BBC Wildlife Magazine have just launched a new YouTube channel, hosted by award winning wildlife photographer, best selling author and TV presenter Mark Carwardine. The channel is geared towards helping wildlife photographers of any level with practical tips, interviews and advice from top wildlife photographers and fresh, creative ideas to help them relish and master their craft. For the launch episode, Mark interviewed me to find out how I went about crafting my image of a red fox in front of the Clifton Suspension Bridge (or “the best urban fox picture ever taken” according to Mark!!). To find out the story behind the image and how I went about planning from concept to execution, watch the video below and make sure to subscribe to the channel.
PRESS
WWF COMMISSION
WARNING: This post contains some sensitive images and material
This summer I was commissioned by WWF to capture a series of images that document the current threats to wildlife in the UK to illustrate that the UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world. It was a major undertaking to travel the country and find the stories, not to mention coming face-to-face with the reality of the situation, but we managed it and you can see the final project on the WWF site here, and as a Guardian Gallery here. The above image of a mallard duck and mute swan lying dead amongst litter, after poisoning by algal blooms was used as the lead in both pieces.
I started off down in Cornwall, photographing plastic pollution with Rame Peninsula Beach Care, photographing their collections of plastic pollution that have washed up on their local beach at Tregantle. The beach actually looked pretty pristine, but getting down on hands and knees and sifting through the sand, the picture quickly changes. In amongst the sand, there are plastic nurdles and bio-beads, used as a raw material in plastic production and in the treatment of sewage. In just seven visits to a 100m stretch of Tregantle, Rame PBC collected 9 million of them!
I photographed the plight of pollinators due to habitat loss, hedgehog rescues at Secret World Wildlife Rescue, polluted rivers in Liverpool, seals with plastic “necklaces”, Fly-tipped motorbikes in the River Wandle, air traffic at the London Wetlands Centre and the burning of fossil fuels at a coal-fired power station.
I was also in touch with Project Splatter in the hope of documenting some road-kill to illustrate how roads fragment wildlife habitat and road traffic is a major cause of air pollution and wildlife casualties and fatalities. The plan was that they would contact me with their roadkill reports and if I was in the area, I would go and document the scene. It wasn’t necessary as unfortunately I found my own wildlife fatality, and was first on the scene to discover this dead badger. I had driven in to a campsite and seen the badger alive near the entrance the previous evening and had excitedly phoned my wife to tell her about the encounter. The next morning on the way out, I came across this upsetting scene, just metres from where I had seen it alive. After publication of this image, I was asked if the blood was fake. It wasn’t and was still dripping and clotting. Project Splatter reports that out of all of the people that have seen wild badgers in the UK, 90% of them have been dead on the roadside.
WWF used this set of images to call for a global deal for nature that protects and restores. They also used my image of a gannet struggling in plastic pollution for their Call4Nature series: “The striking set of images have been taken by some of the world’s top wildlife photographers. The photographs, which illustrate some of nature’s biggest challenges, demonstrate visually why the Call4Nature is so important.” I don’t enjoy photographing this type of negative conservation imagery, but sometimes it’s necessary to document these stories to make sure they get told and heard. The positive to be taken from these images is that there are organisations like WWF and all of the smaller charities and organisations I worked with on this set who are fighting for our wildlife. We just have to make sure to take responsibility ourselves and do everything we can to help them.
AUDUBON / NIKON / SONY COMMISSIONS
I’ve recently had the opportunity to work on some great stories with some pretty well-known organisations, including the National Audubon Society, Sony and Nikon. I have previously worked with Audubon on a magazine feature about gannet conservation, which you can see here: Gannet Rescue Mission. This time, Audubon were working on a feature about the social habits of the birds at the Wytham Tit Project, which they describe as “the world’s longest running continuous study of individual avian lives. Its database now tops 34 million records from 10,000 individual birds. Never before have researchers had such granular information about the social lives of so many generations of wild animals on such a large scale.” They gave me an assignment to document the study, which you can read about here: The Surprising Connection Between Birds, Facebook, and Other Social Networks.
Over the past few months I’ve also been working with Nikon, who commissioned me to test out and review their full-frame f1.4 28mm lens. It’s an expensive lens, but great if you shoot a lot in low light and need the extra speed. One of my favourite images I shot for the project was this Alpine Chough below.
I was also recently commissioned by Sony, who were working with the EOCA (European Outdoor Conservation Association) to highlight species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It’s great that major brands like Sony are working with conservation organisations on projects like this, so it was great to be a part of it. I went and shot three species, including Atlantic puffins, wolverines and the common pochard. The puffins were the most fun as I got to go out to Skomer and to work with the team at Falcon Boats to photograph the puffins on the water. Sony gave me the RX10 III to shoot with, which has an insane 24-600mm equivalent lens, that was perfect for shooting the distance and close-up stuff without having to change lenses 😃.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC COMMISSION - BIG CAT WEEK
in URBAN NATURE, RADIO, PRESS, INTERVIEWS, CONSERVATION
I was recently commissioned by National Geographic to shoot a rather unusual model after dark on the streets of London...
To launch BIG CAT WEEK in the UK, Nat Geo WILD had a fully animatronic leopard built by John Nolan Studio and I had one night to photograph it in iconic London locations. The idea was inspired by Nat Geo Wild TV episode Mission Critical: Leopards at the Door. Wild leopards roam the streets of Mumbai but the people who live in the city and the leopards have found a way to coexist. There are of course occasional conflicts, but Mumbai is a great example of how people and wildlife can share urban areas - even if that wildlife is a big cat or other top predator. Read the full story here: Learning to Live with Leopards.
As it was such a complicated build, the leopard wasn't fully finished and operational until the night before the press release, so we had to work through the night to create a set of publicity images ready to go to press in the morning. Assisted by the talented Josh Perrett, we spent the night driving "Lily" all over the city, from Brick Lane, to the Gherkin and Tower Bridge. We got some pretty funny looks and had a great time watching people's reactions to seeing a life-size and incredibly realistic leopard on the streets of London. The story was picked up by a few major news outlets and with the accompanying tv programmes will hopefully help to raise awareness of the threats facing leopards and other big cats in the wild.
INTERVIEW: BBC Radio 2 - The Radio 2 Arts Show with Jonathan Ross
As mentioned in my previous post, I was recently interviewed by Jonathan Ross on BBC Radio 2 - the most popular national radio station in the UK. I was pretty excited to get the opportunity to spread the word about my wildlife photography and promote the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition to such a wide audience. You can listen to the full interview below...
MARINE LITTER FEATURE IN DAILY MAIL UK AND MAIL ONLINE
I've just had a 2 page conservation story published in the Daily Mail, highlighting the problem of marine litter in the UK and how it affects our wildlife. The piece also went out on the Mail Online, which is the most read online newspaper site in the world, so it's great exposure for the story. I spent last summer working with seabird scientists, researchers and conservationists to document their work, and at the end of the summer, I visited RSPB Grassholm, which lies 8 miles off the coast of Wales and supports 10% of the global population of northern gannets. The press piece focuses on the Grassholm gannets as they are the most severely affected by marine litter in the UK - mainly due to the island's proximity to ocean currents like the Gulf Stream, which brings floating debris into the heart of the gannets' foraging zones. The birds mistake discarded fishing lines and nets for strands of kelp and seaweed, and bring them back to the island to line their nests, but unlike kelp, these man-made plastic fibres are incredibly difficult to break free from once entangled and can be a death sentence. Hopefully some positive changes will come from publishing the story in an outlet with such a wide reach. You can read the online piece here and I will be putting up a new gallery of the full project very soon. Thanks to Wildscreen Exchange for helping me tell the story.
GUARDIAN INTERVIEW - WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
I was recently interviewed by the Guardian Newspaper about my photography and particularly why I choose to focus on urban wildlife. You can read the full story on the Guardian Wildlife Photographer of the Year Microsite here:
Where The Wild Things Are: Discovering Urban Wildlife With Photographer Sam Hobson
OBSERVER FEATURE - WHEN ANIMALS GO WILD IN THE CITY
My urban wildlife pictures have just been used to illustrate a feature in the Observer's monthly technology, science and ideas supplement. It's great to see urban wildlife getting some decent coverage in a national newspaper with such a varied readership and it always feels good to reach new people with my work when it has the potential to spark an interest in wildlife in the city.
The feature by Adam Vaughn can be read on the Guardian / Observer site here: "When Animals Go Wild in The City"
BBC WILDLIFE COVER AND WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
Tuesday was definitely my biggest night of the year. First of all, it was Wildlife Photographer of the year week, which in itself was great to be a part of. The night of the awards was loads of fun and the standard this year is absolutely incredible. My parakeet image "Feral Spirits" was a finalist in the birds category so I got my first peek of it in the special 50th anniversary awards book and in the competition exhibition at the Natural History Museum. I also had a dream come true when I got to meet Sir David Attenborough and shake him by the hand. He's been a hero of mine ever since I can remember and has always been an inspiration in keeping my interest in natural history alive. What made the night even more special, was that I got to see my fox image on the cover of BBC Wildlife Magazine. The special WPY issue featuring all the winners is given out on the night with a copy of the WPY book, and the awards is the first time anybody sees it, so to have the front cover and of this particular issue totally blew me away. Finally, it was also announced that my parakeet image was highly commended in the GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year in the Man and Nature category. To say I'm on a high is quite an understatement!
BBC Wildlife magazine are currently running a gallery of my fox pictures including the cover: www.discoverwildlife.com/gallery/amazing-urban-fox-photos
GOSHAWK PICTURES USED FOR BIRD OF YEAR CAMPAIGN 2015
It has just been announced that the goshawk (der habicht) will be pronounced "Bird of the Year" for 2015 in Germany. I have been out to Berlin a number of times to photograph the urban population of goshawks, so I'm pleased that NABU will be using my pictures for their campaign. It's really great to see this often persecuted bird of prey being championed and and brought into public awareness. They are using one of my images for the poster and you can also download a brochure with loads of information (in German) and some of mine and my friends pictures here: http://www.nabu.de/aktionenundprojekte/vogeldesjahres/2015-habicht/17210.html
PEREGRINE AND URBAN WILDLIFE PICTURES IN THE NEWS
in WILDLIFE, PHOTOGRAPHY, NEWSPAPERS, BIRDS, PRESS, URBAN NATURE
My urban peregrines are featured on the BBC England site today: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-29381032
A nice mention for Ed's urban peregrine book which can be ordered here: http://www.pelagicpublishing.com/urban-peregrines.html
I also recently had a gallery in The Guardian dedicated to my photography: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2014/sep/12/urban-wildlife-in-pictures
URBAN DEER IN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PRESS
My urban fallow deer series or "Stag Nights" as they have been dubbed have recently received tons of coverage in the national and international press in print and online. Seeing something unfamiliar in a familiar context seems to strike a chord with people, so I'm pleased that so many people have been able to connect with my wildlife photography. I never thought I'd be on page 3 of the Daily Mail! All of the press has been pretty positive too which has been great.
Featured in the Telegraph, Guardian, Daily Mail, Express, Metro, Evening Standard and online on numerous sites, including Telegraph and Guardian Pictures of the Day.
N.B. Male fallow deer are actually bucks and not stags :)