Another Wildphotos has come and gone. Once again it was a great two days with inspiring speakers and the option to speak to some of the leading lights in Nature and Landscape photography. The variation of speakers and their specialities was?excellent with most areas of nature and landscape photography covered. Images shown were exceptional and proved inspiring and depressing at the same time. Each year the bar seems to be raised higher. I have started to implement some of the ideas I had from?from last year. I still need to catch up with some of these,?but I found that this year I was ahead of the curve on some of the ideas spoken about – I just need to stop planning them and get on producing some images to show!
Check out the speakers and their websites HERE.
On the trend front it looks as if wide angle images are gaining the upper hand at the moment, whether remotely controlled or with the photographer present. Subject matter seems to require an all encompassing coverage, from wide landscape to macro images, with a conservation theme for the overall message.
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After two days of sitting in a lecture theatre in the Royal Geographic Society headquarters, I needed to get out and about and take some photos. The forecast was for a sunny Sunday, so I though I would visit Richmond park for the rutting red deer. It turned out to be a dark, cloudy morning and not the clear sunrise I had hoped for; so the lighting was quite flat. Photographing the deer is quite popular, so quite a few other photographers were around. Most of these seem to have no idea of field craft and observing the behaviour of their subject to see if it is happy and relaxed or not. At one point a stag and his group of 15 females was virtually surrounded by photographers, mimicking a pack of animals attacking the herd. All the deer were very alert and looked nervous. The photographers were completely unaware and carried on finding the best positions to photograph from. I left to try and find other deer to photograph, but due to having a bigger lens than most, I seemed to attract other photographers more than any thing else.
I decided to leave the park and visit the WWT London Wetlands Centre. Although it was quiet on photographic opportunities, it was great to wander about without hordes of other photographers. I’m looking forwards to Wildphotos 2012, but it is time to start pushing forwards with some of my own projects.
I totally agree with you when going out to take photos. I live in the New Forest and do no have a big lens but as soon as I get the camera out and carry in hand, people seem to be drawn to me like a magnet and start to follow me. Knowing the forest as I do though it does not take long to lose them.
Hi Jackie,
Thanks for the comment. There is something about interests or jobs that seem strange to everyday folk. As I mentioned, other photographers or walkers regularly seem to follow me around. With photography, I don’t mind as much, as long as they don’t interfere with my subject matter. I can ignore them as well if I want to. It is much harder with video and audio work.
The number of recordings I have with either the audio or video spoiled as somebody wanders over and asks – ‘Are you filming?’ or ‘What are you recording?’ seem to be growing rapidly. At least now I can record video and audio seperately, which allows me to rescue the video footage if the audio is spoiled.
The price we pay for living on an over populated island I believe.
Best wishes,
Nick