Doesn’t time fly! Here we are in May already, and April has shot by in a manner more akin to the British weather pattern than it did last year. You will remember that last April was more like June, but it went steadily downhill from there.

Lets hope this summer is more like legend has it than last year was! So what do we have to look forward to? Well, I spent a couple of hours yesterday at the Monkton Nature Reserve where, although nowhere near as advanced as last year, there are signs of some of their earlier orchid species forcing their way into the world. Notably the Man Orchids and the Early Marsh Orchids.

Speaking of Orchids, the Green Winged variety should be starting to show well at Marden Meadow, the KWT site where they are holding the first of five “This is your Wildlife” two day events. Tony and I, along with one or two others, will be there over the whole weekend answering questions and giving a few demonstrations on Wildlife and Nature Photography, so we hope you can manage to come along, even if it’s only to say ‘Hello’!

The dates are the 10th and 11th May with activities starting at 10am and going on through until 4pm.

In the months to come, events will also be held at Pegwell Bay Country Park, Queendown Warren, Sevenoaks and Oare Marshes. Keep an eye open for more details. Oh, and while I’m on the subject, Natural England will be holding a similar two day event that I will be attending at Stodmarsh in July. See their website for more details.

Now, as soon as the showers stop, I hope you can all get out there and take some pictures.

Once again, for the second year, Light and Land are running a Landscape Photographer of the year competition with a top prize of £10,000 and an exhibition at London’s National Theatre during November.

‘Take a View’ as the competition is entitled, was a popular new competition last year, although this year seems to have lost it’s title sponsor! Entry opens on the 18th April with a closing date of 12th July.

So why am I mentioning this on a predominatly wildlife blog? Well, in last year’s competition I managed to reach the final rounds with an image that I considered ( and shot as) a wildlife photograph! I wouldn’t have entered it, save for a friend of mine, Brett Lewis, encouraging me to put the image in. Mind you, he, and a number of others, took the mickey out of my title for the image, but it did far better than anyone, myself included, thought it would!
 The image entitled ‘Early Morning Quacker’

But it does go to prove that any image is only valid in the eye of the beholder!

You can visit the competition page here

Many years ago, the UK had a motorcycle industry that I have to admit to remembering!

The Japanese started copying British bikes, adding a few extras that were, in those days, seen as gimmicks! Things like press button electric starters and blinking indicators that had never been seen on a ‘real’ bike. And they did it cheaper too!Look at the motorcycle industry today, and it is almost totally dominated by the Japanese makes.

Now I know the Japanese started making copies of German cameras, but that was longer ago than even my memory goes back, but the tables are being well and truly turned on the Japanese in the present era. Many of the manufacturers, and by that I mean the esablished ones, have opened trade routes with China and having their equipment turned out there where costs are lower.

And what are the Chinese doing? They’re copying the Japanese products! And they are doing it well, adding the odd bit here and there to improve the product along the way. Yes, there are still some items that don’t quite match expectations, but they are becoming fewer and farther between as they realise western expectations and they’re quality rises accordingly.

However, for us photographer/consumers this is nothing but good news as our choice expands and our pockets feel the benefits.

Over the years, you try things.

Me, I get ideas and try to find ways of achieving them. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes, when trying out different methods, you read an advert and think “That’ll do the job!”, only it doesn’t! You inevitably end up with a cupboard of items that showed promise but didn’t quite meet expectations.

Then, from time to time, you find an item that hits the nail right on the head! Rather than ending up in that cupboard, it stays in your camera bag (or in the boot of the car with some large items). It gets used regularly and you find more uses for it.

Now I’ve got one of those cupboards that is overflowing, but I also have a camera bag/car boot that has a good inventory too. It’s called experience! And I suppose that I am lucky in that I get to try a lot of kit without having to purchase it, which is all extra experience. You quickly learn to realise what is well made and what is poor quality. Passing on that experience is what I do for a living, writing reviews on gear for the photographic press. My opinions though, are often stunted by the laws of libel!!

Over this last winter though, I’ve had a chance to look through both the cupboard and the camera bag and realised that there are a number of things that I would always heartily recommend, because I use them myself and get results with them. To that end I’ve decided to put them together in one place and make them available to everyone in the UK.

So, if you are inthe market for ideas that work, along with the kit to carry them out, please take a visit to my shop, where there are a number of these items, some of which are hard to get hold of elsewhere. 

Feeding stations are a common phenomenon in wildlife photography and, I am sure, everyone is familiar with the concept, even if it is just a single feeder on a tree in the garden or the common bird table on your Patio. Go down to the local river and there will be a spot where visitors often ‘feed the Ducks’ and as someone approaches, the ducks will come flocking.

If you are serious about your wildlife photography, you may have set up a more serious affair in a suitable spot, probably with a variety of different foods.

Now birds are messy eaters at the best of times, as that table on the patio will have taught you. When you feeding station is a bit more remote than the back garden, with it’s neat lawn and carefully tended borders, there is less concern over the lost feed, but in this case it can be a boon to other, less visible visitors.

As I approached one of our feeding stations the other day, something caught my eye. Fortunately, I had a camera over my shoulder (as you always should have in these situations!) and a Wood Mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) was having a go at one of the fat blocks. Now he can’t have seen me approaching, as he was on the far side of the block, but as soon as he heard me he made a rapid exit down the branches.

Fortunately for me, in his haste he took a wrong turning, ending up going out on a limb, literally! He hesitated for just a momment once he realised his mistake, contemplating whether to jump for his life (I don’t suppose he’d ever seen a human with a camera before) or to retrace his steps. And that is how you see him here! (He did, incedentally, make the latter choice).