Blog

I spent last week in Pembrokeshire doing a variety of film work, I had some evenings free so I took the opportunity to take some stills . I've been visiting this area of coastline all my life and feel that it is quite an underrated area (photographically speaking). Most evenings the light was nonexistent but I did manage to get some nice light on a couple of occasions. As far as I can find online there are no other shots from this spot at sunset which I find surprising. I knew that the sunset was going to peak early so ran from my car across the army firing range at Merrion. I got into position just as the sun began to dip below the clouds. . The shot was taken precariously from the top of moody nose cliff arch looking back across flimston bay towards the green bridge and stack rocks.

On Saturday morning I set off at 6am on my way to the Peak district but within a few miles it was obvious that the roads were bad and it would take too long to get there for sunrise. I decided to turn around and stay local. Heading towards Cannock chase not really knowing where to go I decided that I'd head onto the heath and just see what I could see. Due to a road closure I had to take quite a long diversion and was quickly running out of time. I was about ready to sack the morning off completely when I remembered a patch of pine forest that I visited two years ago in Autumn. Ditching the car in a layby I went to have a look and thankfully it looked great and to me looked almost like there was a bit of each season going on. I decided to go for a panorama shot which isn't something I've done much of, I set up, ran through the shot in my head and waited for the light. The resulting panorama is huge and really needs to be viewed big to get full appreciation but it means I can crop into it and make a number of different compositions. Below is the first cropped version (still 11,000 pixels wide). It still suffers from being viewed small but expect more uploads when I've played with more crops.

About 5 minutes before sunrise a few days ago I could be seen sprinting/ice skating out of the car park and up Curbar edge hurdling the odd sleeping cow along the way. It was the first decent looking sky I'd seen in over a week so typically I was late due to the roads being fairly interesting on the way up to the Peak District. To be honest I'm not totally happy with the shot but then again I rarely am, it was either this or nothing at all as I had ran out of time.

I'd been filming at a variety of different locations in the peak district since dawn, through out the afternoon I noticed what looked like an inversion building in the distance. I decided to take a gamble and try to intercept it at sunset which thankfully paid off. As soon as I parked up in the lay by I knew that the second the sun hit the horizon it was going to kick off big time. I also knew that I was late considering there was still 1700ft to climb with a fair bit of kit. I managed to get up Rushup Edge (aptly named) just in time to get it all on film/timelapse, with a spare camera I took a couple of stills. As soon as the sun hit the horizon the colour exploded and to top it off I looked a few metres to my left to see a little owl sitting on a fence post enjoying the view too.

I’ve seen quite a few 2012 reflection blog posts so thought I’d put something together as its still raining. For me 2012 has been a great year and I've done much more than I could of imagined. I started the year with a spur of the moment decision to get up at 3am and drive down to the Welsh coast for sunrise. I had never been to the area before and having looked at the forecast it was either going to look great or be a complete failure. Thankfully the 400 mile drive was worth it and I got a decent sunrise and sunset.





Next I went to Pembrokeshire for a week to photograph an area of coastline that I have been visiting for most of my life. One of my favourite places to go is the green bridge at sunrise, I am yet to photograph the place in really spectacular conditions but I’m quite happy with what I got.



For the next month or so I concentrated on wildlife that was close to my home. I targeted a number of species and got some particularly memorable encounters.


In the water with a great crested grebe fishing 10 metres in front of me.


After hours lying on the ground making the odd squeaky noise this inquisitive stoat made an appearance from underground.


A young field vole not much bigger than a 50p happily munching on a nettle leaf in front of me.


After stalking this Hare for 200 yards across an open field I used a bramble bush as cover whilst I got some shots, it began to rain just as the sun was setting.




Swallows are really difficult to photograph in flight and require a lot of light and fast reactions, I spent two days trying to get some shots of them over a stretch of river.

With the Peak District within an hours drive of my house I have made more visits this year.


My most recent shot from Millstone edge.

At the start of June I went to Cornwall for two weeks to work on seascapes and eye-level shots of Fulmars. For the majority of the trip the weather was horrendous with gale force winds and a majorly flooded tent a regular occurrence. I did however get some nice light on a few evenings.


Porth Nanven is an incredible beach and in turn is really popular with photographers, I took this on my first night as I wanted a location close to my tent where I could sit with a beer.


Boscastle in my opinion is best seen from above so I climbed up high one evening to catch the setting sun.


I wanted to photograph Cape Cornwall from a unique viewpoint so climbed up one of the cliff stacks to get the composition I had in mind.




Perched precariously on the edge of a cliff I spent a couple of afternoons getting some eye-level images of Fulmars.

Llyn Cregennen in Snowdonia was also a memorable shoot and after getting the idea of a sunrise shot well and truly stuck in my head I made three consecutive attempts.


This was a shot from the final morning.

It has always been my ambition to become a natural history cameraman and the highlight of my year has been the past 6 months. Since June I have been doing work more or less constantly for the BBC Natural History Unit. I have been assisting some incredibly talented cameramen and also filming a whole range of subjects myself for a forthcoming series. It’s been amazing and easily the best thing I've ever done, I have learnt a huge amount and can’t thank the team enough for the opportunities.

I've taken the odd still in between filming and whilst down in Wales I spent an afternoon trying to track down an Otter. I followed from a distance for about 4 hours, I knew that there was a bridge in the direction it was heading so decided to go ahead and wait. I saw it dive for a fish and the next thing I knew it was thrashing about at the edge of the bridge with a perch. In a split second I ended the day eye to eye within 4 metres of a wild Otter, I will never forget the encounter and plan to work more with Otters in the New year.



Thanks for reading and Happy New Year.

Tom

I am currently featuring as photographer of the month on the all things camera website, feel free to take a look for a selection of images and a short interview.

http://allthingscamera.co.uk/Photographer_Of_The_Month/Entries/2012/11/3_Novembers_Photographer_of_the_month.html

Thanks

Tom

Until the end of September a selection of framed and mounted prints will be shown at:

'the gallery@Ridware Arts'
Blythe House Farm
Hamstall Ridware
Rugeley
WS15 3QQ

A latest work gallery has be added to the site containing images from my recent trips to Cornwall and Northumberland. It contains many new wildlife shots from my brief visit to the Farne Islands along with some seascapes.
I have also added a portfolio to the gallery page which includes images that I feel best represent my photography.

Thanks for looking

Tom

The website has had a complete redesign with new content and galleries, including a new wildlife gallery that I have been working on for the past month.
Feel free to take a look and leave any comments you have in the guestbook.

Thanks
Tom