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Firstly, my sincere apologies for not updating the site sooner. To say the last few months have been a little hectic would be quite an understatement though that's no excuse I know for not doing something, however little. So rather than going up till June I have also included July since during that month I headed off to the Brecon Beacons and Skomer Island where I managed to get some fresh pictures of puffins.

Yet more trips to Prague have resulted in even more photographs and I am pleased to say that the agency, Picturebank are now representing me for my 'travel' shots. This side of my business is in stark contrast to my wildlife work and that in many respects is half the attraction. I think I must have photographed every landmark and shot from nearly every viewpoint many times over in this city but the changing light and wonderful architecture make it hard to resist. By the time you read this I will be back in Prague for over 2 weeks and a short trip to Cesky Krumlov is planned, an outstanding medieval town with enormous photographic potential.

Regardless of the weather I try as much as possible to go to my favourite place, Elmley Marshes. It has however, over the last few months become increasingly difficult to get there due to major roadworks along the road leading to the reserve due to the bridge being built. This means that unless you leave before 7am, it can take anything up to an hour to make a 15 minute journey! Anyway, by far the most numerous species is the lapwing and these can easily be watched and photographed along the access track from the car.

One of the RSPB's most important wetland reserves, Stodmarsh, lies just a 40 minute drive from my home, yet I have only photographed it a handful of times. It is often visited by birdwatchers and the like and the birds tend to be some distance away so serious wildlife photography is extremely difficult. So I decided one afternoon to try my hand at photographing the landscape and as usual found the best light came just a few minutes before the sun dipped below the horizon. It was pretty windy and so with camera mounted onto a tripod it was just a matter of waiting for a lull.

As I said, in July I went to Wales where during those 10 days I was joined by my Finnish photographer friend, Markus Sirkka whom last September I accompanied to Lapland. He had never been to the UK before so I planned to visit areas he wasn't too used to seeing which also included Elmley Marshes. He loves hiking so we spent several days in the Brecons and then 2 nights on Skomer which I had arranged some months previously so as to make the most of the morning and evening light and then a few more nights in the Brecons. Throughout the trip we had very changeable weather. On our first day on Skomer for example we had glorious weather but then it started to become overcast and eventually turning to thick fog. However, rather than let it dampen our spirits we simply looked on the positive side and went for more atmospheric shots of the island and its inhabitants. The real icing on the cake though was to see and hear the manx sheerwaters, a species I have longed to see since a boy. We were not to be disappointed. Skomer has around 165,000 pairs (roughly half the worlds population) and when they come to land at night to their burrows, they do so in the noisiest fashion, sounding a little like screaming babies! It's little wonder that many years ago it drove islanders to dispair proclaiming that the island was inhabitated not by these birds but by tormented souls !

I've been using digital for quite a while now for my press and commercial work but very little for wildlife. This kind of shoot however seemed to be the perfect opportunity to use it since I could see instantly from the rear display how the image looked and by checking the histogram if it was correctly exposed. Since the resulting images would hopefully be used for publication I shot on Raw for the largest file size. The flight shot above was a real hit-and-miss affair. Setting the 28-105mm lens to 28mm and the focus to infinity I held the camera in line with my head-lamp and as soon as one passed I took a picture. Its been enlarged quite a bit and the contrast increased using photoshop. I can quite honestly say that if I wasn't using digital here it would have been almost impossible to get a shot like this.

I had hoped for shots of the adults with beakfulls of food but they never stayed above ground long enough and the only shot I did get was as this individual in the bottom right-hand picture flew in. I had time to take just 1 shot and thankfully the autofocus handled the situation nicely. The other was taken as the fog drew in and so rather than pack up I fitted the flashgun and tried some flash-and-blur shots. This kind of work really is hit and miss so it pays to take a lot of pictures. The wind was very strong and their flight paths fairly predictable so it was a case of quick eye-hand coordination and good autofocus!