Mick Durham Wildlife and Macro Photographer.

Mick Durham is a professional wildlife photographer living near Dumfries in South West Scotland. He has been taking pictures for over thirty years, at least ten of those on a professional basis. Being based in Scotland gives him access to some of Britain’s wildest landscapes – ideal for superb close encounters with our native wildlife. 

Mick Durham trained as an English and Outdoor Education teacher in the late seventies and began taking photographs as part of his work in the outdoors. His first SLR camera was an Olympus OM1 chosen for two reasons – it was small and light which made it easy to carry in to the mountains and one of Britain’s best know bird photographers, Eric Hoskins used them.  It was then that he made the change to autofocus and like many professional photographers chose to use Nikon cameras. He now shoots digitally and at the moment uses a Nikon D2x. His wildlife photography really started as an extension to bird watching, quickly developing in to a passion and a profession. He still enjoy watching birds but more often then not this is done through a camera lens rather than binoculars. 

Mick Durham tries to do most of his photography close to home, going back to locations time and time again. In this instance familiarity means greater success. He travels around Scotland for some subjects; the west coast and islands and Shetland for otters and occasionally go further afield for his photography. Norway is a favourite country.

Mick Durham has been a professional wildlife photographer for about ten years but he as been taking photographs for a lot longer. Mick bought his first SLR camera when he was still a student in the late seventies However, his passion for wildlife and in particular birdwatching soon began to influence what he photographed and slowly a wildlife photographer was born.

Like many keen birdwatchers he always keeps a diary of what birds he has seen, what trips he had undertaken and now, being a professional photographer he has turned this into much more of a working document.  He now records details of photographic trips, ideas about potential locations and any other information that might be useful to him. Thanks to the digital revolution he now no longer has to make notes of how he took particular photographs.   All this information is recorded within the digital files on the camera.

The digital revolution has brought with it the ability to produce exhibition quality prints at home. Mick use a MacPro computer and an Epson 2100 A3 printer for all his printing. He restricts digital manipulation to an absolute minimum – retouching of blemishes caused by dust in the camera, balancing colour and contrast to achieve natural looking images and the occasional removal of unsightly background elements. Mick never adds anything to his images that was not there when he took the photo.

The change to digital photography impacted on Mick’s business in a major way. Mick originally sold most of his work through a small picture agency but the owner chose the switch over to digital imaging as the time to retire. It was time for Mick to reassess how his photography should move forward. In 2005 he bought his first digital camera and set up his own web site. This original site, ‘Kinharvie Photographics’ was very much a home grown affair showcasing his work to family and friends and existing customers. 

Mark Fellows. Close-up Macro Photographer.

Mark Fellows became interested in natural history at a young age. He grew up in Clare, in the west of Ireland, having moved there from England when He was two. He wanted to be a zoologist from an early age, and was fortunate enough to be growing up in an area where local biodiversity is impressive.

The Shannon Airport Lagoon was his local site, and the Clare coast, including Loop Head, Quilty and Ballyvaughan Bay were regular haunts. Inland, the south Clare lakes, and the Shannon Estuary provided a wide range of bird species and insect life. He was greatly influenced by Phil Brennan, who in addition to being a wonderful natural historian, is an acclaimed artist and author.

Photography

He as been using SLR cameras since is early teens; His first was a Cosina CT1G. He uses Nikon cameras (currently a D300), and process all images through Nikon Capture NX2 and Adobe Photoshop CS4.

His main bird photography lens is a Sigma 500mm F4.5 IF EX HSM telephoto. Some bird shots and many of the mammal images are taken with a Sigma 100-300mm F4 IF EX HSM lens, with a dedicated 1.4X EX Sigma converter when needed. He uses a Gitzo 3540LS carbon fibre tripod and a Wimberley Mark II gimbal head, as support. He also uses a Sigma 150-500 F5/6.3 APO HSM OS as a carry around record-shot lens.

The majority of macro shots were taken using a micro Nikkor 105mm VR AF-S IF-ED (great for handheld shots), and also use a Sigma 180mm EX DG HSM macro lens. He uses the superb Nikon R1C1 wireless macro flash system for lighting, or a Nikon SB-900 (alone or with an SB-600) flashgun for fill-in light. He uses StoFen diffusers on all flash heads. He occasionally use Kenko extension tubes for ultra close-up work. He also uses a Manfrotto 190Pro carbon fibre tripod with an Arca Swiss Z2 ball head for this work - light and portable, but rock solid. This set up allows him to position his camera at any angle, which is excellent for low level work.

If necessary, He uses a monopod or large beanbag for stability.  A Sigma 18-50mm EX F2.8 is his general purpose lens, He also use a Nikkor 50mm F1.8D, and a Sigma 10-20mm EX DC HSM ultra-wide angle lens, but these are rarely used for wildlife shots.

All photographs are ©Mark Fellowes. And is represented by Ardea, a specialist wildlife photographic library.

Website

This website is intended to be a place where he can share a sample of is natural history photographs. The galleries contain images taken since he switched to digital photography in 2005, and the majority are more recent. They include photographs from near annual spring trips to Andalucía, and images from his annual trips to Tanjung Puting in Borneo, where he runs a tropical biology field course for undergraduate students. The galleries are organized around either geographic location, or by taxonomic group. The majority of images are close-up photographs of invertebrates, birds and mammals.

Where He works

He is a zoologist working at the University of Reading. As well as being fascinating in their own right, the study of animals is increasingly important in this changing world. His work focuses on asking why genetic variation in traits that affects species interactions (for example, predator-prey; host-parasitoid) is maintained in natural populations, and what the ecological consequences of this variation is.
More recently, he as developed an interest in urban ecology, and currently he is involved in a projects investigating how urban supplementary feeding of birds influences wider community interactions, the role of cats as urban predators, and the return of red kites to urban habitats. Further afield, he occasionally as projects in south-east Asia, most recently studying how oil palm plantations affects the diversity and abundance of frogs and toads.

Chris Gomersall. Bird Photographer.

Born and raised in Grimsby, Lincoln shire, Chris developed an early affinity with the coastal salt marshes and their birds. Discovering a waxwing eating cottonseed berries in the front garden during the winter of 1963/64 was probably a defining moment in fostering an interest in nature, and learning that a schoolfriend, John Horsfall, had similar interests led to many shared birdwatching excursions which continue to this day. Photography seemed to be a natural consequence, although it was pretty rudimentary at that time.

This shot of this red kite was taken by Chris, it shows the red kite in flight with its magnificent wing span and colour.

Chris’s photography is probably best known to the one million members of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds where he had the enviable job of staff photographer for some fourteen years, before leaving to pursue a solo career in November 1998. The RSPB has regularly featured his photographs in its magazine Birds and other publications, as well as supplying many other publishers through its photo library, RSPB Images. During his time at the RSPB Chris was also responsible for founding and managing the Society’s photo library, recruiting some of the very best wildlife photographers in the UK and Europe, and having the privilege of editing their photographic work.

 

With an educational background in zoology and plant biology, and experience in nature reserve wardening and field research, Chris endeavours to make photographs which will be effective in promoting biodiversity and advancing the cause of nature conservation. His style is very much concerned with photographing wildlife subjects at home in their natural habitat, with an emphasis on ambient light and sensitive composition.

Chris Gomersall uses Nikon equipment for all his bird life shots he currently uses the D3 and D300 series which is one of the finest digital cameras there is. These cameras cost £5,000 each body only.  Chris Gomersall  also uses Nikon Len's which are Nikkor 200mm F4 VR Lens. 

Chris Gomersall as also written some books on wild Birds in June 2001 he launched the book "Photographing Wild Birds" and as written in leading bird magazines. 

The magnificent white-tailed eagle flies wild and free in Scottish skies once more, thanks to an ambitious and dedicated programme of re-introduction spanning 25 years.

Macro Photography. Unit 305.

Professional application to be taken up is Macro photography.  The reason for this is that I have done some before and enjoyed doing this.


The equipment that I will use will be a Nikon camera body, a 50mm macro lens with a 2 ± 2 teleconverter. Plus flash units.

I plan on using the flash units that are designed with the lens provided.  But the plan is to use the natural light  that is provided with the daylight.