2012 - My Photography Highlights

As 2012 comes to a close, it's time for me to wrap-up the year and summarise my photography highlights.  With so many things going on outside photography for me in the last 12 months, it was always going to be tricky to fit much photography in, but I'm pleased to have still had some successes:

• Highly commended in the British Wildlife Photography Awards
• Photographing three endemic species in Ethiopia - the Ethiopian Wolf, the Gelada Baboon, and the Walia Ibex 
• Some Olympics London 2012 photographs
• A shot or two of the Northern Lights
• Earning £281.03 from microstock sales, including some timelapse footage for the first time 
• Seeing waxwings for the first time
• Helping reunite someone with their camera

BWPA Awards - Highly Commended

It was a pleasant surprise to hear that I'd been Highly Commended in the British Wildlife Photography Awards.  As well as featuring in their exhibition which was hosted at the Mall Galleries, London, my image also features in their great book:


My image is available to buy in a variety of sizes/formats from Photobox:




Ethiopia

My honeymoon was in Ethiopia this year and I was lucky enough to get some shots of some pretty rare animals, including the Ethiopian Wolf:




 
Olympics

It's not everyday that the Olympics come to ones home city, so I was delighted to have some success in the ticket applications and got to see a variety of events.  As a normal punter in the stands, I was never going to get great images, but I still have terrific memories of the most amazing spectacle.  Some images are available to see in my recent posting.

Northern Lights

More details and photographs here, but pleased to have made the most of tricky conditions:

 



Microstock sales

For 2012, I had earnings of £281.03, which as you'll see from the chart below, with one agency, Shutterstock, being the most significant part:
 


I didn't have much time to take/upload many images this year, but the Shard in London, is starting to sell OK:

My latest images for sale at Shutterstock:

... but my most popular images are the usual suspects:

My most popular images for sale at Shutterstock:

My first sold piece of timelapse imagery can be seen here.


Waxwings

Finally, very happy to have seen Waxwings for the first time, on the penultimate day of the year!

  

2013...

I have no firm plans for photography for 2013, but it would be great if I could include the following modest ambitions:

• Photograph a (live) badger
• Earn £300 from microstock
• Explore wildlife video
• Refrain from spending (much) more money on equipment (Canon did very well out of me this year!)

Happy New Year and thanks for taking the time to read this.  Feel free to leave a comment, follow me on Twitter (@UK_Richard), or 'like' my Facebook page.

Olympics - London 2012

A little late perhaps, but I thought I'd share some of my London 2012 Olympics images, before the year is out!  After a little persistence and a large spattering of luck, I managed to get tickets to several events and thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle which was delivered.  I also bumped into the torch relay a few times too...

The images below aren't going to be anything like the ones which professional photographers would have been able to take from their privileged positions (and better skill and equipment!), but help remember a unique fortnight.

BWPA - Highly Commended Image - Deer Rutting

I am pleased to confirm that one of my images has been Highly Commended in the 'Animal Behaviours' category of the British Wildlife Photography Awards - the showcase for Britain's diverse nature and wildlife.

Here's the image in question (see the bottom of this blog for more about how/where/when I took the image):

Deer rutting, BWPA 2012 Animal Behaviours - Highly Commended

It's featured on Page 63 of the excellent hard-back 'coffee table' book, which is available to order from Amazon (and makes for a great Christmas present, as most of my relatives will find out!):



I'm also happy to announce that via Photobox, I'm able to offer the chance for you to buy a print of the images, available in all sorts of sizes and mounted, framed, etc.  Please double- check if you are ordering that the image fits well for the size you'd like, as sometimes the ratio of the print means you lose part of the image:



The image was on display in the Mall Galleries, SW1, alongside lots of the images from the book, including all the well-deserved winning ones

Mall Galleries, showing British Wildlife Photography Awards, 17th Sept 2012

More about the image

Richmond Park, in the South-West of London is one of the most accessible places to see Red Deer in the UK.  Like all wild animals, they need to treated with respect - and in the rutting season in particular, you have to keep a safe distance from them (unlike Fenton).

My day started the night before, when I confirmed that the weather was going to bright and very cold the next morning (good for mist) - then it was time to pack all the gear, charge the batteries and set the alarm for 04:30.

At the time, in October 2011, I was still living in Central London, so I cycled over to Waterloo and got the first train out towards Richmond (Norbiton, in fact).  Whilst pitch black, I was then able to use the pedestrian gate to enter the park - and slowly cycle through the park on the roads.

As the light started to appear, I remember taking this shot en-route to where I eventually locked my bike up and then started walking:

After finding the deer and noting the likely direction they would head and where the sun would appear, it was a case of walking a very wide loop, downwind, ahead of them - and getting below the horizon level...  A group of deer then walked nicely across the light and then when I saw a couple of them starting to rut, after a quick reposition, I managed to get the shot I was happy with.

The Shard at London Bridge

In my free-time, I have taken a few shots of The Shard during its construction, from various local vantage points. 

Here are my favourites, which will benefit from viewing fullscreen.

Timelapse, January 2012

 

6th August 2009, from Guys Walkway

24th April 2010

9th May 2010

5th July 2010

25th July 2010

12th September 2010

28th November 2010

28th November 2010, from under London Bridge

12th December 2010, from Southwark Street

31st January 2011, from roof of One New Change

22nd April 2011

22nd April 2011, from South end of London Bridge

1st May 2011, from London Bridge Rail Platform

May 21st 2011, with Emirates Airbus A380

2nd July 2011

3rd July 2011

8th July 2011, from London Bridge

8th July 2011

9th July 2011, from Tower Bridge

17th September 2011, from Broadgate Tower (through glass)

17th September 2011

25th September 2011

19th November 2011, with Southwark Cathedral

19th November 2011, from outside Borough Underground Station

19th November 2011

17th March 2012

14th April 2012

14th April 2012

(Definitely watch the last video clip at fullscreen - and watch what the guys at the very top get up to!)

Feel free to contact me if you're interested in prints (without watermarks!), or any other creative use for any of these images.