Watch the birdie

What a weekend it’s been. Mrs Moore and I have spent most of it bird watching and with some great sightings. Saturday morning was spent down in Speyside watching one of Scotland’s most iconic birds, we had a ball. This was followed with a trip to Loch Garten where we spent some time with the wonderful Coal Tits and a few Cresties.

As you can see below, the coal tit is a friendly little soul and is quite prepared to eat out of your hand. Mrs Moore (AKA Mrs Squirrel to those who read Bassman’s brilliant blog) provided the perch and the coal tit did the rest.

Both(I say both but there are hundreds of coal tits and I’m sure more than one provided poses) were happy to do this for what seemed like ages. Mrs Moore sat patiently with her hand providing the perfect perch holding plentiful portions of peanuts for the polite passers by. She eventually tired, as did the coal tits that seemed to stop coming after a while.

We left Loch Garten and headed for a well earned lunch with The Dairy at Daviot out intended destination. As we passed through Boat of Garten (BOG) I spied The Boat Hotel and restaurant and we decided to go there instead. Two residents who were off to Aviemore on hired bikes assured us that The Boat was fantastic and sure enough, they were right. Haggis Spring Rolls got me started and they were amazing, we’ll be back to The Boat in BOG another time, you should try it.

Sunday morning had been set aside for squirrel watching at my ‘feeding station’ on The Black Isle. I was full of great ideas but the squirrels were not as keen. Almost three hours were spent lying on the damp forest floor where the cute crested tits provided perfect poses in the absence of the little reds. I took about 100 shots but only three or four survived the delete-athon and that might change as I’m unsure of one or two of them.

The reluctant reds did show up eventually, well one did anyway, but they/it were very shy and spent most of the time playing hide and seek. They won almost every time but I did manage one shot away from the box feeder.

So there you go, a weekend with birds which was very good to be honest. This was my first photo outing for at least six months, it’s great to be back!!

Oh yes, the iconic bird…..

Happy days.

James

Two Portfolios and a paused Pro show gold.

It’s been a busy week for me with two portfolio competitions and my first ever photography talk out with my own camera clubs.

Monday night was the first portfolio night at Dingwall CC and this was judged by the excellent Peter Moore who I must stress is no relation. The Dingwall portfolio consists of six images on a related theme and it wasn’t easy to find six suitable images. I went for six nature prints, which included a dolphin, gannet, squirrel, puffin, pine marten and the weakest of the set, some red deer.

I knew the deer shot was the weakest and I should really have spent more time finding something better but I never and the rest as they say, is history.

Wednesday night took me to Inverness Camera Club to give a talk entitled The Black Isle and beyond. I was really nervous to be honest as this was the first time I’d presented to a CC that I’m not a member of. They were a good audience and even got up to take part in my very silly demonstration on the difficulties of dolphin watching on an ever-decreasing beach at Chanonry Point. This was all good fun and I even had two leaping dolphins at the back of the room making it all so real. The first half went OK and once I’d beaten the nerves I got in to my stride. I even made them laugh although they may have been laughing at me rather than with me?

Part two was not as successful as I managed to forget that the pro show was paused and need to be un-paused to get going again. I came back after tea and skipped it on to the next slide expecting to start automatically. It never and I guess I looked a bit silly but not to worry, worse things happen at sea.

Thursday night was portfolio night at Cromarty CC and their limit of 4 images makes things much easier. As always I went for the old favourite, Black Isle Wildlife and submitted a fox, marten, roe deer and a squirrel. The result? First place, yay me!!

The downside to the Cromarty system is that the members are the judges. Although many are very experienced and capable photographers, there is a feeling that some take the approach on not liking the subject matter so not scoring it high. I’m not sure how true that is but I guess it’s hard to get consistency when you have 20+ judges?

The other issue is that there is no critique, or very little which makes it hard for people to build on the strengths of their images. The afore mentioned Peter Moore had given an excellent critique on Monday and although this involved a negative (but fair) report on my Red deer, I was able to take some good from what he had to say.

In other news...

The first round of judging is almost complete in the Scottish Nature Photography Awards and I have a few entries in again this year. Last time round I got a big fat zero but I'm ever hopeful that my luck is about to change. I also stuck a few images in to the British WPA today but if I'm being honest, it's way out of my league.

Happy Days!

James

19 19 19

I am patiently waiting for my big break in photography, which will come in the form of a call from National Geographic or BBC wildlife magazine. If the big break doesn’t come from them, then perhaps I’ll win the Wildlife Photographer of the year, or British/Scottish Wildlife Photography awards (come on, I’m allowed to dream).

Until then(whenever then is) I will keep my hand in by entering competitions at my local camera clubs in Cromarty and Dingwall. The latest competitions was at Cromarty where these three little beauties all scored 19 out of 20 with the last image of a Borneo sunset winning as the best overall image. (*Note to self, send bottle of malt to the judge and some treats for his guide dog). The other two images were second and third overall which is really excellent.

Other competition news came from the postman earlier in the week when a Royal Photographic Society silver medal arrived courtesy of an international exhibition I had entered last year. The winning image was a breaching dolphin calf taken off the Cromarty Sutors last summer. I am really chuffed with this as the standard in these competitions is really high.

As well as competitions, I am currently working on a presentation for Inverness Carema Club which I will give in February. To say I'm terrified is an understatement, hope they like it!

Happy days!

James

Mull of Kintyre

I’ve just returned home from a windy weekend on the marvellous Mull of Kintyre. We stayed at the scenic Stonefield Castle Hotel near Tarbert as part of my 40th Birthday treat from my very generous (and lovely) wife. The weather was typically Scottish but gorgeous with it. A strong (very strong) westerly was coming in on the Saturday and putting up some amazing waves along the shore between Tarbert and Campbeltown. I would estimate that some of the rollers were as high as 15’ further out and were an amazing sight as the crashed against the rocks.

The majority of the weekend was taken at a snails pace and we feasted on fine food from the moment we arrived on Friday until our departure on Sunday. There’s not a lot to do at the hotel itself but it does boast beautiful scenery, well cared for gardens and some nice walks as well as being perfectly located for further exploration by car.

We took quite a detour on the way home on Sunday and eventually found our way to a seal sanctuary near Oban. It was home (sadly) to some captive seals and shoals of shimmering sea fish. I make it sound quite sad but the centre does loads of great work with sick and injured seals with many more returned safely to the wild than they have in the centre. It was also home to two very friendly Otter who appeared to be nuts for nuts. I am no fan of captive animals and it was sad to see these cute critters in an enclosure no bigger than an average garden. When we first looked for them there was no sign but another peek just before we left proved to be a good choice as they were both out to play as feeding time was fast approaching.

Isla and Lewis posing.



All pictures by my wonderful wife.

When I grow up I want to be......

John McaPherson was Cromarty Camera Clubs guest speaker tonight and put on quite a show. Not only is he a great photographer, but he is also a superb speaker with loads of character and enthusiasm for his job. All this was great but what struck me about John was his story, or part of it. He used to work in a shipyard in the west end of Glasgow. I did too although I was on the opposite riverbank. He was also a Social Worker for a few years, which, by coincidence, is my current job.

The last bit of the link is that he, like me, has a passion for natural history photography and all the add-ons that go with it. John is part of the 2020Vision team and has the task of bringing the Moray Firth Dolphins to our living rooms as part of this mammoth multi media masterpiece that will appear in newspapers, exhibitions, TV shows and who knows what else over the next year (hopefully more). Now don’t get me wrong, I am not for one second comparing myself to John, far from it. What I am saying, I think, is that I would love to have the same skills and knowledge in my photography toolbox that John has. I’d also love a job like Johns; maybe I just need a break. John spoke about Chanonry Point and obviously feels the same way about the place as I do. I’ve met his before, shared a BBQ with mutual friends but I don’t know him. We know the same people and as I said, we are both mad about dolphins and everything that goes with watching them at Chanonry.

John had judged The Highland Challenge back in November, which is a photography competition between all (almost all) camera clubs in the Highland region. I never went but feedback from those who did go told of John being harsh in his scoring and ruffling a few feathers. John isn’t afraid to break the rules (of thirds) in his photography and his advice to CCC was good advice, take photographs for yourself, to enjoy, to share but not for judges and not by the rules.

Wise words.

Happy days.

James

Out of Doors.

So it actually happened, we made our Radio debut, well I did anyway. Russell turns out to be a close friend of BBC Radio Scotlands Tom Morton after starring on his show afew years back to talk about the local music scene in Highland. Andrew hides his light and is very, very modest about the undoubted photographic talent he has.

Our 5+ minutes of radio fame went out on BBC Radio Scotlands Out of Doors programme on Saturday morning and in their repeat show on Sunday. They cut us down from 25 minutes of chatter and sound effects which had been recorded at Chanonry point on a bright and breezy day. It seems that quite a lot of folk heard it and feedback has been good. My son, Jack finds it quite amusing that his geeky father was on radio but I think/suspect that he's secretly pleased.

The impact of our appearance on the wireless has been instant with increased hits on our websites, a few book sales and the possibility of further press articles through a Radio Scotland listener.

Self publishing has been an interesting expierence and I will admit that there were times when I thought we were mad. We've not made a million, far from it nor have we had book sales to rival Jamie's cook book, but we have done well, very well. We have sold well over 1000 books and had coverage in the natonal press, Scots magazing and now national radio. We'll continue to do our bit for Black Isle tourism and of couurse for our own fame and fortune, who knows where it'll end but I for one am very proud of what we have achieved.

If you'd like to buy a copy then click here and follow the links to Eilean Dubh. Don't forget to tell Russell that I sent you and demand a signed copy!

Happy days!!

James

Face for the radio...

My quest for fame, fortune and world domination gathered pace yesterday as the result of a chance e-mail to BBC Radio Scotland’s Out of Doors programme in the hope that they might run a feature on The Black Isle and our wonderful book which covers all its bases. The show, which airs (I even have the industry buzz words) every weekend features everything to do with the great Scottish outdoors from Salmon fishing to hill walking, sheep farming and wildlife conservation.

I listen to the show occasionally and am always amazed by how well they ‘set a scene’ with sound and description to give you, the listener a mental picture of the subject. We have agreed to meet at Chanonry Point during my lunch hour and the reason for this choice of venue was simple as this is the place that inspired me to take up photography after watching the amazing Moray Firth dolphins. I guess the venue will also add some atmosphere with the sound of the wind and waves and we might even see some dolphins although that’s no good to you, the listener without a good description.

Chanonry is for me, a very special place. I have met some great people (and Tim Stenton) there and witnessed some amazing displays of dolphin acrobatics, which will never leave me. Without getting all soppy and ‘hippy-ish’ on you, Chanonry has something extra, a feeling, an atmosphere that's special, a real sense of ownership comes across when I go and this place holds special memories for me and many thousands of people like me who have spent time there with their friends and loved ones. I have a vision in my mind as a write of a special couple playing with their young daughter who was making sand (shingle) castles, back and forward she went collecting sand, water and more water, sand and even more shingle, she played happily for ages with her parents watching on with adoring eyes. It’s a lovely memory for me and I’m sure it will be the same for the little girl.

I'm able to share my other memories from that same day, as the dolphins never let us down. This is just one of many images captured in a bumper breaching bonanza.

Other Eilean Dubh news involves the possibility of displaying our travelling exhibition of images at Eden Court theatre in Inverness, I’ll keep you posted.

Happy days.

James

Is there anybody there?

Hello, are you there? It’s been quite a while since I’ve blogged, too long in fact. Quite a lot has happened since I last looked at this with the main event being the sale of my cameras. I now feel like I’ve lost a limb and am really missing being out there in the field.

My plan was to save for a Canon 1D MK1V but that’s still to happen. I’ve also moved home which was a bit unexpected. I’m away from the things I hold dear such as Chanonry Point and the forests around Rosemarkie. It’s not the end of the world though as my new home is close to new opportunities and a trail of marten poop which seems endless.

I plan to buy a new camera soon but what that will be remains a mystery. As stated above, I’d love a 1D but I think it’ll be a 7D for now. I also hope to start camera trapping again soon, which means I’ll need another camera at the lower end of the SLR scale which I will feel slightly better about leaving in the forest for days on end.

I’m still involved in photography at Dingwall and Cromarty camera clubs and have done well in a few competitions with my nature shots. Hopefully 2012 will be a good year once I’m organised.

Eilean Dubh continues to do well with sales well over 1300 now. If you don’t have a copy then maybe now’s the time to change that?

This squirrel on a mossy tree root was the last photograph I took before the cameras were sold, I hope to have new images soon.

Happy Days

James

www.jamesamoore.co.uk

Pine marten season turned out to be less that I'd hoped for despite lots of time and effort. My attentions have now turned to the local Red Squirrels and here are the first batch of images. More to follow over the autumn and winter.

Dolphins

I'm just back from a week without my camera in sunny Derbyshire. It's a beautiful place with wonderful scenery but no dolphins.

These were taken the day before we headed south. If you're ever on The Black Isle then try a boat trip out of Cromarty with the wonderful Ecoventures.

Back to pine marten chasing now!

Happy days!!

James