Niall Benvie. Paul Harcourt Davies. Andrew Parkinson.

I’m excited to announce the launch of a new project I’m running in conjunction with American conservation photographer and designer, Clay Bolt, called Meet Your Neighbours. Please read on as you might become part of it too!

Common neighbourhood plants and animals are usually overlooked and undervalued, yet they are most people’s first, sometimes only, point of contact with wild nature. They matter for that reason if no other. They can make us feel better, let us see ourselves in perspective.

We want people to sit up and take notice of these wild neighbours by presenting them as celebrities: photographed in the white field studio, in exquisite detail under beautiful lighting. And we need photographers around the world to partner with us in this effort.

This project hinges on successful collaborations between photographers and their local conservation NGO’s . We want to recruit photographers who already have good relations with the conservation community or who are able to use this project to build them. And we need the NGOs to put the work out there, in front of the public, in public spaces. You collaborate, identify the species to cover and create: they distribute.

So, to the hard bit: cash. There is no pot of gold, but there is money promised to the project already from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) to get the ball rolling. Here’s what we propose:

MYN will initiate and support your negotiations with your nominated NGO to secure their funding for your work. Your responsibility is in the form of working with that NGO to ensure the best local dissemination of the work. That may include seeking grants from arts organisations, local authorities and companies to get the work out on the streets.

So why, apart from the fee from your sponsor and idealistic reasons, would you want to do this?

Well…

- you will be a member of a coordinated international initiative backed by endorsing partners including the RZSS and the International League of Conservation Photographers. Projects get noticed in a way that individual photographers rarely do nowadays. And this project has a very distinctive look.

- your work will be used in a series of native-language e-books, one for each photographer, which will act as a great resource for your own outreach and promotion within your region.These will be produced in conjunction with the local NGO.

- photographers assume complete control of their work after three years, excepting that funding bodies will have ongoing use of it and may license that work to third parties with 50% of the royalties going to the photographer. Prior to that, MYN and the funders will have exclusive rights to the material you have created, although you may enter it in competitions, post it on your website and use it in av shows.

- your work will be featured on the website, blog and in any printed books that come out of the project, as well as, of course, in local exhibitions and AV shows.

Look at MYN this way: it’s a bit like a franchise in which you are funded to produce the work; the project takes a cut of that for a set period of time, but you can then use the brand in as many creative ways as you like, true to the project’s objectives.

Right, you may be thinking, “I like the look of these pictures and I’m sure that my local NGO would be glad to commission me since they will have the use of them for years to come BUT, I’ve never used a field studio before.” No problem: as well as supplying the special Makrolon plastic you will need for the various sets, we will also provide a training DVD (currently being story-boarded) that explains in detail how to make the pictures. And equipment? Well, I use a pretty fancy Elinchrom Ranger Quadra flash set up for convenience but in fact you can do as I did at the start with some old manual flashguns. You’ll not be able to tell the difference in the pictures. The key thing is that we all produce technically identical pictures, but from all over the world. Many NGO’s may be reluctant to fund photography when they think they can get it for free elsewhere. But they can’t get this specialised work just anywhere and, importantly, they are buying into a much bigger, coordinated effort.

There is another issue: there will be no problem getting photographers from Europe and North America to take part. But for this project to work well, we need contributors from all over the world: please feed this post into your networks.

So, what about it? Are you in? Please email us, myn@niallbenvie.com, with a brief bio., contact details of your partner NGO and let’s see if we can make this work. It doesn’t matter whether you are a professional or a recreational photographer: what counts is a belief in the project and relationship with an NGO who will help you to get the work out into the community. The deadline for the first round of applicants is 30^th April 2010.

Ok: it's hard to love a polychaete, but we should try...

For project updates, please visit the website or follow us on Twitter.

Throughout the civilised world Biodiversity is the buzzword in 2010….so what does the Italian government do to recognize its importance?

On 28^th January 2010, the Italian Senate passed a motion de-regulating hunting, thus making it possible to massacre wild birds and animals with gay abandon all year around. The motion, if ratified, will allow hunting of migrants and nesting birds by greatly extending a hunting season that is already (September to the end of January the following year) five long months. Bravo Italia, yet another blatant and deliberate violation of European laws to add to a very long list!

When predators mark their territory their 'ink' is biodegradable. Hunters show their crass contempt for the environment: these cartridge cases were collected from some 4 square metres just outside a reserve

Although the motion was openly opposed by both the Minister of the Environment (Stefania Prestigiacomo) and the Minister of Tourism (Michela Brambilla) and contrary to advice from the government’s own research bureau ISPRA (Instituto Superiore per La Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale), their informed views and expertise were utterly ignored by the majority ruling coalition of Silvio Berlusconi. If you really want to know what Italians are up against go here

Now, via petition and Facebook, there is an unprecedented backlash to these destructive moves engineered by the hunting fraternity and the industry their activities feed. Over 100 organisations in Italy concerned with the environment are involved in a concerted and vocal opposition, especially the internet-savvy younger element who feel the acute shame of their country’s negative image in environmental and many other matters.

It is hard to credit that, in a supposed democracy, the 700,000 or so licensed hunters, a group comprising just over 1% of the populace, can hold to ransom the 90% whom survey after survey has shown already feel that hunting does great damage and should be contained.

True, there are votes to be had from hunters and their families but there are many votes to be lost. But behind this sits an arms industry desperate to sustain itself as hunting becomes less and less appealing to a younger, more educated generation. There is an extraordinary bill still floating around from a Senator Orsi that, amongst other things, will allow sixteen year olds to buy and carry 12-bore shotguns. It is hard to credit, it really is…

So why should it concern outsiders? Italy is on migratory routes and in autumn and spring millions of birds are shot and trapped illegally. Within Italian law there is the concept of ‘res nulla’ where animals to be hunted belong to no-one, not even the State and immediately become the ‘property’ of those hunters who set their gun sights on them.

In Italy the wildlife organizations and the people who work for and support them — such as LIPU (birds), WWF Italia and LAC (anti-hunting) — have a dedication that is unmatched:  they work tirelessly against huge and heavily-funded opposition. They need the voices from outside who might be resented but they matter. Read more…

It never ceases to amaze, and occasionally worry me that time passes quite as quickly as it does. One minute I’m posting a blog on the WPOTY competition and then before I know it it is 10 days later and I am none the wiser. I’ve done a bit of photography, a bit of processing but 10 days worth, no chance. I genuinely have no idea where the time goes and would probably be more concerned were it not that my head, able only to occupy one emotion at a time, is still presently consumed by confusion.

I am at least fortunate that during the recent cold spell (oh please let it return!) I enjoyed a couple of very fruitful days of photography and so while you all hopefully enjoy a wintry blackbird image I can go and lie down in a darkened room.

There is a bit of a buzz at the moment around the term “conservation photography” not least because of the rise of the International League of Conservation Photographers. I was asked by David Cromack, editor of the late Birds Illustrated and now editor of the soon to be launched Bird Art and Photography (no website just yet), to produce an article about this emerging genre. While it is, as directed, rather more about me than I would like, it may clarify what conservation photography can be.

Oh, and while we specialise on this blog in not making a big fuss… we’re please to see a steady growth in traffic continue, with over 8000 visits during the last 30 days. It is no coincidence that things got going when one became three. If you enjoy some of what we’ve got to say, don’t feel obliged to post comments, but do spread the word about this blog on your own networks. Thank you!

If a passion for orchids ever grips you then you have to learn to accept ‘failure’ as an integral part of the fascination (even obsession) that finding such capricious creatures engenders.

I have heard lovers of orchids described in English both as Orchidomanes and Orchidophiles - the epithet is a tad ambiguous since the name orchid derives from the ancient Greek for ‘testicles’ - a reference to the oblate spheroidal form of the subterranean tubers. In fact, years ago when teaching in Cyprus I tried to explain (in Greek) what I was particularly interested in photographing – let’s say that I discovered, from the sniggers of my students, that modern Greek and ancient Greek are not that far apart. I have a gift for this…

In Italy we are “Orchidiots” - no translation needed there. Come the spring of each year there are veritable armies of folk throughout Europe taking off with cameras in search of these entrancing plants. My own malady ‘lingers on’ for I found my first bee orchid in 1960 and wrote my first orchid book back in 1983 in collaboration with Anthony Huxley.

I am not going to delve too far into what creates this appeal but it has a lot to do with the intriguing, often bizarre, form of the flowers in that they possess a modified petal called ‘the lip’ (labellum) that can resemble tiny dancing figures, insects and a host of other things to challenge the imagination. They also have a sex life that challenges anything from the Kama Sutra with mechanisms for visual deception and pheromone -mimic scents that drive small bees wild…

The Fly Orchid (Ophrys insectifera) an orchid of European woodlands, hedges and even dunes is one of the most convincing of insect mimics with shiny mirror and 'antennae'

Even if you do your homework before going out on expeditions this is an area where Sod’s law, Fineagles Rule and Murphy’s Corollary conspire in an unholy alliance to thwart you.

But then what constitutes ‘failure’ when you can sit down with friends after a day out and still have a bottle of wine to commiserate or to celebrate? And so often you will have been walking in superb scenery and seen butterflies, birds, rare flowers…even if that (censored) orchid eluded. And, as friends who go a week later will generously tell you: ” you should have been there.”

there is nothing quite like a sea of wild orchids - here the Naked Man Orchid (Orchis italica) with man orchids (Orchis anthropophorum) on Mt Argentario, Tuscany

I thought that, with the new orchid season almost upon us (I have seen some rosettes of leaves) I would delve into the dark (and dusty) recesses of the mind and create a series of occasional posts that will make you feel sympathy/contempt or even superiority when confronted with an incurable “Orchidiot’.

A cheeky little character: a natural hybrid (xOrchiaceras bergonii) between Orchis anthropophorum (man orchid) x O. simia (monkey orchid)

And where better to start than with the most capricious, if not the rarest of all Europes’s orchids the aptly named Ghost Orchid ( Epipogium aphyllum) in Ghost Tales, a piece I recently wrote for the Journal of the Hardy Orchid Society.

It’s a quiet country road and you approach a small set of road works. As you do so, the light turns to red. You can see there are no vehicles at the light on the other side nor any approaching. The road is open. So why do so many people stop, letting conditioning master reason? Lights are to manage traffic flow so why be managed by them when there is no other traffic?

Read this on whatever level you wish…

Do you know that great calm that comes from abject terror where you are so scared that you cannot even allow yourself the luxury of a scream?  Having a hard drive with 20,000 image files on it resolutely refusing to be recognised by any of your computers engenders that…I know.

The item is a 1TB Western Digital ‘My Book’ external drive - when I bought it two years ago most of the reviews looked good and, anyway, there was not a great choice available locally in Italy. The first time things went awry no computer would recognise it – we have three Macs: Lois’ iMac, my iMac 24” and a shared iBook pro. Sometimes with firewire connections a drive ceases to function if it is not shut down properly or there is a power cut. When connected to another machine the icon appears: you simply select the drive, eject properly and Bob’s your aunty.

Not this time, so I did an internet search finding routines for plugging, unplugging, and start-up in different orders. Niente, nixt, nil but a deep-seated, sickening feeling in the pit of the stomach; the chest pains started after I saw what data recovery could cost me. That first time the machine would not respond it spontaneously clicked, gurgled and started again…eight hours later.

Next time was more serious no response, no recognition from any computer and hours spent on-line combing for info. I shall pass on what I did in case others have these drives and experience the same…let me emphasise my data was already backed up so success was not crucial, just convenient: if it is then go to a data-rescue company.

Apparently, the firmware (the internal software in the drive) can become corrupted. After checking out the model and serial number on the drive I accessed the Western Digital website and found two sets of software appropriate to the model that could be downloaded : a. firmware and b. WD Drive manager. I downloaded both, first installing the drive manager (with no drive connected) then updating the firmware.

To update/re-install firmware you are told to couple the drive to the computer via a USB 2 cable (not firewire) then open the download. The software looks for your drive, then it installs or re-installs the firmware. Finally, I ejected the drive, connected a Firewire 800 cable and relief, the drive icon appeared.

I have now made a 1.5TB Lacie drive the main one with a similar one as mirror/back up and the Western Digital My Book drive is now shared on lesser duties. I don’t trust it anymore… that done, I went out for a walk and found the first crocus of the new year. Is this a sign or am I being my usual, deludely optimistic self?

Do you ever get the impression that some magazine editors seem obsessed with the idea that photographs are somehow only ‘creative’ if insects and flowers are depicted out of focus and ‘innovative’ if composition is decidedly poor?

My beloved Sigma 150mm f/2.8 macro was used to isolate this flower of the extremely rare orchid Limodorum trabutianum giving a sharp subject image against an unobtrusive natural blur. This way you get a shot that both reveals diagnostic details and is far more than 'just a record'

Many of the best jazz musicians had years of hard classical training behind them before they began to venture into experimental realms. The legendary Pablo Picasso re-wrote the ‘rules’ by dispensing with those things over which he had mastery: I recently listened to a BBC Radio 4 program on Picasso with David Bailey and the incomparable Brian Sewell who made withering comparison between Picasso and the (con) artists who epitomise the quick-fix culture.

My own photography grew out of an abiding passion for nature and not vice-versa and a fetish for sharpness developed alongside from the first time I twiddled the knobs on a basic microscope to bring a fly’s wing into focus…some of the time I am happy with that but then I ‘force’ myself out of  that corner, too.

soft lighting both front and back plus limited depth of field helps set the 'mood' with this white Phalaenopsis orchid

You can look for ‘art’in the detail, revealing the design and pattern inherent ‘within’ a living organism. Alternatively, a composition might grow out of the subject where shallow depth of field, colour and blur can be employed to convey moods and sensations of movement, place, wind…maybe even evoke ‘scents’ when the visual impression is strong to the beholder. It is far from easy to do convincingly but just take a look at the stunning flower photographs of Sue Bishop, founder of Light & Land  to see what has been done by someone who combines a unique vision with a mastery of the photography.

In the next series of Macro Matters posts I want to explore practical ways of getting larger than life-sized images using reversed lenses, coupled lenses, bellows, true macro lenses, microscope objectives …plus a few things you can create at home to help. There is, I feel immense scope to explore your own vision in this realm…it often helps to do a bit of ground work first on how, why and what. Knowing a bit about the limits of what you can achieve in terms of sharpness can, for instance, help turn a problem into a ‘creative tool’. First master the techniques and then do a ‘Picasso’ - break ‘rules’ and explore the frontiers of your own vision.

when working at twice life size and larger magnifications depth of field is measured millimetres and less - you have to learn to work the limits to your advantage. Here the moss capsules were neatly isolated by the 'restriction'

I received this press release from competition organiser, Maggie Gowan, today. I’ll be helping to judge the 2020Vision Special Award which I reckon is the really exciting prize. No animal models though, please…

PRESS RELEASE

British Wildlife Photography Awards www.bwpawards.org

CALL FOR ENTRIES

Win a prestigious award, up to £20,000 worth of prizes and exposure in a nationwide touring exhibition and accompanying book.

After a successful first year and widely acclaimed photographic exhibition celebrating British wildlife, the BWPA announce the launch of their second competition, open for entries from the 21^st January.

Established to celebrate and recognise the talents of photographers of all nationalities practicing in the UK, while at the same time highlight the great wealth and diversity of British natural history, BWPA are looking to build on recent successes and are introducing several new categories. This includes a special award for conservation photography and a category dedicated to British biodiversity and native species under threat, to reflect the fact that 2010 has been declared International Year of Biodiversity, by the United Nations.

2010 is International Year of Biodiversity as declared by the United Nations.

In the year when the UN Convention on Biological Diversity is highlighting the unprecedented global loss of species, BWPA are introducing a new category dedicated to British biodiversity. Sponsored by Natural England, the government adviser on the natural environment, this category focuses attention on our native species fighting for survival.

2020VISION Conservation Photography Award

This new award for Conservation Photography, sponsored by the Wild Media Foundation, encourages aspiring photographers to adopt a slightly different approach to image making. The award will be presented to the photographer who demonstrates a clear understanding of a contemporary conservation theme or story and who submits a portfolio of up to 8 images which creatively illustrates the chosen subject(s).

There are ten main categories to excite the imagination, as well as two special awards to encourage participation by young people, schools and youth community groups.

With a prize fund of up to £20,000 and the overall winner receiving a cash prize of £5,000, the images receiving judges’ commendations will form part of a series of nationwide exhibitions, including a launch and awards event at Hoopers Gallery London, during October 2010. The British Wildlife Photography Awards aim to set the standard for photography of UK wildlife, for many years to come.

Main Awards and Prizes

British Wildlife Photographer £5,000

Young British Wildlife Photographer (under 18) £500

Schools, Youth and Community Group Award £1,000

Category Awards:

The winner of each category will receive prizes

with a total value of around £1,000.

The 2020VISION Special Award

The winner will be awarded a place on the 2020VISION

team and a fully-paid for set of UK commissions.

Categories

1.    Animal Portraits

2.    Animal Behavior

3.    Urban Wildlife

4.    Hidden Britain

5 . Coast and Marine

6. Wildlife in my Back Yard

7. Habitat

8. British Seasons

9. International Year of Biodoversity

10. The 2020VISION Special Award

Dates

The competition is OPEN from 21st January and the closing date is 4th June 2010. Entrants will be able to submit entries on-line or via post.

Further information

For more detailed information about the competition, including how to enter, a full description of categories, shooting tips, and terms & conditions, please visit the competition website: www.bwpawards.org.

Sponsored by Natural England, the government adviser on the natural environment.

Supported by: The Wildlife Trusts, WWF, Scottish Natural Heritage, Countryside Council for Wales,The National Trust, The National Trust for Scotland ,Buglife and Outdoor Photgraphy Magazine.

Apart from a trip to Belgium planned for late April,  it looks like pretty much all of my photography this year will be done in Scotland, or at least, on this island off the west coast of Europe. The reasons why this is happening are suggested in a new column I’ve written for Outdoor Photography magazine (the UK mag., not to be confused with the American Outdoor Photographer). I’m a bit doubtful whether this strategy will work, but needs must. What would guarantee failure is simply to repeat the things I’ve done here  in the past which now a whole lot of able, perhaps time-richer younger guys (struggling to think of any women, I’m afraid) can do better than me. So instead, it’s time to knuckle down to those tough shots and concept images that are my best (some might say only) hope of keeping my work distinctive.

The shot here was tough only insofar as I had to wait several years for snow (and actually be in the country when it fell) after the image was imagined. I was after something that spoke of a childhood adventure to the forest to cut a Christmas tree and it being dragged home through a snowy landscape. Compared to most other parts of the country, we had a miserable covering of snow but the location I had scouted , two miles from home, had enough for the shot. This is perhaps the only time I will have a tax deductible Christmas tree in the house…Credit to Iona and Eliot for helping me with this  (£5 credit each, to be more precise)  late on a gloomy early January afternoon not long before dark.