Wildlife in Pixels - Nature Photography..... and other "stuff"

This Weeks Offerings

2012-02-18T04:44:00.004-08:00

Derwent Water Mono Views

Had a day tutoring in the Lakes with two very nice guys this week, and managed to get a couple of shots at Derwent water myself.

I was using my 24mm PCE which had just come back from Nikon UK - they were supposed to correct a bad vignetting fault when shifted right - to give them their due they seem to have corrected the fault, but in so doing created a whole new set of faults that aren't immediately apparent on the back of the camera!

But images that are shot centred are fine, so here are a couple of 30 second exposures using the B&W 10 stop ND - and needless to say the funky PCE is now back at Nikon - why can't they put their addle-headed brains in gear and 'check' repairs by actually taking some damn pictures before declaring a repair perfect when it clearly isn't..?

Stars, Trails and Digital Art

I've been busy working hard putting my Stars & Star Trails e-booklet together this week - I've just about finished the image acquisition side of things, but I'm just desperate to get out and shoot some more images.

This second image is a composite of 3 images - albeit they were all shot from the same point. The stars and foreground were taken around 3 hours apart, and the moon was shot with a 400mm on a 1.5x crop body.

Two from this week

2012-02-09T03:31:00.000-08:00

"Lone Tree"

I have a bit of a 'thing' for lone trees....!

I had originally gone out to do a twilight shot at the bottom of Winatts Pass, but on approaching Buxton along Axe Edge the cloud levels ahead of me told be that the shot wasn't going to be on; so I turned around and headed for home.

On the way I spotted this tree with a great looking sky behind it so I pulled over and grabbed the 200-400, rested it on a stone wall and got this shot.

"Featherbed Moss"

Looking south west towards Featherbed Moss, to the west of Buxton. The landscape is illuminated by a full moon, but there was a lot of thin cloud drifting across the scene.

Shot with a 50mm f1.4G this is a 150 image stack, each shot being 20 seconds at f6.3

I have another shot in mind for the next new moon period which will be a sort of hybrid of the two shots here - a long tele shot of trees on a skyline with vertical star trails rising like a curtain behind them!

Star Trail at Teggs Nose in the Peak District

2012-02-04T05:20:00.000-08:00

Teggs Nose by Moonlight

Photographing star trail can be a very addictive pastime - despite the discomfort and unsociable hours!

This particular image is done in the same manner as I do all my star trails - namely layer blends of shots in which the stars are tack sharp pin-pricks of light.

There a multiple reasons for working this way, as opposed to longer bulb exposures:

1. Lack of 'hot' noise derived from "too many volts for too long" across the sensor.

2. Each image (if the composition allows) can be used in it's own right.

3. The images can be used as tack-sharp time-lapse components.

Having said all that, handling 200 to 300 images in a layer stack inside Photoshop can cause a computer to run VERY slowly - don't try it on a laptop!

This particular image is derived from 300 images shot at 23 second intervals; each frame exposure being 20 seconds long at f3.2 and 200 ISO; shot using a D3 and a Nikor 14-24 at 20mm.

I've left the aircraft trails in the shot just to show the pitfalls trying to do this 'stuff' in the Peak District - it's just too close to Manchester Airport!

Windgather Rocks nr. Kettleshulme

Here's another shot, this time 150x images - this time shot using a D300 and a cheap Tokina 12-24mm; so you can produce this images without having the need for expensive cameras or lenses.

I shall be producing a "How To..." e-book on shooting and processing these star-trail image stacks shortly - if you want to go on the mailing list for details then just email me at andy@wildlifeinpixels.net with the subject line "Star Trail E-Book"

A couple of weeks ago myself and a friend of mine were attempting a star trail shot over Howden Reservoir in the Peak District, but we had major dewpoint problems and we had our exposure sequences ruined.

Just to show him what we SHOULD have ended up with I did this quick Photoshop mock-up from an existing image that we both got before our lenses fogged up!

Here I've just let Photoshop extrapolate the stars rotation - not genuine, but it gave my friend the general idea and emphasised why the shot is worth persisting with.

Images & Digital Art of the Month - January 2012

2012-02-01T04:36:00.000-08:00

This first image was initially created as a bit of fun, but it soon began to take on a life of its own!

It is made from just two original RAW files, one of the Aurora taken in Norway a couple of winters ago, and a single image from a failed star-trail sequence taken at Derwent/Howden Reservoirs in the Peak District a couple of weeks ago.

(The sequence was a failure due to the front element of the lens hitting the dew point and fogging).

But before the fogging occurred I got some cracking exposures of Ursa Major and its reflection in the water.

Anyway, a simple layer blend of the two images produced a piece of Digital Art which I'm quite pleased with from a graphical point of view.

This second image - "Sentinels" - is a single image of two Oak trees in a field taken on a very foggy morning with the sun just making a bit of a bright area just behind them; it's a full frame image shot using a 24-70mm f2.8.

The canvass has then been extended by 100% downwards and the image has been duplicated and blended as a reflection and a displacement map has been added, derived from another image.

The resulting image has then hed a few subtle contrast adjustments made to it, then it's been toned to give this final result.

This last image has to be one of my all time favorites - shot in Norway last year on a day when it was far too windy to go after Sea Eagles in the boat!

We went for a drive towards Vik and came across this cute farmhouse with this great slopping field of barley which was waving around in the wind like something alive.

Not having any ND filters with me to slow the shutter speed enough I just rattled off about 50 shots at as slower speed as I could get, which was around 1/30th of a second at f22!

I wanted to capture as much motion blur as possible so the diffraction at f22 didn't real feature as a problem.

I took a few more shots at a more conservative f8 and a faster shutter speed to capture the sky - this shot has then had a number of the "blurry ones" blended in over the top of it in the foreground only to give the effect of progressive motion nearer the camera.

They may not be to everyone's taste because they are not "straight" single captures; but to be honest I think photography is like any other visual art form - it's the finished image that counts - NOT how you get there!

New Photoshop Layers, Masks & Channels DVD out now.

2011-10-27T08:29:00.000-07:00

I've created a set of 45 video tutorials that take you from the very basics of what Layers and Masks are and why we use them, right through to using the channel information contained in every image in order to make complex selections and masks.

Every lesson (where relevant) comes with it's own exercise files so that you can easily follow along with me.

Topics covered and illustrated with actual workflows include:

Basics of Layers and why we use them.
Layer Blending Modes
Using Clipping Masks
The Difference between Opacity & Fill
Basics of Masking
Altering and Changing the background colour and tone of an image.
Changing complete skies in an image.
Using a Knockout Layer to enhance foreground and background
Using CS5s Refine Edge facility
Getting the image to make its own selections.

Then we move on to some more advanced 'stuff' such as:

Methods of Levels Adjustment
Getting FULL control of Image Contrast
An 'in-depth' look at Luminosity Masking
An 'in-depth' look at Selective Colour and The Channel Mixer (no stupid B&W here!).
Creating and using Displacement Maps
A brief introduction to Image Calculations

Low Resolution SAMPLE LESSONS HERE and HERE

The techniques you will learn from this DVD will transform your Photoshop workflow and your creative abilities in post-processing, giving you the ability to make your images really shine and stand out from the crowd.

Wildlife in Pixels Essential Workflow Training - Photoshop Layers, Masks & Channels DVD with exercise files
£32.00 in UK Mainland P&P - available to order NOW via PayPal HERE

New Tutorial Upload to YouTube

2011-09-03T13:05:00.000-07:00

Click HERE

A lesson I've done today for my upcoming Layers,Channels & Masks Magic Photoshop DVD.

It's just a simple way to 'beef-up' the visual appeal of a seascape image that's being let down by 'poor water' - I like the sky and the Norwegian granite mountains, so decided to do something about it!

Anyway, I hope you like the technique.

The DVD should be ready around the latter half of October.

Photos published in Norway - Aftenposten magazine

2011-08-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

The mag has just published a handful of the White-tailed Eagle attacks Black backed Gull images and a few words from me (they've done the English to Norwegian translation!) - here's a link to a low quality .pdf of the article.

Aftenposten article

also see blog entry below

Photoshop Workshop at TFC Birmingham Saturday November 5th

2011-07-23T00:31:00.000-07:00

Photoshop Layers & Masks

Saturday November5th

The Flash Centre, Mount St. Birmingham B7 5RD

£ 95.00 including lunch & refreshments

The one thing that has always made Photoshop stand head and shoulders above all other image editors is its ability to allow the practice of layers and masking.

In this workshop we'll be looking at all aspects of working with layers, adjustment layers and their attached masks, as well as creating both simple and complex layer masks.

Layers and masks must be the most misunderstood and “feared” components of Photoshop, and yet they are really simple and easy to both create and use.

Layers and Masks really do allow you to create some incredible images as well as just simply making non-destructive edits to conventional images, and they are after all the main driving force behind the original creation of Photoshop in the first place.

If you don't learn to understand and use layers and masks then you are not utilising the power of Photoshop, and consequently not making the best of your images.

In this workshop we'll look at:

Types of layers

Making new layers
Adjustment layers for image correction and enhancement.

What is masking and why we do it.

The selection tools, Magic Wand, Quick Selection Tool & The Colour Range Tool.

Basic masking.

Creating new Alpha Channels.
Gradient masks.
Contour masks.
Using the image to generate selections.
Luminance masking.

And if time allows:

Creating Fog.
Creating Lightning using that strange Difference Clouds filter!
Atmospheric Perspective - using masks to put 'depth' into an image.

To book a place on this workshop call either Kevin or Brian at The Flash Centre 0121 327 9220

More from Norway

2011-07-22T16:40:00.000-07:00

Don't try this in your Cessna! Aerobatic Arctic Skua.

Slow shutter Herring Gull

A flock of seagulls taking off

More slow shutter "arty-farty" - it's a lot harder than you'd think, and I love some of the results you can get..

Sunset Eagle with supper

Backlit Eagle

Maurizzio's VERY significant other...

O.J. at full stretch

A rough water pick-up

Maurizzio doing his stuff

A Lesson in Life for a Great Blackback Gull

2011-07-17T02:12:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a spectacular trip to Norway and my good friend Ole Martin Dahle in Lauvsnes.

Now a lot of peaple are begining to 'knock' these so-called 'honeypot' locations as they seem to think that the picture come easily - well, as anyone who has actually been will tell you, it's far from easy - try constantly swinging a 400mm lens in a bouncing boat whilst trying to work out which of the seven eagles around you is going to dive; then trying to keep focus and composition together: after 4 hours you are knackered!

Every now and again something new and unique can happen...

The very last pair of eagles we visited on our last evening of photography are fairly new to the area and quite nervous of being close to Oles' boat and both birds made aborted dives at the coalfish bait put out for them.

Indeed they both procrastinated about it so much that one particular Great Blackback Gull decided that it was an opportunity not to be missed and attempted to swallow the fish itself and fly away.

Much to our amazement the male eagle suddenly became very focussed indeed, and made off at a great rate of knots in hot pursuit of said blackback.

Luckily the AF tracking on the Nikon D3s I was using decided that working overtime might be a good idea at this point, and although the ensuing action took place quite some distance away, and in deep shadow for the most part, a half-decent sequence of images was obtained by yours truly...

First contact...

Gotcha...

A very lucky Gull if you ask me, I just hope he's learnt his lesson, otherwise he might not be so lucky next time.

The images are not as high quality as I'd like as the action took place around 250 meters away so they are 50% crops, but to actually capture something as unique as this makes up for it - Ole has never seen it happen in all his years working with these eagles.

LIVE Workshop - March 30th 2011 at TFC Birmingham

2011-01-05T05:43:00.000-08:00

Digital Image Processing from RAW to Print

Full Colour Calibration & Proofing Workflow

On this workshop we'll be setting up a fully colour-managed workflow by calibrating both Monitor and Printer with the ColourMunki, and we'll be processing images in Lightroom 3, exporting them to Photoshop for finishing, and then using Photoshops superior print proofing facilities to ensure that what comes off the printer matches what we have on the monitor.

Topics covered:

Monitor Calibration – the easy way.
Printer Calibration – pain free printing, save on time, ink and paper
Creative RAW Processing in Lightroom
Setting up Photoshop for a colour managed workflow
Exporting Images to Photoshop CS4/5
Image finishing – adding canvass, modifying backgrounds
Image finishing – resizing for print
Image finishing – sharpening for print

Lunch

Printing from Photoshop – working with Soft-proofing
Printing from Photoshop – working within your printers Colour Gamut
Printing from Photoshop – getting the 'levels' right
Printing from Photoshop – coping with 'out of gamut' warnings
Printing from Photoshop – Soft Proofing adjustments with Layer Masks
Printing from Photoshop – print dialogue setup
The Print Process – additive and subtractive colour
Printing using 6 and 8 colour printers
Modifying ColourMunki printer profiles for even more accurate colour

Workshop details:

Cost: £95 inc VAT

Start Time: 9.30 am

Places: 12

For more information or to book a place contact either Kevin or Brian at The Flash Centre – 0121 327 9220

kevin@theflashcentre.co.uk or brian@theflashcentre.co.uk

The Flash Centre

2 Mount St Business Centre
Mount St
Birmingham
B7 5RD

Wildlife in Pixels - Nature Photography..... and other "stuff": New LIGHTROOM 3 Essential Training DVD available

2010-12-02T02:05:00.000-08:00

Wildlife in Pixels - Nature Photography..... and other "stuff": New LIGHTROOM 3 Essential Training DVD available

New LIGHTROOM 3 Essential Training DVD available

2010-12-02T02:03:00.000-08:00

95 live action video lessons on every facet of the Library and Develope Modules of Lightroom3.

This 2 disc DVD set has a running time of approx: 524 minutes and covers everything you need to know about:

Importing
Exporting
Catalogues
Basic Collections
Collection Sets
Quick Collections
Smart Collections
The Fundamentals of Digital Asset Management and the Lightroom database
Creative Colour
Cropping & Straightening
Clone & Heal Tools
The Adjustment Brush
Sharpening & Noise Reduction
Tone Curve adjustment
Lens Corrections
Working in Black & White

plus much more.

Ready for delivery now at £60.00 (inc VAT, post & packing Mainland UK)

For a detailed list of video lessons, or to order via PayPal see http://wildlifeinpixels.com/lr3_DVD.html

WIP at TFC - LIVE Workflow Workshop in Birmingham December 4th

2010-08-20T04:50:00.000-07:00

On Saturday December 4th I'll be doing a live workflow workshop based on Lightroom 3 and CS4/5 integration, with particular relevance to Nature and Landscape photography.

I'll also be including a brief overview of Photomatix Pro 3 HDR software.

Start Time: 9.30am
Venue: The Flash Centre, 2 Mount Street Business Centre, Mount St; Birmingham B7 5RD

Course Cost:      £80.00

Contact: Kev Treadwell, Brian Collier: 0121 327 9220

Tea/Coffee & Lunch provided

What is Lightroom - why do I like it so much and how does it speed up my digital workflow?

Getting Started - customising the interface, setting up a personalised =
identity plate, setting the correct working background colour and =
general preferences.

A brief edict on basic monitor profiling for Windows and Mac LCD displays.

sRGB, Adobe RGB(1998) and ProPhotoRGB colour gamuts.

Importing images into Lightroom.

                          Basic storage and Backup drive layout

                          File renaming and general import metadata setup

                          Image Preview settings - why these are more important than you might think

Catalogues and Collections

Importing photos from archive or external hard drives - how Lightroom "keeps tabs" on your images.

THE LIGHTROOM MODULES (on this workshop we'll only explore the Library =
and Develop modules).

The Library Module

                          Using the star and flag ratings to sort your images and then view images by ratings

                          Using Loupe view

                          Keyboard shortcuts to switch views

                          Using the Navigator

                          Keywording and Metadata fields

The Develop Module

                          General image adjustments

                          Noise Reduction

                          Filters

                          Dust spot removal and the magic "Q' key

                          Auto Synch

                          Setting up the Export preferences and placing your Archival Tiff folder

                          Operations which work better in Photoshop

                          Exporting the image to Photoshop

LUNCH

Photoshop preferences on the CtrlK/CmdK shortcut

                          Setting your Scratch Disc

                          Setting your Cache levels and History states

                          Setting RAM usage

Photoshop CS4/5 Basic workflow

                          Subtleties of the Clone tool

                          What Photoshop is famous for - working with layers THE EASY WAY

                          Cropping with the Rule of Thirds grid

                          Basic Levels adjustments

                          Sharpening for the web

Landscape use of Lightroom and Photomatix

                          Exporting a sequence of images to Photomatix

                          Dragging RAWs from Library view directly to Photomatix

                          "Doing Magic but not trying too hard" - processing FOR rework in Photoshop

                          "Seeing the Vision" - Finishing a Landscape image - more working in Layers

Close and Questions

This should be a cracking day - I'll be working LIVE via Canon projector so you can see absolutely every move I make.

There are only 12 places MAXIMUM on this workshop and it will be advertised on all TFC's websites, so to book a place call either Kevin or Brian at TFC Birmingham 0121 327 9220 (you can pay by CCard), or for more details email: kevin@theflashcentre.co.uk or brian@theflashcentre.co.uk.

Band Shoot - Titors' Insignia

2010-06-01T14:26:00.000-07:00

Shooting rock bands takes me way back to my college days - the days of "Das Englander PunkRokka" when the safety-pin boys 'n girls were at their zenith and Glam rock was just getting going. What days they were too, supported by a heady diet of State Express 555, liquid lunches of Greenhalls Festival and Wild Turkey and sitting at the high table of Manchester music - the Hacienda, rubbing shoulders and crashing ash with the great and the good of Fac21.

God Bless Tony.............

Anyway, careening back to the present my business partner in BoudoirChique; "She who must be obeyed, resistance is futile.." asked me if we could do a shoot with a local St.Helens band (local to her that is!), a band going under the most unassuming monica of 'Titors Insignia'.

"Tight what???" says I...

Anyway, here's a few from the afternoon shoot we did on Monday 31st May.

Titors' Insignia are:

Lewis Sanderson....Bass
Stu "Oggy" Ogden....Guitar/Lead Vocals
Mark "Peano" Pearce....Lead Guitar/Vocals
Stephen "Swifty" Swift....Drums

Left to Right Lewis, Swifty, Peano & Oggy

Some photographers just hate working with "musso's" but I can't think why - I've always found them some of the easiest people to work with in front of a camera; and these guys were no different!

Before I met them I was already somewhat pre-disposed to a black and white approach and an overall look of urban decay - pretty blooms and lot's of soft backgrounds just, well.........didn't quite seem to suit somehow!

Having found a suitable location it was "all hands to the pumps" and the shutter started to get a work out. Now I know this sounds a bit daft, but not having done any rock band imagery for around 20 years it was like discovering digital all over again - weird or what??!

The 14-24mm all-seeing-eye really came into it's own on the front of the D3, and shooting at 2000iso with lots of negative exposure compensation and a sprinkling of Elinchrom Quaddra for that extra bit of 'crunch' in the image all together yielded some quite exciting shots.

All in all a good and highly productive shoot - and by way of a bonus the band love the images too!

Thanks to Oggy, Swifty, Peano and Lewis for being on their best behaviour (though that's slightly marginal in Swifty's case).
Thanks to Kev and Brian at TFC Brum for the Quaddras - cheers boys.
Thanks to Ang as ever, and thanks to my lad Richard for being "gopher" for the shoot - good boy, FETCH.!

Links:
http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#!/pages/TITORS-INSIGNIA/44609553397

The band are doing a single for charity "Three Lions On Fire" details HERE

2010-05-24T04:51:00.000-07:00

Wildlife in Pixels 2011 Workshops

30th March - LIVE workshop at TFC Birmingham

Digital Image Processing from RAW to Print

Full Colour Calibration & Proofing Workflow

Topics covered:

Monitor Calibration – the easy way.
Printer Calibration – pain free printing, save on time, ink and paper
Creative RAW Processing in Lightroom
Setting up Photoshop for a colour managed workflow
Exporting Images to Photoshop CS4/5
Image finishing – adding canvass, modifying backgrounds
Image finishing – resizing for print
Image finishing – sharpening for print

Lunch

Printing from Photoshop – working with Soft-proofing
Printing from Photoshop – working within your printers Colour Gamut
Printing from Photoshop – getting the 'levels' right
Printing from Photoshop – coping with 'out of gamut' warnings
Printing from Photoshop – Soft Proofing adjustments with Layer Masks
Printing from Photoshop – print dialogue setup
The Print Process – additive and subtractive colour
Printing using 6 and 8 colour printers
Modifying ColourMunki printer profiles for even more accurate colour

Workshop details:

Cost: £95 inc VAT

Start Time: 9.30 am

Places: 12

For more information or to book a place contact either Kevin or Brian at The Flash Centre – 0121 327 9220

kevin@theflashcentre.co.uk or brian@theflashcentre.co.uk

Regal Eagle workshops in Norway – in conjunction with Ole Martin
Dahle/Norway-Nature.

July 9th – July 15th 2011 (2 places available) £1890.00
Spectacular White-tailed Sea Eagles in their element
See http://wildlifeinpixels.com/test_serve/Summer%20Eagles.pdf for details

NB: If our Norway workshops appeal to you then please bare in mind that early booking can save you a significant amount in flight charges.

New look website is now online with full details of all workshops and tuition services to help you
improve your photography and image processing.

If your work means you can only get out with your camera at weekends and the odd day off then
time spent in the field is valuable to you – learn how to make the most of it with a Photography
workshop or 1to1 tuition day with Andy.

Do your images justice – learn to process them quickly and easily with a Workflow Tuition day –
check out the tuition options on the new website.

Tuition days for either Photography or Image Workflow are available 7 days a week to suit your
individual needs and requirements, just email Andy at andy@wildlifeinpixels.com or call 07971
427939 or 01270 766150

New Website

2010-05-18T01:11:00.000-07:00

The new website is finally live, though there is a couple of slightly less important pages still under construction.

I've done the new site entirely in Flash and AS3, primarily to stop image theft which is becoming rather rife at the moment with sites like pixdaus.com.

Flash websites are not without their problems, mainly SEO-related to be honest, but there is one coding problem on the new site, and that is that the mouse wheel on a Mac cannot scroll any scrollable content - with a windows PC everything works just fine, but if you view the site on a Mac you'll most probably need to use the scroller bars on text fields and scroll pane pages.

Please ensure you have the very latest version of Adobe Flash Player installed - get it HERE

Now it's time to get on with some serious photography!

New look Website

2010-05-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

The new look website is nearly done, there are a few pages to finish but it's parked HERE at the moment.
Please go and have a poke around and let me know what you think, or if you have any problems - thanks.

Clients thoughts on the Winter Wildlife in Pixels Norway trip.

2010-03-08T13:22:00.000-08:00

"I would highly recommend this workshop to any photographer wishing to expand their horizons.

The accommodation was superb, the hides were in good locations, and all transport was included.

Norway is a beautiful country and the wildlife is spectacular.

We all had a great time with Andy and Ole Martin Dahle, the Eagle man of Norway."

Graham Coull - Cheadle, Cheshire

And that's a very nice early morning Goshawk Graham.

"Thank you very much for a fantastic opportunity to photograph what have to be the most impressive birds of Europe - the Golden Eagles did not disappoint.

The on site (in hide) hushed whispers of advise (f7.1 to f8 - iso 1000 - 9 point Cont' AF) soon became second nature and just required that bit of a tweak - don't forget +2 stops Exp Comp....drop your iso etc etc without this there would have been many missed images and frustrations trying to get CS3 to make up for my capture short comings.

The early morning wake up call in the form of your alarm clock must be heard to be believed !

Help and advice for everything from footwear, clothing, kit (its use !) and post processing before during and after the trip have given a complete package to an aspiring wildlife photographer.

I think the real test was when we got the chance to take images of the Aurora Borealis - a spot of good luck - only minutes out in the freezing cold air and a set of settings were being suggested - which would otherwise have taken a lot of time to find out by trial and error. Thanks, I will never forget that cold evening stood in a field shivering waiting for the shutter to close to get the next image.

Finally, it has to be said the trip was both productive and great fun - seriousness in the hide when it mattered and lots of jokes and fun at the guest house - and what a house -fantastic.

None of this would have been possible without Ole - please pass on my thanks to the Viking !

For the sake of completeness, the only bad point - I had to come back!

Cheers, hope to see you in the summer for Sea Eagles in flight"

Mat Look, Derbyshire

Mat took one of the best Lynx portraits I've seen in many a while
:

"I have just been lucky enough to leave mundane Britain for a week's photography in Norway.

Team Leader was Andy Astbury, the Attilla the Hun of professional photography.

Helpful advice was always on hand, as you could tell by the muffled whimpers emitting from the back of the hide as Andy drummed into another individual the correct techniques for each changing light condition.

Our host was Ole, a true gentleman Viking, full of wit and humour. The rest of the team, in order of age, not beauty, was Graham, Mike and Matt and a good 'craich' was had by all.

So, if you want to immerse yourself in nature, take pictures that you will never get in the UK and come home feeling tired but somehow nearer to nature, then book a week with Andy.

Thanks Andy for a really good week of nature and photography that gelled well.

Lots of love Malcy xxxxxxxxx"

Malcolm Clayton, Cheshire

There will be a few more images going on this page so please be sure to come back.

Regal Eagles workshop - Feb 13th - 20th 2010, Flatanger, Norway

2010-02-28T11:13:00.000-08:00

Another successful trip to the glorious Flatanger region of Norway.

This winters group was a fine body of men indeed, who all rose to the challenge of early risings and sub-zero hide temperatures with great alacrity and zeal, as you can see from the image left..!

"Ahhh...bless...!"

And he was the youngest on the trip by a country mile - these youngsters have no staying power...everyone say hello to Mat Look (but say it quietly as he needs his sleep..).

Let me introduce the other cast members:

Dapper man-about-town Graham Coull;

And two of the most dangerous men on earth, Malcolm Clayton and Mike Warrender;

These two are the only guys I've ever met who, I'm sure, could re-design the wheel, and actually make it better..!

All in all a very broad array of personalities which lead to a very pleasurable group dynamic - something often overlooked by photographic trip organisers.

Apart from arriving at Trondheim Vaernes airport whilst our luggage was still reclining in leisure at Schipol the trip went without a hitch and by all accounts everyone had a good time.

A 6.30am departure for the eagle hide in the mountains at Smalielva on the first day led to one of the most satisfying moments for me - the sound of four whispered gasps as the first Golden Eagle turned up in the gloom of dawn in the mountains.

But it's not all Golden Eagles; if you ever wondered where the biggest percentage of the worlds Bullfinches live, then it's here..!

And then there's always some nice regional mammal images to be had at Namsskogan:

All in all we had a great time, and were especially blessed with that superb Northern Lights display, which seemed to go on forever - a truly mind-warping experience that makes you realise just what an insignificant thing you really are in the grand scheme of things......

Many thanks to Graham, Mat, Mike and Malcolm for making this trip go by in a heartbeat; a special thanks to my friend Kjartan Trana for a great slide show and talk; and lastly, a special thanks yet again to the Big Viking Ole Martin Dahle for making it all happen for us - cheers matey...

Aurora Borealis in Flatanger, Norway

2010-02-28T09:48:00.000-08:00

Just returned from another enjoyable trip to Norway doing one of my Regal Eagles workshops.

But whilst we were there we were treated to a glorious 4 hour display of Northern Lights.

Neither words or images can truly do justice to this awesome spectacle, but here are a couple of images that give you some idea of what it was like.

We were totally unprepared for the event really - I hadn't taken a ball head with me so I had to cobble together some way of mounting camera and wide angle lens onto a Wimberley V2 head - it worked, but the camera was stuck in a horizontal plane all the time.

On top of that we were stuck in the village of Lauvsnes and could get out into an area free of light pollution - luckily we were on the western edge of the village and the vast majority of the display was either west or overhead, so we managed a few images!

Working blind was quite fun, a Nikon D3 and 14-24mm f2.8 zoomed out to 14mm, focussed manually at infinity and then tweaked back just a tiny bit, manual exposure 30 seconds at 400 iso f4.5 and just hoping that everything worked was the order of the evening.

Because I was stuck in a horizontal format I was having to tilt the camera between shots; this first image is two frames manually stitched together - one with the lens axis virtually parallel with the ground, the other with the axis swung vertical so the lens is pointing straight up at the sky.

This next image is a six shot 180+ degree panoramic:

Again, manually assembled at most of the proprietary stitching software doesn't seem to be able to form any control points, which it needs to do in order to make the pano. A few hours hard work in Photoshop - and it's still not quite finished.

The "lights" are a truly awesome natural phenomenon that makes you VERY aware of your own insignificance, and that you really are "just a blip on the screen" - it's good for the soul, and I think everyone should see them, then I think the planet might just be an ever so slightly nicer place than it is.

Summer Sea Eagles

2009-07-14T04:57:00.000-07:00

Just got back from 4 days in Norway photographing hunting Sea Eagles along the stunning coastline of Flatanger, in the company of that irrepressible Viking guide Ole Martin Dahle.

The 24 hour daylight plays havoc with your body clock but the "hard graft" is more than worth it just to see the eagles doing their "stuff" at such close quarters.

One of the hardest birds to photograph on this trip was the Arctic Skewer; small, black and fast as lightning.

This particular bird wass attracted to our boat and was actually happy to be tossed small bits of fish - in the shot it's attempting to catch a small chunk in mid-air, hence the acrobatics.

Welcome to my new blog

2009-03-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

Hi there, welcome to the new Wildlife in Pixels blog.

Now I'm not too sure how this is going to work out as I'm not used to this "blogging" thing but, well, here goes!

This is just one of the thousands of images I brought back from Norway on March 1st '09.

Myself, Edwin Kats and Rene "The Boy" Visser had just spent a glorious week with Ole Martin Dahle - the famous Eagle Man of Norway.

The deep snow of the Norwegian winter made for a spectacular setting in which to photograph these, the most regal of birds.

The superb quality of the northern sunlight, soft and causing no hard shadows, combined with the fantastic underlighting from the snow led to some really stunning images.

It never ceases to amaze me just how much "garbage" is banded about by so-called experts when it comes to taking images in snow!

There's a simple rule that I tell all my workshop clients - "dark subject light background = add time, or positive exposure compensation and light subject dark background = take away time or negative exposure compensation.

Both the shots above are simply Nikon D3 Matrix metered EV + 0.7 stop.