lots of updates on Andy Rouse's blog, he's planning tours for 2008 (and working through his 18-month backlog of captured images!). He's also updated his Canon 1D Mk III review.
  
• WildPhotos 2007 has been announced. "Find out how to take, improve, publish, earn a living from, and make a difference with nature photographs at WildPhotos 2007." It's on Friday 26 & Saturday 27 October at the Royal Geographical Society, Kensington, London. Speakers include Doug Allan, Karl Ammann, Colin Baxter, Gary Braasch, Peter Cairns, Mark Carwardine, Chris Dickie, Mark Edwards, Eddie Ephraums, Pål Hermansen, Laurent Geslin, Robert Glenn Ketchum, Tim Laman, Frans Lanting, Cristina Mittermeier & Colin Prior.
• Fantastic creepy heron
• Tim Ennis is still great
• Zooomr is back up. I like it and I think it could grow into a very good photo sharing site.
• The Valley of the Geysers, Kamchatka, Russia, has disappeared forever. In this article Igor Spilenok, one of Russia's top nature photographers, talks about the lost valley.
  

Jim Cole and Bear Etiquette

If you're wondering about photographer Jim Cole and his mauling by a bear in Hayden Valley, Yellowstone National Park, here are some links (below) that give a good insight into the sort of wildlife photographer he is. I liked Jim Peaco's words that "hormones, babies and food are the three things a wildlife photographer doesn't want to mess with."

Hopefully Jim Cole will stay away from bears generally, especially sows with cubs. Bears that have mauled humans are normally culled by park authorities. Why not just stay well out of the way?

• Excellent article in the Casper Star Tribune with quotes from several experienced bear photographers
• Ralph Maughan's blog post about it - the comments are very interesting

Bag one with a bag hide

Much to our respective wives' amusement, Team Wild Angle recently invested in camouflage bag hides from Kevin Keatley's excellent Wildlife Watching Supplies. Well laugh no more ladies! On their very first outing they proved their worth.

We'd previously found a section of disused railway line in Watford and had some success last summer.

Eager to try out the new bags we found ourselves an uncomfy spot, crawled inside the bag hides and waited. 30 minutes later - bingo. If you fancy a try ...

• Get your bag hides here

Art Wolfe TV Show

If you have access to the PBS TV channel, keep an eye out for Art Wolfe's new show, Travels to the Edge. "Get inspired to travel, learn professional photography techniques, and appreciate the beauty of Patagonia." More details of the show, and the the TV channel schedules for it, can be found at the link below.

• Travels to the Edge