NEWS
2009 was, as always, very busy, mainly finishing my new book on Digital Close-Up and Macro Photography, published in October 2009. This has involved the photography of many new subjects for me, including the cultivation of the rare Triops cancriformis!
Trips during the year included Snowdonia for alpine plants and landscapes, and various nature reserves for rare plants such as Monkey and Military Orchids.
During a holiday to Lanzarote I became fascinated by the production of cochineal, using a scale insect on cultivated Opuntia cactus leaves, and also the traditional salt and wine industries there.
Increasingly, much of my recent work has concentrated on photographing environmental issues, such as the effects of global warming, or the effect that alien, introduced species such as New Zealand Swamp Weed or Japanese Knotweed are having on our native vegetation. I hope to extend this work next year with photography of introduced animals such as beavers, wild boar and parakeets.
I had another trip to South West Florida in December where I got a lot of new stock images of birds and other wildlife from the famous nature reserves of Ding Darling, Sanibel Island and Corkscrew Swamp.