HAPPY NEW YEAR! - 2013 review

Hi all,

I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas and a just as good new year.
I haven't posted anything recently or done much photography either due to revision so I decided to do this one post before I get back to work.
I will do the review month by month and do a little summary, accompanied by a photograph.


JANUARY

Nothing could sum up January more than the mass of snow that we got around London. I immediately went out to go and photograph my local wildlife in the snow but one of my best shots, I think was of a great tit, sitting on a bare branch of a pine tree in my garden. This was actually one of the few photos that I got of a bird, while it was actually snowing.

FEBRUARY

One thing that I did do a lot in February was visit a local nature reserve called Stocker's lake. I had been there before but usually been unsuccessful as far as photography goes. However, when I visited this time, there was lots going on. Many bird species, including some rarities, visited the lake during the winter months. One of my favourite shots from February showed a group of two coots sparring with two more coots about to join in. The fight was quickly over but it was amazing seeing this other side of coots. 

MARCH

In March, I found out that I had one my first ever photography competition. I managed to gain first place in Young Garden Photographer of the Year with my image of a long-tailed tit. The image itself was actually taken a year before I entered but I hadn't started entering competitions at that stage. 

Unfortunately, the green on this photograph has been enhanced by the blog.
Better quality can be found on my website, 500px or Flickr.

APRIL

During this month, I was invited by my friend Josh (who also does photography) to go with him to norfolk for a day. There are lots of fantastic reserves in Norfolk to go to so it was difficult deciding where to go. We ended up going to Titchwell Marshes and had a brilliant time. Not only was the weather good but the birds showed really well. We saw avocets, godwits, ruff and even a black redstart. I took so many photos that day that I actually ran out of of space on my memory cards. My favourite picture that I took that day wasn't actually of a rare species though. Instead, it was of a preening pheasant, showing off all it colourful feathers in the sunshine.

MAY

In May, I went to Yorkshire for a week. During this week, I to a visit to the Bempton Cliffs. While I should have been revising, I couldn't resist. There was so much to see. I had never seen so many gannets in my life. I managed to catch an image of two gannets interacting while on of them was in flight.

JUNE

I did a lot of macro photography in the Summer using my new lend reversing ring. I loved seeing all the insects close-up. This red damselfly was  on a plant next my garden pond. I tried to get underneath so that the shadow was shown and used a home-made diffuser to fill in the details underneath the insect.

JULY

Towards the end of July, I went to Scotland for a few days with my Dad as we had not been yet that year. The weather was reasonably good while we were there with only one day of rain and the rest of the time it was sunny. My favourite image that I took up there was of a Bottlenose Dolphin breaching in the Moray Firth.

AUGUST

As the Summer Holidays were drawing to a close, I took another, yes, another trip to Scotland. I saw a lot more this time around as I spent more time there. Because I saw so much, I'm going to have to upload more than one image for this month. On the way up, we stopped off at Loch Garten. I knew that this wasn't the best time to see the ospreys but I didn't actually go there for the ospreys. My main interest was the red squirrels. They showed really well and I got images of two different squirrels.

I also spent two mornings photographing seals on a beach near where we stay. They were also great to photograph. The first morning, they were all on the sand. I spent nearly an hour trying to get close enough to photograph them as they seemed quite timid and there was no way of hiding myself. But I eventually got there. I took many images but I was fondest of an image of one seal yawning with another in the frame, making it look like the seals were having a conversation.

The second morning they were out on the rocks so were even harder to approach. Not only that, but the tide was coming in so I didn't have a lot of time. The seal below wasn't actually holding that position. It was in fact shuffling itself round to get into a more comfortable position I presume. :P

SEPTEMBER

I had been planning to go to Richmond park at the end of September to see the rut as last year I was too late. There was no morning mist unfortunately so I had to make do with the given conditions. Luckily though, there was a lot of activity and I managed to get this shot of a bellowing stag staring right down the lens.

OCTOBER

Scotland for the third time in a year! The weather was lousy though. Nevertheless, me and my Dad took a visit to the Tollie Red Kite feeding station. It was amazing seeing the kites like this.

The background has been slightly softened to reduce noise.

NOVEMBER

I started visiting my local park again in November to see if I could get any shots of the resident Kingfishers. While I did see them, I didn't get any decent shots. I 'm still trying to get a shot but this friendly Robin kept me company while I was there.

No remote shutter release or bait. Just a very friendly Robin.

DECEMBER

I didn't do much photography in December but I did go on a skiing holiday in Switzerland where I saw black Red Squirrels. A first for me. I didn't have my slr with me so I had to use my compact camera.

So that's 2013 gone. Ahead of me I've got my GCSE's but I hope to keep doing photography.


Happy New Year everyone!