Four of our Camera Club ladies have recently visited Biddulph Grange, a delightful high Victorian garden organised by the National Trust. It is an amazing garden created by James Bateman for his collection of plants from around the world. We had a lovely day relaxing in the gardens and despite it being busy and very bright we all captured some lovely images. As you can see we were also experimenting with our technique.
Alison Lomax, Chris Aggersbury, Pamela Carr, Val Lear
Shortly before 6am we left Macc to drive the three hours to sunny Bridlington Harbour to meet up with Steve Race the days organiser (he recently featured on BBC Countryfile) and seven other keen photographers. We had booked on an ‘Above and Below’ photography experience of Bempton cliffs – below the cliffs on a boat in the morning then on the top of the cliffs in the afternoon.We caught our boat out into the North Sea in good time with the aim being to try and get images of the Gannets diving for fish. We only went about half a mile off the coast stocked with five large buckets of fish. Along the way to our spot we are able to catch images of Fulmars, Puffins, Razorbills, Guillemots and various Gulls riding on the waves. As soon as the boat captain began dispensing the fish into the sea the Gannets started circling and then diving at speeds up to 60mph like arrows splashing into the sea. As Gannets do, they would then argue and fight over fish ownership.
It was really tough to get actual diving pictures as the birds moved so fast. A higher success rate was achieved by focusing on the fish and waiting for the Gannets to emerge and be pounced on by their fellows. We must have had around 200 – 300 birds circling our boat and over 40 minutes or so we were able to get many images of the feeding frenzy. It was such an incredible experience to see these birds diving so close to the boat at such amazing speeds. They were so close that long lenses were not really needed. After lunch we headed by car to Bempton Cliffs for some top down images of Kittiwakes and their chicks, mating Razorbills and lots more Gannet activity from the different viewpoint.
Steve and his Yorkshire Coast Nature team run these trips about 10 times a year in the summer months so if you are in any way interested look them up.
David Tolliday, Steve Gresty, Conor Molloy.
We all have different approaches to selling our images, some have to do it for a living, others aren’t particularly keen, and even if you want to engage, how do you go about it ? Well, until recently I was in the ‘not particularly interested’ camp having heard friends stories of getting only 25p from big agencies like Shutterstock or Getty for a picture when they make hundreds of pounds for it !!- I couldn’t be bothered if its only 25p to see them cream off all the main profit from your hard work, even though Mark Helliwell tried to persuade me that its the number of 25p’s you get that all add up.
It wasn’t until a couple of months ago that I heard of Picfair which is different type of agency that simply turn things on its head – you the photographer name your price (mine are all £20) and the agency add a relatively small percentage on to that price. It seems fairer that the photographer gets the main slice rather than the agency. In two months I have only sold two pictures but thankfully I’m not relying on it to put bread on the table !!
The people at Picfair seemed to like my images and asked me to be this months featured photographer in their interview blog…….here is the link….. Conor’s Picfair Interview
I was approached by the Macclesfield Heritage Trust to help them with a project to renew the video in the museum, to bring it up to date with images of old and new features of the town, including street images, historical buildings and some of the more modern things around the town. I thought I would do it in order to help a local project but also as a relative newcomer to Macclesfield it would help me get to know the town I am living in much better. We were a team of six with just a couple of us taking images and others providing historical context and guidance under the direction of David Heke the producer from Chester.
Interior of St Michaels church
So far it has probably taken me three full days and some of you have seen me walking around town with my camera and tripod. Its been a hugely enjoyable project taking me to the inside of local churches – some well hidden – and the to some of the historic streets…the 108 steps and buildings of the town…..do you know why the Hovis Mill is so called ?
I expect the new video to be up and running in September in the Heritage Centre in town so go have a look at it – there is much more to see in that place than I ever thought.
Seven of us headed off for the Farne Islands, (around a four hour drive from Macc), in mid-June which is the peak period for seabird activity, particularly nesting and feeding young. We booked on the all-day photographers trip allowing around 2.5 hours on each of Staple Island and Inner Farne with a boat tour around all the islands.
Staying at the Bamburgh Castle Inn right next to the Harbour for one night we awoke to low tides and a touch of grey skies and light rain. We were told that we may not be able to land at Staple Island and were delayed by an hour to help the tide rise. However, we did eventually land on Staple for a couple of hours. The boat journey, which can sometimes be a bit troublesome, was quite calm.
We were greeted by literally thousands of seabirds, Guillemots, Razorbills, Shags, Gulls and of course lots of Puffins. As nature photographers we are always told to get good images of ‘stuff happening’ rather than birds just posing for the camera. Well, here we had it in abundance, Shag chicks with their heads buried well down their parents neck for regurgitated food, Gulls pinching young Guillemot chicks for lunch, lots of fighting, mating and of course Puffins landing with beak fulls of sand eels. If this was just Staple Island, well how good would Inner Farne be ?
Arctic Terns feeding their chicks
Inner Farne had some different birds….the Terns….both Arctic and Sandwich Terns. The Arctic Terns were nesting just everywhere, birds sitting on eggs next to the path, chicks only a few days old were hanging around the nests on the ground and on the walls waiting for food to be delivered by an overworked parent. I think all of us got attacked by a Tern at some stage because it was impossible not to get too close to the chicks or the nest, they were just everywhere.
A bit further around the island the sandwich terns were mainly in one colony with around 500 birds coming and going feeding chicks. I hadn’t seen many of these before so they were a special delight. moving along the wooden boardwalk it was incredible to watch the Puffins coming in to land with their sand eels. They had to run the gauntlet of the Gulls who pounced to rob them of their catch if they did not get down their burrow fast enough. Your reactions had to be very quick to get any decent photos of this activity because you simply didn’t know which direction they were going to come from.
After a lot of feeding activity it was time to try some birds in-flight photography – this is were your capture card quickly gets full as rapid bursts of the shutter whilst panning lead to hundreds of images being taken in a short space of time usually with a high failure rate.
The weather improved as the day went on, the light just got better and better and we all had a great time exploring these two islands and the high level of bird activity that they presented to us. My only regret was not staying for another day – it was that good. So, watch out for lots of Farne Islands images appearing in next years competitions….lots of ‘pairing’ and bucket loads of ‘emotions’.
Conor Molloy with Val Leer, Chris Aggersbury, Alison Lomax, Kevin Lomax, Kevin Blake and David Tolliday.
