I wanted to go up The Shard since I first heard about it. Now it's finally open (well it opened a few weeks ago now), I took the opportunity to go up while sunset was a convenient time.

In the run-up to going, I was having a look around for other photos from the top, but to be honest there didn't seem to be many great photos out there. There are some cracking photos of the shard itself, but very few actually from it. In some ways, that's probably good, as it meant I was able to go up with no preconceptions, and without setting myself a high watermark that I was unlikely to reach (my usual trick).

So lets start at the beginning. What's the Shard? It's a (very) tall building recently built in central London, next to London Bridge station. It's been controversial from the start, as there was great opposition to it at the planning stage. There are many people who see it as a blot on London's historic skyline. My view is just that cities have to evolve, and it's nice to see good architecture blended along side the historical landmarks. Lets be honest, London is not a museum, and it has to keep pace with every other city in the world. I think it's a striking and beautiful tower, and a great antidote to the old brick buildings all around.

As far as photography is concerned, like most private buildings, visitors are not permitted to sell photos taken there. As such, I've included my best photos of the visit in my website portfolio, but they're not available to buy or licence. If you want to sell the photos you take, you will need to contact the Shard management, and I'm sure it will be a costly and loss-making exercise on your part. So - first things first: Go to the Shard for the fantastic, newly available view of the capital, and to get some lovely photos too. Don't go thinking it's an easy way to get salable photos.

Next; be prepared to be shooting through glass. Much of the difficulty of photography at the Shard is fighting reflections, and overcoming the challenges of photography through windows. The lift takes you up to floor 68, which is indoors, and places two layers of glass between you and the view. This means that if you manage to eliminate the reflections from the first pane, you'll get caught by the reflections from the second one, inconveniently placed about a foot behind the first. So floor 68, is more or less useless for photos.

You want to take the stairs up to floor 69 which is open to the elements - to some degree, but still has glass all around. Some angles are obstructed by 2 or 3 overlapping layers of glass, but for the most part, you can get some great shots through just one layer of glass. The only view I was unable to get good photos of was Big Ben and the Millennium Wheel. The angles of the glass just weren't right for it, and if you deviate too much from the angle of the window, then the photo is ruined by reflections.

My favourite view was looking East, over Tower Bridge, towards Docklands, and using the Thames to lead the eye through the picture.

From some viewpoints, and with a wide enough angle lens, you can also get in London Bridge station, and the leading lines of the railway.

And speaking of lenses, I suggest taking up a wide-angle lens (as I did), and also something in the region of 100-150mm (which I didn't). Up until sunset, there's great potential for using longer focal lengths to highlight one building or area in particular. However, I didn't anticipate this, so I have no examples of this to share. But I'm sure the BT Tower, St Paul's Cathedral, and Tower Bridge would all make great subjects for longer focal-length photos.

In terms of timing, we went up around an hour before sunset, and stayed until around an hour after sunset. You have to pre-book a time-slot, but once up there you can stay as long as you like. My sunset photos were ok, although I would have liked just a little cloud overhead for some texture in the sky. Or even some cloud movement to catch with slow exposures. Overall, I would say I prefered the light around 30mins after sunset. You get the lights on in the city below by this point, and it's just dark enough to get some rich colour to the shadows. By an hour after sunset, it's too dark for much more than black & lights. I'm sure there are many people out there who could make great photos from that, but it's not my bag. You can pre-book up until the next day, so we waited until the day before to be confident in the weather forecast. It's also worth avoiding weekends which are their peak times. And speaking of peak times - sunset itself was predictably popular up there. If you want to get photos of the sun actually setting, you need to 'book your place' by getting to the West window at least 15 mins before sunset. As the time draws on, more and more people collect at that side, and if you're not already at the window, you'll find there are too many people between you and the glass to be getting any sunset photos except the back of people's heads.

As it get's darker, hand-holding the camera becomes impractical. The shot above was a 25 second exposure. I assumed visitors wouldn't be allowed to take tripods, but I did see a couple of people with them up there. Personally, I found it perfectly workable resting the camera on the ground, as the windows are all floor to ceiling anyway. There's a handrail in front of the windows too, so you could attach a gorillapod to that if you have one. But I got on fine without. Also, with a full sized tripod, the spreading legs may mean it's impossible to get the lens touching the glass, which will mean more reflection than view - especially as it gets darker, and reflections become even more of a problem.

Overall, I thoroughly recommend a visit for any photographer. I think it's the kind of thing we go to on holidays in cities elsewhere, but it's well worth doing on your own turf too. In the past, I've been up the CN Tower in Toronto, and the Empire State Building & Top Of The Rock in New York. The Shard is by far the most expensive of them, and doesn't quite take your breath away like the two in Manhattan. But it's a view of London which has never previously been possible, it's very modern & well run, and definitely worth a visit.

If you do visit, leave us a comment below, or a link to your photos. I'd love to see how others get on. 

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I'm thrilled to say that Woburn Abbey are using one of my photos on the cover of their new 2013 visitor leaflet:

I was approached about this some weeks ago, and they're now in use :-)

I'm very happy to collaborate with Woburn in this way as it's my favourite local spot, and I've taken some of my best photos there. It's a great example of my work in use under commercial licence, and seems like a perfect partnership. I'm really proud to see my work in such prominent use by such a prestigious brand. I also really like the simple styling of the cover itself. Very modern and classy - exactly the kind of thing I want my photos to be associated with.

The image is actually a portrait crop of a wider landscape photo, shown below...

It's a photo I took two or three years ago now, but I knew then that it was one I'd be proud of for some time. It was shortly before sunset, and the sun was shedding a perfect light on the house. I had just enough time for a couple of shots before the deer moved off.

This is the other one I got that day...

So get down to Woburn Abbey this summer. If nothing else, the leaflets are a work of art in themselves :-)

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I've just updated the download method for my smartphone wallpapers.

Last year I made them free, and this year they're quicker and easier to download than ever.

Just click the "Download" link above a photo, and you should have your image within seconds :-)

I've also added a few new photos too, so it's worth having a look at the whole gallery here.

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Since I heard last year that the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich were hosting an exhibition of Ansel Adams' photography, I had been meaning to pay a visit.

For those who don't know, Ansel Adams was a pioneering mid-century landscape photographer who more or less set the standard for modern landscape photography. His work is probably more influential than any other photographer in the field, and his quotes are as relevant today, as in the days he spoke them. He's most well know for his study of the American West, and particularly Yosemite National Park. He also lead the way in terms of post-processing - mastering the darkroom concepts that we continue today in digital form.

He was also an early environmentalist, well before it was common sense, and indeed trendy.

"It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment". Ansel Adams.

I would recommend that any aspiring photographer study his work and his workflow, and if the exhibition is still on as you read this, do make the time to see it for yourself. Who knows when these photos will next be on public display in the UK.

So what did I learn?

I'd seen his work online before, so it wasn't totally new to me. But the two things most apparent after seeing them in person...

1. Don't dismiss the 5:4 aspect ratio for landscapes:

I love wide and square photos for wildlife portraits, but when it comes to landscapes, I rarely deviate from the classic 3:2 ratio. The only exception being for the odd panorama. I would never crop to 4:3 or 5:4, believing they were simply too square to show a landscape. But seeing Ansel Adams' early work last week was a timely reminder that that's not the case at all. So many of his are 5:4 ratio, and they look perfectly natural as such. In the future I'll be thinking of this as I shoot. For now, I've cropped & re-processed the photo above, taking my cue from Adams' experience.

2. Don't be afraid of the shadows:

When I first processed this image, I was trying to keep the shadows light, in order to retain detail. Learning from Ansel Adams, it's clear that losing shadow detail is less of a priority than achieving a balanced exposure and rich contrast. After visiting the exhibition, I went back to this one and burnt the shadows. I think the higher contrast and deeper blacks make for a more satisfying result, despite losing a little detail in those shadows.

As I've said before, I really want to improve my landscape portfolio this year, and I think that visiting the Photography from the Mountains to the Sea exhibition has been given me further motivation to that.

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I haven't done much city street photography, but as I said at the start of the year, I want to try to work on my landscape portfolio this year. So I took the opportunity of a short trip to York to get some wide-angle photos of three key subjects.

I planned my time, and arranged two hours coinciding with sunset, when I could visit all three locations one after another.

I started with Clifford's Tower...

It's the remains of an old castle, which is surprisingly accesible right from the city centre. It's not especially exciting looking, but the position on the top of an unnatural looking mound, does give you some scope for a nice clear skyline.

These photos where taken shortly after sunset, so the sky is just starting to turn blue. I was taking exposures between 2 and 13 seconds, using the darkening sky to emphasis motion blur in the clouds.

The portrait below was a relatively fast exposure, to freeze the interesting cloud formation...

And lastly, one more to show the mound in the foreground, which would originally have encompassed a moat too...

After Clifford's Tower, I walked up to the Shambles. The shambles is an old and characterful street in York city centre. The cobbled streets and over-hanging buildings are so picturesque, and perfect for early evening photography. When were there during the day, the whole street was so packed full of people, I didn't think I was going to be able to get any photos of the street itself. But once the shops closed, and the temperature dropped, the whole area quickly quietened down.

This is my favourite from a set of 4 or 5 I took at the Shambles...

After the Shambles, I continued on to York's most iconic building. York Minster...

The photo above was my favourite from York, and is available to order in print directly from this site. I love the different forms of light I was able to capture in this shot. We can see the natural light painting the twilight sky blue. We have the artificial lighting projected onto the Minster itself, further bringing out the detail and highlighting the textures in the stone. And lastly we can see the bright lights in the street lamps, the lamps by the door, and the spot-lights themselves which are pointing at the minster. I think it's the mixture of light sources, and the imposing view of the minster from an ultra-wide-angle lens, which really set this apart from any other photos I've seen of York Minster. I wish I'd taken a landscape from this angle too, but I'll have to try that next time.

The next photo was a closer portrait, using the street lamp as interesting foreground detail. The 15 second exposure meant that the cloud movement was blurred against the twilight sky. You can see how much the cloud moved in those 15 seconds, so that gives you some idea of how cold it was there. I was layered up like I am for winter snow shoots!

The last photo I'm going to post here was a black and white close-up. Once the sky was dark, and I lost the rich blue colour, I decided to use a monochrome photo to really highlight the textures and the detail in the building... 

I really like this photo as, once again, it emphasises the imposing nature of the building, and highlights the grand scale of it. It's a building intended to remind people of their place in the world, and it works hard to make you feel small. This is further enhanced by using such a wide-angle lens.

So those are my efforts at photographing Cliffords Tower, the Shambles, and York Minster. I'm sure at some point I'll be able to revisit York, and I can try alternative angles and views, as well as some of the other sights, such as the Roman walls and gates.

Typically for architectural photography, you would use a narrower, portrait lens to avoid distortion. But here I decided to embrace the magic of the ultra-wide-angle. I think that made for some more original perspectives, and I certainly found the lens (Nikon 16-35mm F/4) to be probably the sharpest lens I've ever used. The detail at F/8 was incredible. I'm really happy with this choice of lens, and I'm confident it's going to do me proud in other landscape shoots later in the year - most notably Cornwall, and Iceland.

As ever, all of these photos are available in print, or to licence, so if you have a usage request, then get in touch. The first York Minster photo is already available to order online.

If you've tried these locations too, then share your results in the comments below. Or if you have any questions about the route between the three of them, then again, just leave me a comment or get in touch or comment on my facebook page.

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I've photographed red deer in the snow before, but I've never been out with my camera as the snow is actually falling. Now, armed with a "weather-sealed" camera and lens combination, I took the opportunity to get some original photos of the Woburn deer in winter blizzard conditions.

It was a tough environment to work in. Minus degree temperatures, a bitter wind, and wet snowflakes all around. But it made for such a striking view, I figured it was worth the effort. 

To get good views of the deer at Woburn during the winter, you have to either be patient or get lucky. In the huge estate the deer are free to roam wherever they please, whereas you're restricted to the public footpaths. So there's no guarantee you'll be able to get close enough, and in the snow they seem to prefer to stay put - wherever they happen to be. So if you get there and they're near the footpath, then you're in luck. But if you walk around and can't see them, you have to either cut your losses or be prepared to wait it out.

On this occasion, I didn't get the luck initially, so I took a wander around the park for an hour or two. Still nothing but some distant views of fallow deer. So I went for a wander outside the park, and through the woods. I encountered a couple of wild muntjac deer, which posed nicely for me, but the light didn't really make for a special photo. I continued wandering back into the park, around the back where there were some Père David Deer...

Originally from China, Père Davids were on the brink of extinction before they were imported and bred by the Woburn estate to recover their numbers. They've since released hundreds back to China and to institutions around the world. As they walk, a tendon clicks in their leg (similarly to reindeer), which is thought to be an evolutionary adaptation to help them stay together in a white-out blizzard. I think it's the fact that they evolved for these conditions, that makes them look the part in these photos.

I don't usually take photos of the Père David Deer at Woburn. Harsh maybe, but I don't tend to find them particularly photogenic. But in the heavy snowfall, I thought they looked very characterful. I don't think I've ever seen them looking as good as they did on this occasional, and I'm sure it's because they're in their natural environment. 

Photographing the Père Davids, I was on the opposite side of the park than I usually am. I thought I could see some red deer on the move in the distance. So I made my way back towards the exit; thinking I'd either manage to catch them on their way past, or I'd give up and go home.

By this point, I'd already been out in the snow for around four hours, with precious little to show for it. So I was really pleased to see that my patience had paid off, and I had five or six red deer stags within close range. 

The photo above was exactly what I was hoping for. The red deer are really very iconic looking, and to see them with snow on their fur, and snow falling around; it's the perfect setting for a winter portrait. I really wanted to get up close and personal, and this particular animal seemed less shy than ever.

Perhaps it was the snow or the cold that caused him to lose his usual wariness, but as he approached over the crest of the hill, he continued to walk straight towards me. After I took the photo above, he turned to face me head on, and continued to wander closer. This is very rare to see in deer, and it was by some way the closest I've had a red deer approach me. I'm usually the one trying to creep closer without them noticing! On this occasion, he was within five or ten feet of me. If he had wanted to show aggression, he could have charged, and reached me in a second or two. I would have loved to have taken a photo at that distance, but I was worried the click of the shutter might provoke a response, and I was too scared to take my eye off him and look through the viewfinder! So I slowly edged backwards, and moved away. He seemed defiant in his manner, and stopped to look for food in the snow covered ground. He wasn't the least bit concerned about me - and I just can't overstate how rare this is.

To capture the intimicy of this close encounter, I've produced a couple of tightly cropped portraits, to show the stag up-close and personal.

I like the wide aspect portrait above, as it's both a tight portrait, yet has plenty of negative space beside the subject.

The last photo I'm going to post here proved exceptionally popular on Flickr, and I'm very grateful to for the hundreds of people who kindly made it a favourite, or left a kind comment. Along with closer portraits, I wanted to show the deer in the context of their surroundings. Below, I combined this with another favourite composition; to position myself to catch the subject on the crest of a hill. This always helps them stand out amongst their environment, offering a clear distinction between subject and background.

I think the detail of the snow in the antlers really adds something to this photo too, as it gives you a real sense of the cold and harsh surroundings in which they spend their time.

In summary then, the trip was a real success for me. I was testing the weather proofing of both the camera and myself, but I'm really happy with the photos I took. I'm hopeful we'll get some more snow before the winter is over, so I can have another go. But you can't count on anything when it comes to British weather, so we'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, you can see the entire set of snow photos from this day on my Flickr account. And I have a set of deer photos here which are available in print or for commercial licence.

If you have the time, please let me know which is your favourite photo from this set. All feedback is valuable to me, and helps keep me heading in the right direction.

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Up until now I've only offered standard prints on their own, meaning that you need to arrange the framing yourself. But for the new year, I'm introducing framed prints, available directly through my e-store, as an integrated printing option.

Framing

Frames are supplied glazed with high quality perspex. This is the preferred choice for modern framing. Museums and galleries frequently request perspex now due to it's colour-free properties and shatter resistance. Here are the advantages to you:

• Optically purer. Acrylic lets in more light (90%) verses standard glass (80%), making it clearer and giving better light to view your art.
• No colour cast. Glass contains a subtle green tint, which effects the way in which the image is seen through it.
• Reduced surface reflections.
• Shatter resistance reduces the risk of damage.
• Perspex is 50% lighter than glass, reducing postage costs for you.

How To

To select a framed print option:

• On the photo page, click [Buy].
• In the "Select Product" window, choose "Framed Prints".
• Select a frame & print size from the list.
• Click [Add to Cart].
• Click "Preview and Configure".
• You will see the window below, where you can select a frame colour and style.
  I prefer the Confetti Black frame, which is simple and modern, and works well with any style of photo.

Please note that framed prints are currently available for UK (£) orders only. If you are outside the UK, please get in touch and I can arrange framed printing for your location.

Of course if you prefer to order prints alone, or on canvas, then those options are still available, and can offer great value. But for many people, it's much simpler to just order the print of their choice and receive it professionally-framed and ready to hang.

If you have any difficulty or questions regarding prints, contact me, and I'm sure I'll be able to resolve the problem.

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I recently wrote about my enjoyable 2012, and my favourite photos from the year.

This time I'm thinking ahead to what I'll be focussing on in 2013; both literally and figuratively.

So do stick with me for another year. You can follow my photography on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Flickr, & 500px. If you're on any of those sites, then drop by and say hello. If you have any suggestions for great ideas or locations I should visit, then get in touch.

Happy new year to you, and best of luck for 2013 :-)

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It's the time of year when everyone is writing reviews of the past 12 months. I've been particularly busy this year, so I thought why not take the opportunity to stop and recall just what I've spent my time doing.

The year began in early January - but it wasn't until February before I really got going.

A visit to the Raptor Foundation in Cambridgeshire coincided with a light snowfall, offering the perfect conditions for some in-flight bird of prey photography...

That's one place I hope to get back to this year, and I can recommend a visit yourself too.

Also in February, I visited Horsey, in Norfolk. I had a nice day on the beach in the company of fellow sunbathers; grey seals, and the small flocks of sanderlings...

In April, I visited the Scottish Highlands for the first time. I'm sure that won't be the last time I visit either. I absolutely loved it. Among the highlights were seeing Red Grouse, Gannets, Ospreys, Dolphins, Black Grouse, Golden Eagle, Capercaillie & Red Squirrels. I'd like to get to see red grouse elsewhere at some point this year. I found them very characterful and photogenic. So I might be off to find them in  the Yorkshire or Derbyshire Dales at some point. It was also my first visit to a gannet colony, which was a great experience. A couple of hours on a cliff well spent...

In August, I spent some evenings with the Terns at Priory Country Park, Bedford. They're extremely difficult to photograph as they're quite small, and very quick. But it was a great learning exercise, and I managed to get some rare photos of a parent feeding it's young fledgeling - an exchange which occurs in just a fraction of a second...

I spent the best part of autumn in British Columbia & Alberta, Canada. This was a trip I'd been planning for a good long time, and we were very fortunate to see all kinds of sights and wildlife over there. 

Amongst my favourite photos from Canada are the landscapes from Maligne Lake...

The Canadian Rockies were every bit as spectacular as people say, and I now have a few choice photos from the area myself.

Amongst the wildlife we saw, the bears, beavers, and moose will live longest in my memory. Just incredible animals, and all in such spectacular surroundings.

I think the Canada trip taught me two key things about my photography, and how I should move forward next year.

Firstly, what has really stuck in my mind was the exemplary attitude they have to wildlife & wilderness over there. OK, so they're still hunting most species during certain seasons, which is appalling. And the tar sands project continues to roll on un-checked. But in general, the attitude of the people in BC is a healthy warmth towards the outdoors. They show respect for the spectacular landscapes they have, and they are keen to share the wildlife in their national parks. This in particular is lacking in the UK, where many photographers and naturalists remain very secretive about the locations they frequent. The warm hospitality of the Canadians is extended to all aspects, and we were so very kindly tipped off by locals and photographers about great walks, & spots to find the most iconic species. To my mind, this is a model all countries should be looking at. Keeping these huge spaces as wild as possible, but inviting people in, and showing off what can be found and where. And it's something I want to try to help with next year. To be as open as possible, and help others to enjoy the sights I'm privileged to see.

Secondly, I think Canada rekindled my love for landscape photography. That's something I'll write about in a few days, when I outline my plans, and a slight re-focussing for 2013.

Anyway, for now I'd just like to extend a huge thanks to anyone who has encouraged me during the year. Thanks to those who bought prints. It's totally humbling to have someone pay good money for my photos, especially in such a drawn-out recession. It's this and the kind feedback I receive that keep me motivated to post my photos online. I think I'm driven to stay creative, and I'd be taking photos whether anyone was interested or not. But it's always very rewarding to see them pick up comments and praise from folk all around the world. Thanks guys.

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I live pretty close to Woburn, and Woburn Abbey Deer Park is my favourite local spot to spend time outside.

Overview of the deer park

The house and grounds are owned by the Bedford estate, and open to visitors all year round. It seems to be a popular tourist spot, hosting the Abbey, gardens, tea room, and antiques centre. The surrounding deer have a huge and varied landscape to roam, and each part provides a slightly different habitat. At 3,000 acres, there's plenty of space for the deer, as well as lots of other wildlife. The estate is criss-crossed with public footpaths, which you should respectfully to stick to, providing several miles of walking. Most connect with other walks in the area such as the Greensand Ridge.

Deer

Woburn is home to 9 species of deer, but I tend to look for the red deer:

The red deer (Cervus elaphus) are the largest wild animal in Britain. They're an iconic native species, frequently used to represent British wildlife in general, and I think their postures are particularly photogenic. The Woburn deer also have the largest antlers of any UK population, which makes them both unique and even more spectacular.

For the photo above, I was crouching in a dip for quite a while, watching a few deer and waiting for the moment to press the shutter. I have, in the past, been asked how I managed to get them to pose like this. Of course, I didn't - It's just a matter of patience and good fortune. Before the centre stag moved into view, I took a couple of shots of the two either side, which made an interesting composition on their own. When the larger stag moved in from the right, I couldn't believe my luck as he briefly stopped to look at me. It was a rare moment when I knew I'd got a shot I was happy with even as I clicked the shutter.

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I was up at sunrise for the following photo. Also of Red Deer:

This is another great example of the variation in habitat at Woburn. I really like to find compositions which include the ferns, and other natural features which frame the animals in their environment.

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Knowing the site and the deer as I do now has also given me great potential for close-ups and abstracts, which are possible with some patient stalking. The set of Red Deer on White below have proven to be some of my most popular photos...

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This Sika deer (Cervus nippon) is a similar species to red deer. Not native to Britain, but now increasing in wild populations around the country. I took the opportunity to expose for the sky here, and silhouette the deer against the blue...

Wildlife

The park isn't just home to the managed deer population. I also see little owls, green woodpeckers, foxes, squirrels (both grey and black varieties), red kites, buzzards, swans, geese, ducks, & herons. And if that's not enough, you can also frequently hear lions roaring from the adjacent safari park!

This is a grey squirrel I photographed while laying in the snow. I was wet and cold, but it was great to get to watch them go about collecting the very acorns I'd watched them bury in the autumn.

Trees

The estate is well established, and it contains many species of trees from imported giant redwoods to the classic English oak.

For me, Woburn is a place I can go for peace and quiet. Bedfordshire isn't a hugely populated county, but there are few places you can visit and truly feel like you could be miles from anywhere. There are popular spots, and tourist honey-pots, but there are also quieter areas with woods and trees, offering near silence and great potential for wildlife encounters.

You can see my collection of deer photography here, which is mostly from Woburn. I have a few of these prints up at home myself, and I'm sure I'll continue to add to that in the future.

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This post is part of a series about our trip to British Columbia & Alberta, Canada.

I seriously didn't expect to see moose on our trip. I thought they were shy creatures. But we were very lucky, and we got to see some on a couple of occasions.

The first occasion was by the side of the road, as we travelled East down highway 24 from 100 Mile House to Jasper. We left early as it's a long drive, and we saw a mother and calf at around 8-9am, just grazing by the hedgerows. At the time, it felt like a huge bonus. A really exciting thing to see. But the best was yet to come.

At Maligne lake, Jasper NP, I just nipped into the woods to try and get some photos of the trees. The light was poor in the dense woodland, and the photos weren't worth keeping. But as I wandered back to the lakeside, we were astonished to see three moose striding out of the very trees I'd come from, and into the shallows of the lake.

There was a mother & calf, and an enormous bull male. I quickly fumbled around in my camera bag, to swap the 18mm landscape lens for a telephoto and teleconveter.

Initially I thought this was a happy little family of mum, dad, and baby. But I soon realised how foolish that was. Like most other members of the deer family, moose don't make great fathers. The calves live with their mother, and the males live mainly solitary lives. Eventually it dawned on me that the bull was chasing the female out to the lake, as we happened to be visiting during the rut. She paid him no attention as she already had a calf to look after. So he soon lost interest in her and ran off after the next closest female... right towards us, as it happened. I took some nice head-on photos as he walked our way. But as he slowly broke into a canter, we soon lost our nerve, and scattered into the trees. It was pretty scary at the time. They're such an odd shape. Like a horse on stilts. And those long legs carried him forward very quickly with barely any effort. When his head went down, it was time to make a quick exit.

I deeply regret not getting better photos of the bull, given the opportunity I had. But I didn't want to chase off after him and hound him for photos. Especially in his hormone-induced state, it wasn't safe for me, and it wasn't fair on him. So I let him wander off, and I crouched in the snow to photograph the cow and calf. As a photographer I'll probably always regret that decision, but as a wildlife enthusiast I know I did the right thing.

These two seemed very comfortable with human presence. Far more so than I expected. Shooting at 420mm, I was able to keep my distance, but there were some other people there who got much closer than I would have. I wanted to give them plenty of space, and it was also an opportunity to get some wider photos, showing them in their environment. I wish I'd taken the teleconverter of at some point, and shot at 300mm so I could have gotten more of the snowscape around them. It was the perfect setting, and I was shooting with too long a lens really.

I still don't know if they are the shy creatures I originally thought. They seemed pretty comfortable around us in the hour or so watching them. But either way, I feel exceptionally lucky to have seen them. They're an iconic species, and truly a highlight of a memorable trip.

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This post is part of a series about our trip to British Columbia & Alberta, Canada.

I usually stick to wildlife and landscape photography, but I do try for some urban cityscapes on my travels too.

On this occasion, we were in the historic neighbourhood of Gastown, in downtown Vancouver. It's a really characterful area, with loads of period features. The cobbled streets, street lamps, and shop façades all retain the feel of the city's 'wild-west' origins. We spent our first evening in Vancouver in the Gastown area where I saw this view without having my camera with me! Oh the horror. So I made the effort to get back to the same spot the following night, and try my hand at this kind of night time street photography.

It's not something I'd tried before, but I had an idea of how to go about it. Set ISO to 100, set narrow aperture, and I guessed at an exposure of 20 seconds. To my delight, the very fist photo came out perfectly exposed. It picked up all the amber colour cast from the street lights, and even some light reflected from the clouds.

I took about 10 photos in total. 5 portrait, and 5 landscape. Each one was unique, as the passing traffic left different light trails in the foreground. I'm really happy with how they came out. Just as I'd hoped on that first night. I've picked the best of each for my website.

I'm pretty sure we're going to get one of these printed for home. It'll probably go up in the kitchen, as the area will always remind me of good food. If you ever visit the neighbourhood, you must stop by at Peckinpah's BBQ Restaurant and the cowboy shop next door. Fantastic food and spectacular boots, respectively :-)

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This post is part of a series about our trip to British Columbia & Alberta, Canada.

Canada has a lot to offer a photographer and wildlife enthusiast. But the biggest draw for me was to watch grizzly bears in the wild. To see them go about their day and share their time with you is hugely fulfilling and enjoyable, and it had been an ambition of mine for a long time.

There's a vast array of options available for seeing bears in BC. In planning our trip we tried to afford the time to see bears properly; on their terms, in their habitat, and at our leisure. We wanted a proper experience, staying in bear country and taking in their spectacular natural environment too.

After some research, I stumbled across the Bella Coola Valley, in Western British Columbia. Part of the Great Bear Rainforest, it's a gem of a place. Mountains, trees, waterfalls, rivers, salmon, bears, and bald eagles. This seemed like the perfect spot. It's accessible from Vancouver via road, plane, or ferry, which was important to us as we had lots of other places to see during the trip. Any further North, and we'd be in the territory of a specialist holiday. But being just close enough to Vancouver, Jasper, etc. it makes it a viable option to combine with other destinations on our road trip.

Your choice in accommodation and bear tours is fairly limited as this is a relatively undeveloped area. But rightly so; You can't have wilderness and the luxury of choice. Still, all the places I looked at seemed pretty good. We booked with the friendly folks at Bella Coola Mountain Lodge. The lodge is beautiful, and the bear tours were really fantastic. I took two tours by river drift boat, and one by foot, and our guides on each occasion were friendly, knowledgeable, and engaging. 

The river drift tours were run by Kynoch Adventures, and were a quiet row down the Atnarko river. No motors or engines. The only sound to be heard was the river itself.

After 15 minutes or so and no bear sightings, I was beginning to get concerned we wouldn't see anything. OK it was only 15 minutes, but just a few days earlier, we spent 4-5 hours on a whale watching trip which ultimately proved fruitless, and that was at the forefront of my mind. I was struggling with the sun in my eyes, "am I too warm?", "am I too cold?", "should I use a tripod?", "will we even see anything?".

And then we drifted around a corner and saw this guy just a few feet away, and taking a real interest in us...

I looked around when I heard something rustling in the grass, and I had the shock of my life when he stood right up like this. It was surreal, scary, and incredibly exciting. He sniffed the air, and got back down on all fours. I suddenly felt very exposed; sitting at the front of a little rowing boat. In my inexperience, I had to reassure myself he wasn't about to charge towards us and have my arm for brunch - even though that's what it looked like to me. But of course, he really wasn't that interested in us. In the Bella Coola Valley, the bears are relatively habituated to people. He's seen the boats before, and he knows the river has plenty of salmon to occupy his attention and his appetite. He wandered across to the other side of the bank, and continued his quest for salmon. But what a feeling. Something I'll never get back - my first grizzly encounter. 

After that, and during the second boat trip, I was fortunate enough to see another six or so bears. All very relaxed, and a really enjoyable experience.

Conditions were tough for photography. I like to use warm lighting and strong, simple compositions in my images. I struggled with the light on the river. The tours were in daylight hours, which is understandable for safety and simplicity, and in the valley the 'golden hours' were lost to the shadow of the surrounding mountains anyway. It was also unseasonably warm and sunny during our stay. This was great in many aspects - I mean who doesn't want it to be warm and sunny on holiday? But that meant that the salmon weren't yet pouring upstream in great numbers, so fewer bears around. And the light was terribly harsh during the daytime. Not really much scope for the more subtle lighting I try to stick to. In contrast, the shady spots out of direct sunlight were much darker than I expected, and I was frequently having to push the ISO into the low 1000's. Still, I have to be practiced in all conditions, and I managed to use the harsh lighting to my advantage on a few occasions. Overall, though I was on the back foot the first time around, I slowly adjusted to the light and external conditions, and my photos improved as the days went on.

On the second trip, we were fortunate enough to encounter a mother and cub, who were completely unfazed by our presence, and stopped to fish, eat, and fish some more as we watched on.

As well as the boat tours, we also took a walking tour with Jeff from the Great Bear Chalet. Jeff was extremely knowledgeable, both about the bears and the ecology of the whole valley. He led us through the woods, showing us everything from bears, to woodpecker holes and a "squirrel condominium"! We sat on the river bank and watched a grizzly sow with two cubs, as she caught a salmon and looked for more. Sadly for us, she was feeling quite shy, and they kept their distance from us. But that's the trade-off, right? If you want guaranteed close sightings, you go to the zoo. I had a more memorable experience that morning, watching them from afar than I will ever have in zoo. To share their river, and watch them with no bars or fence between us was a totally priceless experience.

The third form of bear watching we tried was from the bear viewing platform, in Stuie. I'd heard it gets pretty busy, and the locals seemed to suggest the same. But it wasn't so packed on our visits. Maybe because the bears weren't gathering in high concentration, or maybe just our good fortune. I found it an enjoyable place to spend an afternoon, and was rewarded after a few hours by three close-up grizzly sightings. It's a slightly sterile place to be, surrounded by a knee-height electric fence to dissuade the more inquisitive bears from taking interest in people. It didn't offer the intimacy of the watching from foot or by boat, and the angle was a little too steep to be much use for photography IMHO. But it was a nice vantage point from which to watch the bears, and a very worthwhile experience in addition to the more costly tours.

Two things I won't miss about bear watching in the Bella Coola Valley:

• The black flies - Biting flies, particularly problematic at the bear viewing platform.
• The smell of rotting salmon - Everywhere bears are catching salmon, their remains are laying strewn along the riverbank, maggot-infested and rotting.

But the two of those factors are instantly forgotten the moment you see a bear. The thunderbolt hits you (© Jeff), and you're instantly transported elsewhere. Then as the bear wanders out of sight, the smell of the salmon would return.

If you're looking for a bear viewing experience yourself, I would totally recommend Bella Coola and Tweedsmuir Provincial Park. For me it was the perfect blend of wilderness and home comfort. Not too remote, but not too busy either. The last thing I'd want is to be sat with a line of 600mm lenses, all firing off shots like Gatling guns. Or with a bus-load of tourists crowding around one poor animal. In the valley here, you get the opportunity to appreciate wildlife as it should be, and as it's best enjoyed. The are plenty of marked walking routes in the area too, for everything from woodland wanders to mountain & waterfall hikes. And you must take up some tours by the local operators. You can sit at the bear viewing platform for a week, but that's not going to help the bears, and you'd be missing out on so much yourself. You have to embrace local knowledge in a place like this. The insightful commentary from our guides really made the experience more rewarding. The more you know about what you see, the better you're able to appreciate it, and the more brilliant it becomes. 

I hope this is of use to you if you're looking for somewhere to see bears yourself. If there's anything I haven't covered here, or you have any questions, just post a comment below or get in touch via email.

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This post is part of a series about our trip to British Columbia & Alberta, Canada.

I'm a pessimist, so lets start with the bad news:

There will never be a photo of the Canadian Rockies that comes close to doing the place justice.

This is just the reality of the matter. The sheer scale of the place simply can't be contained by any lens and sensor combination. We're talking about rocks that were formed millions of years ago, pushed up by plate tectonics, carved by rain, snow, and glaciers for millennia. Seeds blown in on the wind, planting vast forests of trees. Billions of invertebrates, birds, and small mammals, sculpting the landscape over centuries. Then leading up to your visit, maybe the rain has been good, the lakes are full, and you have lush green grasses. Maybe the snow has dusted the trees and mountains with a white polish. Maybe the lake has frozen solid, or the autumn leaves are on show. Your inability to distil this paradise into a representative photo is matched only by your insignificance in this environment.

But lets half-fill that glass! The good news is, you can't visit the Rockies and fail to come back with good photos.

The difference is, although your photos may not capture the grandeur of the place, they will still be spectacular landscape photos.

My best bet was to strive for something comparable to my own favourite photos. I looked at photos that inspire me, and thought about what it is that attracts me to them, and what makes them stand out from the crowd. Which styles I like, what techniques I feel are most effective, and give the kind of feel that I'd like in my own photos. Then, instead of looking at the view and trying to bottle it, I was looking at how to use it to make the kind of photos I like.

Jasper and Banff national parks are full of lakes, mountains, rivers, and waterfalls - More than you could possibly see in one go. I did a lot of research before our trip, and made good use of just a limited time there. Although the photo above was taken in bright daylight (usually a big no-no in landscapes), I managed to get away with it; bailed out by the crystal clear reflections, and frame-filling scenery. But ideally, you want to stick to the golden hours for landscapes, so plan your time wisely. Make use of tools like The Photographer’s Ephemeris for planning the light direction, sun elevation, and moon visibility...

I got up early on my last day in the Rockies in order to capture the moon over Lake Louise at sunrise. The alpenglow on the top of the mountain was the first view of sunlight of the day. Very cold, but totally worth it. Just up the road from Lake Louise is Moraine Lake, which is also worth a visit for another classic Canadian Rockies view.

Below is a photo of Peyto Lake. This is a commonly photographed lake from a popular viewpoint. There wasn't much I could do with it creatively. One of those occasions where you take the luck of the weather and conditions on the day, and let the turquoise do the rest.

But elsewhere, I was able to get creative. I took the photo below with every intention of flipping it vertically, to produce the rocky sky effect. In reality, it's just the reflection of the mountains in the mirror-finish Lake Louise.

I'm really pleased with the landscape photos I achieved in Canada. They're a step-up on my previous attempts, and although I'm learning from others in the field, I think I'm finding my own style.

I wanted to come back from Canada with some photos to hang on our walls at home, and I have two or three here to choose from.

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This post is part of a series about our trip to British Columbia & Alberta, Canada.

Stanley Park is home to a variety of wildlife, and it's raccoon population is seen regularly by locals and tourists alike.
Imagine my frustration then, when on three separate occasions in the same day, we trekked around the areas known for raccoons, and saw nothing but squirrels and ducks. I'd heard so much about these less-than-shy Vancouver residents, but we just couldn't track them down on our first few attempts.

But fortunately, we were able to make time for another go a few days later. And sure enough, there they were hanging about in the exact spot we had checked on the previous occasion.

For these shots, I noticed this individual wandering off from the group in search of food. Anticipating he would make his way back to the others, I quickly got down to the ground and waited. I could see this patch of sun-lit grass between me and him, so I waited for him to get to it, and took a couple of well-timed shots.

If you're lucky enough to visit Vancouver, do look for the raccoons, around the West side of Lost Lagoon. Go for late afternoon for your best chance. Or even a second occasion, to double your chances :-)

Note though, that they're wild animals, and not of the best temperament. They don't act as cute as they look. They spent some time scrapping with each other. One individual was missing a tail. And they will bite humans too.

Just be cautious, relaxed, and keep a safe distance, and you'll have as nice a time with them as I did.

After the shot above, he did actually get into the water and swim across the stream. You can see the sequence with all my raccoon photos on Flickr.

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I recently finished compiling 12 of my favourite photos from the last year, to make up a calendar for 2013.

It was tough to narrow them down to just 12, but that means I'm building a portfolio to be proud of. And the 12 I have really complement each other, with a nice mix of wildlife and landscape photos.

Just two have made it in from the recent Canada trip, due mainly to the fact that I am still processing the hundreds of images I took there.

I think my favourite photo of the 12 is probably Mr August; the Bengal Tiger. But take a look through yourself, and see which is your favourite.

You can buy the calendar from RedBubble.com, who I went with last year too. I was really impressed with the quality of the paper, prints, and production of their calendars. They're well made, and using the best 200gsm satin art paper, you really feel the difference compared to cheaper products. And at A3 size, they're nice and large too.

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Background

I have "The New iPad", AKA "iPad 3". I use it to review photos after a shoot. I've been meaning to write a blog post about my workflow, but haven't yet gotten around to it. Suffice to say that at the end of the day, I use Apple's Camera Connection Kit to copy photos directly from my camera (currently a Nikon D800) to my iPad, where I can quickly and easily review the photos on the high-resolution display, and see what I've got. I can then delete the ones I don't want to keep, and I import the 'keepers' into Lightroom, directly from the iPad.

The Problem

With the introduction of iOS 6, the iPad would no longer import photos from the Nikon D800. There was no useful error message - Just a red exclamation mark over the thumbnail image, rather than the nice green tick displayed when it's been imported successfully. This is something that worked fine in iOS 5, but suddenly no longer worked after the upgrade to iOS 6. Other cameras which also apparently fail are the Nikon D600, and D3200 - All high-resolution (MP) sensors.

The Suggested Solutions

After a lot of Googling, I found several forums suggesting various 'fixes' that didn't work:

• "update iPhoto to v1.1" - No use to me, as I don't have iPhoto, and this doesn't feel like a logical solution.
• "The memory card isn't formatted correctly" - Yes it is, this is a flagship camera from a major manufacturer. And it worked in iOS 5!
• "Photo Filenames must be 8 characters long" - See above.
• "iOS 6 only imports photos less than 5000px wide" / Some other resolution-based limitation has been applied by Apple  - OK, this does sound like something Apple might do, but it's infuriating, and more people would be complaining about it.

The Actual Solution

All I had to do was close down the apps I had running. You do this by double-clicking the Home button, and closing down the icons along the bottom of the screen. I restarted the iPad, but I don't think that was really essential. Now the iPad is back to importing high-res RAW files from the D800. I guess the cause was either that the Photos app needed closing and reopening after the iOS 6 update, or that I simply had too many apps open at once, and the iPad didn't have enough RAM available to process the large photos I was trying to import.

Hey presto. Hope it works for you.

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This post is part of a series about our trip to British Columbia & Alberta, Canada.

I really didn't expect to get to see beavers. Not only are they nocturnal, but also (at least, I thought) shy and timid creatures. But we were given a tip-off by a kind lady at the Stanley Park Nature House in Vancouver. She told us where and when we might find some in the park. Apparently one had appeared at a site that had been unused for years, and he'd recently been joined by a female. She said she hadn't seen them herself, but her friend has seen them a few times. There were even rumours of some little kits!

This was my birthday, and I had planned to spend the evening watching the sunset on English Bay Beach - a must when visiting Vancouver, or so I'm told. But even as a man who loves a schedule, I couldn't miss the possibility of see some wild beavers. So we made the decision to ditch our sunset plans and take our chances sitting in the cold by a lake, hoping to see something that probably wouldn't appear...

Well we knew we were getting close to the spot when we saw felled trees beside the lake, with the tell-tale tooth marks that only come from one animal. But most of these tree stumps looked like they'd been there a while. They weren't recent work. Then we rounded the corner and saw a opening in the lake, with a suspicious pile of wood and mud. It looked remarkably like a classic beaver lodge. Yet I still didn't believe we would see anything. But it had to be the spot, so we sat and waited for sunset.

Just imagine our surprise when we saw this little guy emerge...

Maybe, like me, his body clock was still set to Alberta time, as he was out shortly before sunset.

For the photographers out there, I was really testing the camera to it's limit here, at ISO's between around 1000 to 6400, due to the darkness. After about half an hour, it was too dark for any photography.

They would disappear for 5-10 minutes at a time, before surfacing again for a few minutes so we could watch them.

I don't think I could have asked for a better birthday present. It was so unexpected, and they just didn't seem to be bothered by us.

I did go back to the Nature House a couple of times, but it was never open again. So I never did get a chance to thank the kind lady for pointing us in the right direction. This is absolutely the kind of tip-off we wouldn't have been given in the UK. At home there's a real culture of secrecy surrounding what little wildlife we have left. This is due in part to historical persecution, egg collecting, etc. But it's a trend that continues still. Partly, I guess because we have lots of people, not much space, and not much wildlife. But the powers that be can be very over-protective (just visit Loch Garten and see an osprey a mile away through a military-grade telescope). It speaks volumes about the Canadian people that they're happy to share these opportunities with others.

We went back on our last night too, and saw them again. Totally unforgettable, and one of the highlights of the trip.

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This post is part of a series about our trip to British Columbia & Alberta, Canada.

My key goals for photography and wildlife watching were to see wild grizzly bears, bald eagles, and killer whales. After that, just as much of anything else as I can.

Our itinerary was as follows;

• Fly to Vancouver.
  Take a whale watching trip from Steveston, Vancouver, BC.
• Drive to Bella Coola, BC.
  3 days in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, watching bears & bald eagles.
• Drive to Jasper National Park, Alberta.
  3 days to enjoy the views and wildlife.
• Drive the Icefields Parkway, and enjoy the lakes and mountains along the way.
• Drive back to Vancouver for 4 days to explore the city, Grouse Mountain & Stanley Park.

Around those locations, we also had travelling time, and the usual sight-seeing & holiday stuff. I think in hindsight, it was too much to pack into one trip. Next time, we'll either need longer, or visit either Bella Coola or Jasper. And I'd probably fly home from Calgary, rather than make the round-trip back to Vancouver. But it was a great holiday, and a great way to enjoy a little bit of all these locations.

Sadly, we didn't have any success with the killer whales. In over 4 hours on the water, we saw no sign of orcas. The residents had moved on after the summer, and the transients just didn't seem to be around. After this dissappointment on our second day, I was concerned we wouldn't get to see much wildlife in our brief time over there. After all, it is like looking for a needle in a haystack with many of this species.

But our luck turned around, and in our two and a half weeks we managed to see a huge number of key species, including shy creatures such as moose and beavers.

During the trip, we saw...

• Elk - Numerous, just after the rut, in Jasper NP.
• Moose - A close encounter in Jasper NP.
• Coyote - Briefly, in Jasper NP.
• Grizzly Bears - Numerous, in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park.
• Black Bears - The odd one or two, in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park.
• Bald eagles - Numerous in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, two in Vancouver, and numerous around BC.
• Osprey - One, in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park.
• Kingfishers - Numerous (and loud!), in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park.
• Squirrels; Red, Douglas, Black, & Grey - All locations.
• Garter snake - in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park.
• Vole - in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park.
• Harbour seal - Waters around Bella Coola, and Vancouver.
• Steller's Sea Lions - Waters around Vancouver.
• Salmon; various species - Tweedsmuir Provincial Park.
• Red-Tailed Buzzard - In the woods of Tweedsmuir Provincial Park.
• Porpoise - A brief sighting of fins off the coast of Vancouver.
• Loons - All over BC
• Chipmunks - Peyto Lake, Moraine Lake, Lake Louise, Alberta.
• Porcupine - Lake Louise.
• Turkey Vulture - Vancouver Coastline.
• Ravens - Jasper NP, & Alberta.
• Pileated Woodpecker - Stanley Park, Vancouver.
• Beavers - Stanley Park.
• Turtles - Lost Lagoon, Stanley Park, Vancouver.
• Mule Deer - Grouse Mountain, Vancouver.
• Great Blue Heron - Vancouver.
• Steller's Jay - Very pretty. All around Vancouver, Stanley Park, and Grouse Mountain.
• Raccoons - Up close, in Stanley Park.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting my photos to Flickr. The best of them will also make it to my portfolio here. And I'll try to write a blog post about each of the locations we visited too.

If you've been to any of these places, leave a comment below and share your favourite memory. If you're planning a trip yourself, feel free to ask questions. I had a fantastic time in Canada, as I always do, and I can't wait to get back there.

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A couple of weeks ago I took another visit to Priory Country Park, in Bedford. I went looking for some more Common Terns, but when I arrived I found they'd moved off already, making their way North for the winter migration.

So I took the opportunity to concentrate on Bedford's year-round residents - the Mute Swans.

I got lucky with a nice sunset, and I picked a spot facing out towards the sun, looking for backlit silhouettes and sunlit water.

I also experimented with something I've never tried on wildlife before. I used a fill-flash to throw some light on the subject, so I wasn't just getting silhouettes. I think this worked really well. I've never used a flash on wildlife before because it would spook a lot of animals. But swans are very habituated to people, so I figured I'd be pretty safe on that front.

I do like silhouettes, but I decided I wanted something different this time around, and the fill-flash enabled me to get the lovely golden water surface, and some good subject detail too.

Here I got an opportunity to take a closer portrait shot...

And lastly, one more disappearing off into the evening...

Swans are a real staple in Bedford, along the river Great Ouse, and they've become very symbolic of the town.

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