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.

Out with my camera... WWT London (Barnes)

To-date, my blog has mainly focused on my (relative lack of) success in microstock photography, as well as updates on significant new gear which has been launched.  Obviously, the most significant part of photography is actually being 'out there' taking shots, so I thought I'd share updates on this.  Even if nobody else reads it, it serves as a bit of a diary for my own use!

Although I'm a member of the Wetlands Trust, I don't often make it down to WWT London (Barnes), but fancied a jaunt yesterday, so gave it a go.  Optimistically, I'd set myself up for a fall by tweeting at @UK_Richard that I'd like to see Bittern and Lesser Redpolls.

For those haven't visited yet, the London Wetlands Centre is well worth a visit, as it's a bit of an oasis, only 19 minutes by train from Waterloo (then a walk from Barnes station).  The site looks a little something like:

It's very well setup for kids and there are loads of areas with wetland species from around the world to which you can get really close.

For seeing wild birds, there are several hides dotted around the site, with the Peacock Tower offering a 'birds-eye view'.

The reality of doing bird photography from the hides is that you're likely to need either a huge amount of luck, and/or a very high magnification telephoto lens in order to get cracking photos.  It's still worthwhile going of course, especially if you see something for the first time - binoculars will help you find something.  (The other top tip is to listen... not just to the birds calling, but others in the hide, who are usually more than happy to share what they've found!)

Yesterday, I was pretty lucky with sightings - two bitterns (one flying, both a long way away), a Jack Snipe (through someone's telescope), a Water Rail (directly below the Peacock Tower), a brief Peregrine Falcon and eventually some Redpolls.  I also got a shot of a Little Grebe.