April 2024 - Rain, flowers and titles
Another wet month has just passed causing ground saturation and water to run off fields. There should be little worry about water supplies if we have a drought this summer! That said, we have also avoided sub-zero nights which has brought the spring flowers on with daffodils and primroses showing well.
I had a last stab at some snowdrop pictures as the final few clung on at the very end of their flowering season. I managed to spend quite a bit of time amongst them this year to refresh the images I currently had. Snowdrops remain one of my favourite flowers to photograph and it is always sad when they disappear for another ten months. Nevertheless, more spring flowers are on their way which also need photographing!
I enjoyed a morning photographing moss seed heads in a dry stone wall. Gaps between the coping stones gave protection to allow the plant to grow and the odd seed head to appear. It became a challenge to find a satisfying composition but these things should never be rushed and a little persistence paid off.
I managed to fit in a couple more excursions including a quick visit to a local pond while killing a bit of time and watched the mallards begin to pair up and become increasingly territorial ahead of the nesting season. Their plumage is in its prime just now and the colours were outstanding. In addition, a visit to a weir on the Water of Leith allowed me to top up with some photographs of flowing water. The recent rain turned the river a brackish colour which gave some interesting tones to the images.
I gave a presentation to Musselburgh Camera Club in March and my thanks to them for making me feel so welcome. It is always so much easier when the audience are interactive and fire loads of questions at you.
Last month I was honoured to be announced as ‘Scottish Nature Photographer of the Year’ by winning the Scottish Nature Photography Awards 2023. I am also very proud to be the only person to have won the competition twice (having previously won it in 2020). My image of the flower Lily of the valley won the Scottish Botanical Category and then fought off the other category winners to take the overall title. Another image of a Chickweed wintergreen also won me the runner-up spot in the same category which was very satisfying. Both photographs can be seen in the ‘Awards’ section.
Another wet month has just passed causing ground saturation and water to run off fields. There should be little worry about water supplies if we have a drought this summer! That said, we have also avoided sub-zero nights which has brought the spring flowers on with daffodils and primroses showing well.
I had a last stab at some snowdrop pictures as the final few clung on at the very end of their flowering season. I managed to spend quite a bit of time amongst them this year to refresh the images I currently had. Snowdrops remain one of my favourite flowers to photograph and it is always sad when they disappear for another ten months. Nevertheless, more spring flowers are on their way which also need photographing!
I enjoyed a morning photographing moss seed heads in a dry stone wall. Gaps between the coping stones gave protection to allow the plant to grow and the odd seed head to appear. It became a challenge to find a satisfying composition but these things should never be rushed and a little persistence paid off.
I managed to fit in a couple more excursions including a quick visit to a local pond while killing a bit of time and watched the mallards begin to pair up and become increasingly territorial ahead of the nesting season. Their plumage is in its prime just now and the colours were outstanding. In addition, a visit to a weir on the Water of Leith allowed me to top up with some photographs of flowing water. The recent rain turned the river a brackish colour which gave some interesting tones to the images.
I gave a presentation to Musselburgh Camera Club in March and my thanks to them for making me feel so welcome. It is always so much easier when the audience are interactive and fire loads of questions at you.
Last month I was honoured to be announced as ‘Scottish Nature Photographer of the Year’ by winning the Scottish Nature Photography Awards 2023. I am also very proud to be the only person to have won the competition twice (having previously won it in 2020). My image of the flower Lily of the valley won the Scottish Botanical Category and then fought off the other category winners to take the overall title. Another image of a Chickweed wintergreen also won me the runner-up spot in the same category which was very satisfying. Both photographs can be seen in the ‘Awards’ section.
