To watermark, or not to watermark

A no brainer question for any professional photographer, but something I have debated many a time for my own work. At the end of the day, watermarks and copyright protection go hand in hand, but are something I’ve always shied away from in the past as I’ve always felt that a dirty great big watermark can detract from the aesthetics of a photo a bit. I’ve always gone on the basis before that by only uploading low resolution copies of my photos, I’m removing any incentive to try and copy them, along with taking necessary privacy precautions on my Flickr account. However I’ve been reminded recently that these days some people are happy enough with low res shots to upload to Facebook etc., so have decided that (without wanting to sound big headed!) since my work is at a much higher standard than it ever was when I first started posting content online, and I do try to get myself taken seriously as a photographer these days, that maybe it’s about time that I further protect my interests and watermark all my content, I think it’s subtle enough not to be too detracting but am as always open to outside opinions

Site re-decorating

Well anybody who’s visited before will probably take all of about 2 seconds to notice the fairly major design overhaul I’ve given the site recently. My old ‘simple but effective’ design had served me well through numerous updating and streamlining operations over the last few years, but recently I started thinking more and more about giving it a spring clean and a more ‘professional’ look, several hours of browsing WordPress themes later and I came upon one that was just what I was after and many hours of adapting content and redesigning pages later, the final results sits here before you.

There’s still a few boring background tasks to be done (like properly keywording all my pages so the search function actually does something useful!) and content I need to review and ammend (not to mention the inevitability of me changing my mind about some design choice or having a better idea and updating it sooner or later) but for now the core asthetic is finalised and ready for the world. All comments and/or suggestions gratefully recieved

Categorically updated

Something I’ve been meaning to do for a while is to break down my galleries structure, as the number of galleries has grown over the years and the simple list which was sufficient in the past has been getting slowly larger, more cluttered and badly in need of better structuring.

Also, something I have always made no secret of is the fact that many of my wildlife photos are taken at wildlife parks/sanctuaries, and while this lacks the challenge of photographing animals in their natural habitat (not that it doesn’t present plenty of different challenges in it’s own right!), I have never seen any problem with this, providing one is honest and upfront about the origins of one’s photos, plus with the contraints of time and finances associated with having an office day job and busy home life, for many people such as myself, captivity is the only place you’ll get a chance to photograph many of the world’s animals. There have however been a couple of documented instances in the last couple of years of photographs taken in captivity or staged environments that have either glossed over that fact, been vastly over glorified, or downright lied about in terms of their origins. So in a bid to further clarify what of my work is true wildlife and what is taken in captivity, I’ve broken down the albums accordingly so there can be no confusion or mis-interpretation of my work

The one downside from my point of view is that it has highlighted to me just how little real wildlife work I’ve done in the last couple of years n comparison to domestic animals and wildlife workshops in sanctuaries, something I aim to change this year, not least with a trip to the Farne Islands in June (something that has been on my wish list for some time), but I also have a couple of plans lined up in my area for the weekends in the coming months, providing I can find the time (so often my problem), watch this space!

Seals

New gallery is online, this time a day out at Donna Nook with Photographers on Safari (yes I’m a bit of a regular customer!), where we trekked onto the beach to get some shots of the seals in their more natural habitat. Seems there’s been allegations in recent times about the impact photographers supposedly have on the seals in relation to statistics on their pup survival rate, however as far as I can tell this is simply a kneejerk reaction by local conservation groups with no real evidence to suggest that photographers have any impact on the seals (barring the inevitable idiot here and there who has gone for a trophy photo and not acted responsibly), however we photographers are the easiest targets to point the finger at (never mind that the RAF use the beach as a practice bombing range during the week…). Like any wildlife photography, done responsibly with correct guidelines observed, there is no impact on the animals and I hasten to point out that our group was well briefed on proper etiquette around the animals by our group leader. I didn’t see a single seal bothered by our presence beyond brief curiosity, all the close up shots in this album were taken at the long end of a 150-500mm lens as we all maintained a respectful distance from the seals at all times

Kitties!

A new gallery is live from my latest workshop with Photographers on Safari at the Cat Survival Trust in Welwyn, a tricky venue to work at as they are not open to the general public and the cat’s cages were never designed with photographers in mind, so have fairly small wire which makes getting shots through it a bit interesting. I still managed a few passable results though and we were lucky enough to be able to see the stars of the day, which I think were the main reason the whole group of us were on this particular workshop, a pair of gorgeous snow leopard cubs less than 2 months old. Originally the intention was for them to be let loose on the grass with us for some truly special photos, however for health reasons they weren’t able to be allowed on the ground. Just to be able to see them at such close range though was a real privilidge in itself and at the end of the day, their health is way more important than any photo so we were all more than happy with what we were able to get. Even if the shots are never going to be prize winners, they’re still something that not many people will get the chance to do!

Birds of Prey

New gallery is online, photos of several birds of prey static and in flight from a workshop in Whissendine with Photographers on Safari and a local falconer, all set in a lovely enclosed wooded area on farm grounds. As it says on the album, I did toy with the idea of editting out the lead line that the birds were attached to but my limited editing skills render that more effort that it’s worth (if I didn’t end up making the shots look worse anyway!) and equally, although the shot might look a little better without it, I’m not trying to claim these shots as anything other than captive birds so I don’t see a great necessity for editing it out

Gorillas

Another new gallery is online, I visited Port Lympne Wild Animal Park with Photographers on Safari at the weekend where the main focus of the day was on their groups of gorillas. We also got to go on a vehicle safari around their huge open area that is home to a variety of herbivores. Photography conditions were pretty challenging for the gorillas with the sun unable to decide whether to peek through the clouds or not from one minute to the next, but I still got some passable results, and besides, if it was easy it would be boring

British Wildlife Centre

Gallery from Wednesday’s trip to the fieldcraft Seminar with Andy Rouse at the British Wildlife Centre is now live. Well actually it was live about 1 o’clock yesterday morning but I’ve only just remembered to write a post about it. Cracking day was had by all in attendance and the new gallery shows my efforts to put all the good advice on offer into practice!