Archive for April 2020

Story Behind the Picture: Rafflesia, the World’s Largest Flower

Nikon D810, Nikon 8-15mm fisheye @15mm, f10, 1/2 second   My roots are firmly set in the zoological rather than botanical camp. I read zoology at university and once regarded plants as nothing more than things animals either sat in or ate. Over time my attitudes have thankfully mellowed and I’ve come to realise the…

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Story Behind the Picture: Jellyfish Galaxies

Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm @70mm, f8, 1/80 second The first unusual thing about the day was that it was a calm, not something I was used to on the west coast of the Isle of Mull. The surface of Loch Na Keal was nothing more than a uniform gentle ripple. I was heading out towards…

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Story Behind the Picture: The Cat’s Whiskers

Nikon D3s, Nikon 600mm, f8, 1/640 second There may be a proportion of the world who enjoy taking cheap shots at the USA (especially with the current resident in the White House) and who constantly ask, “what did the Americans ever do for us?” Well just stop for a moment. If nothing else they came…

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Story Behind the Picture: Pure Silk

Nikon D5, Nikon 200-400mm @290mm, f6.3, 1/320 second I first visited Marojejy National Park in Madagascar in 1998. The national park had only just been created and I had a single primary aim – to photograph the silky sifaka. On numerous previous visits to the island I had seen all the other varieties of sifakas…

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Story Behind the Picture: Scorpion – Let There Be UV Light

Nikon D850, Nikon 8-15mm fisheye @15mm, f16, 6 seconds It has long been known that scorpions (all species) fluoresce under ultraviolet (UV) light, yet the reasons for this remain a mystery. Not only do we not really know why, we also do not know how as the chemicals that actually cause the phenomenon have also…

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Story Behind the Picture: Capybara Capers

Nikon D3s, Nikon 500mm, f4, 1/5000 second This photo was taken during one of my group photography tours to the Pantanal in Brazil. On each of the three previous afternoons, we had visited the same beautiful secluded lagoon off the main channel of the Paraguay River and seen nothing particularly special or noteworthy. And yet…

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Story Behind the Picture: Macaws at Clay Lick

Nikon D5, Nikon 600mm, f8, 1/1000th second I first became aware of the mind-boggling biodiversity of Manu and Tambopata in the Peruvian Amazon during my undergraduate years at Nottingham University. It sowed a seed. This was further reinforced, when Andre Bartschi won the overall title in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year of 1992 with…

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Story Behind the Picture: Polar Bear Glow

Nikon D2x, Nikon 200-400mm @400mm, f4, 1600th second It’s intuitive to think of polar bears walking across vast snow fields or swimming through ice flows. Seeing the Arctic’s apex predator on dry land in the warm glow of late evening sunshine is not an image than immediately springs to mind. And yet there is a…

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Story Behind the Picture: Beach Bum Chameleon

Nikon D3, Nikon 14mm, f11, 125th second Chameleons are one of the animal groups that help define Madagascar (the other major one being lemurs of course). But they are masters of concealment so finding them during the day is tough. It is actually easier to find them when they’re sleeping at night, but they are…

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Story Behind the Picture: Tiger Blur

Nikon D2x, Nikon 70-200mm @ 100mm, f11, 1/4 second I envisaged this picture ten years before I was able to take it. It remains one of my favourite tiger images. Motion blur is a technique that divides photography: in common with Marmite, you either love it or hate it. I’m partial to both. The technique…

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