Saturday 4 January 2014

2013 - My Photography Highlights

Well, another year is over, and suffice to say, this year, I haven't had anywhere near as much time as I'd have liked to devote to photography (or this blog with no updates all year!).  Despite this though, I'm still pleased to give a quick summary of some of the photography I have been able to do.  If you would like to see the images in more detail, you should be able to click one to open up a 'gallery view' to see them larger.

Sri Lanka

Photographing wildlife is still my main interest, so was thrilled to be lucky enough to travel to Sri Lanka, famed for its leopards in Yala National Park.  Unfortunately, they were elusive during our visits, but I was able to photograph a lot of other species.

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Blue Whale

Blue Whale

Indian Fruit Bat

Little Bee-Eater

Mongoose

Monkey with family

Peacock

Sloth Bear

Opening a coconut to drink

Tuk-tuks

The mysterious shadow mountain at Adam's Peak


New England

My other trip this year was to New England in the US, a massively under-rated destination.  Not only is Boston a great City (helped by the Red Sox winning the World Series whilst we were there!), but heading North takes you to both the White Mountains and Acadia National Park.


Moody skies over Boston

Boston Skyline

Cormorants over Boston Skyline

A Gannet taking-off...

Humpback Whale

Autumn / Fall Leaves

Autumn / Fall Colours

Acadia National Park

A Monet Painting

Squirrel

UK Wildlife


Badger

This year, I set(t) myself a target to photograph a badger, an animal that's been in the news due to the 'policy' of culling.  Having found an active sett, it became pretty clear that photographing them in very low light was going to be difficult (which gave me some hope the badger cull would fail!).  Anyway, for now, I have some initial footage which came out OK (video seems to be easier in low light than photography, for reasons I don't really understand!)




Red Squirrel

Another iconic mammal in the UK is the Red Squirrel, persecuted by the invasive Grey.  I was lucky enough to track one down in the wild (not one of these staged snow-scenes for photographers!) and as well as some nice stills, took a video of some break-dancing!




Peregrine Falcon

Finally, I've also found a Peregrine Falcon nest, albeit it is difficult to get close to.  Via a 'Heath Robinson' approach, I managed to get some footage through a telescope.



 
I also got an intruiging shot over my house of two Falcons, with six wings!


A pair of Peregrines, with six wings between them!


Guildford Floods

On Christmas Eve, Guildford (alongside a lot of the local area), suffered some flooding.  I put some footage on YouTube, and it ended-up in a report braoadcast on the BBC London News.  It was also linked to from weatherforecast.co.uk.


Earlier in the year, Huffington Post included one of my sunset images of Guildford in one of their online galleries.

International Space Station (ISS)

Managed a photograph of the International Space Station (ISS), taken from my back garden.  it's the vertical line towards the left of the photo (the other lines are aeroplanes)








Microstock

I didn't upload any images in the last 12 months, so was expecting to see a dramatic fall-off of revenue, as 'freshness' is important in the industry.  However, with a few steady-earners in the back catalogue, and courtesy mainly of Shutterstock, it was enough to make a tiny, tiny dent in the cost of my camera and lenses - £261 in total.



My most popular images for sale at Shutterstock: