Writing for life

This is the most popular image in our photo wedding invitation line up. It’s the photo that inspired the business, and the one that best captures what Image Invitations is all about.

Hanging out – a photograph that inspired a business

I know this isn’t a forum for commercial promotion, and that’s not the aim. I thought I’d share the image with you here on its own merit.

The teddies, which belong to my twin daughters, were hanging on my parents’ washing line in North Wales after a much needed “bath”. I took several images from a variety of angles… this was the one that stood out.

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When staying at the Glengarriff Lodge in April, these bizarre looking creatures were all over the place. Didn’t have a clue what they were until further investigation revealed that they were violet oil beetles (Meloe violaceus).

I keep meaning to upgrade from my aged Nikon Coolpix 5700 – but this dated 5 megapixel camera still manages to surprise and delight me with the quality of image it’s capable of producing.

I’ve been toying with getting a DSLR for ages now, but while the kids are young I’m loath to swap what is a very capable and compact package for the bulkier SLR and associated paraphernalia.

Naturally there are times when I miss the speed and responsiveness of an SLR… but much less often than you might think.

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Up in Dublin for a meeting last summer I found myself wandering near the canal when a scene on the bench opposite caught my eye.

I think this tourist was trying to photograph a map of Ireland, for some bizarre reason. The unintentional (or at least subconscious) similarity of his pose and that of the sculpture alongside him made for an interesting snap.

It’s a “grab” shot… like a lot of my photographs (I tend to have kids swinging off one arm while wielding the camera one-handed, hoping fervently for high enough shutter-speeds to compensate for the inevitable camera-shake) – and is perhaps technically challenged – but the curious juxtaposition rescues it.

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Here are a couple of shots taken in Sydney last time I was there – one of the Opera House, the other of the Harbour Bridge at night.

I like the pattern of the tiles in this shot. I contemplated having just the pattern in the composition, without the sliver of sky, but found that eliminating the sweeping curves of the dome detracted from the overall image. It rendered the iconic suddenly unrecognisable.

SHB by night… ‘nuf said! Have used this image for clients on wedding invitations… works very well!

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Here are a couple of other photographs illustrating how taking a different perspective can dramatically alter photographs of the same subject.

This Don Quixote sculpture stands outside a hotel in Toledo, Spain. It’s often photographed by tourists head-on… or with people standing next to it.

By moving in close, and silhouetting the head and spear against the sky and including the impressive building opposite the hotel it makes for what I think is a much more interesting image.

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Heading out to sea from Reen Pier, Union Hall, West Cork, on Nic Slocum’s Whale Watch West Cork vessel in November 2007.

A Fin Whale (Balaenoptera physalus), second largest creature ever to have lived on earth, feeding off the West Cork coast. An aggregation of seabirds over a patch of water is one sign that cetaceans could be feeding in the area.

The birds on these trips are almost as entertaining as the whales….

On this trip we saw about eight or nine fin whales, a couple of minke whales and a large school of common dolphins. Humpbacks are also regular visitors to West Cork over the winter – you’ll find more info and photos on whalewatching in West Cork on this article on my main website, originally published in the UK magazine, The Countryman.

Whalewatching trips are also operated by Colin Barnes – also out of Reen Pier, Union Hall – you’ll find details at Whales Dolphins Ireland.

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Poplar Hawk Moth (Laothoe populi) photographed at the Biodiversity Day event at Manch Estate. (© 2008 Calvin Jones)

I’d just been listening to wildlife photographer Mike Brown giving a talk about how taking a different view can often make a very striking image of a relatively common subject — something I always try to do in my own photography. I think in this image I’ve managed to do that.

Here’s a more conventional view of the same animal — beautiful… no matter which way you look at it.

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Published in the Evening Echo 21/05/2008

Watching “Wild China” on the BBC tonight was amazing. I never knew, for example, that wild Asian elephants still survive in the forests of central China, or that gibbons – which I thought confined to South East Asia – still roam the canopy in some of China’s forests. The sheer diversity of life unfolding on the screen was staggering – plants, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals.

But like so many of the world’s wild places, the amazing biodiversity of these Chinese forests is under threat. Much of China’s virgin rainforest has been felled to make way for rubber plantations – rubber that’s helping to fuel the inexorable rise of one of the world’s fastest growing economies. The economic imperative, as so often seems to happen, overrides the environmental one: short term gain taking precedence over long-term vision.

Much closer to home, we’d spent much of the day looking at biodiversity on a much smaller, but equally fascinating scale in one of Ireland’s wild places. Ireland’s National Biodiversity Week is running from 18 to 25 May this year, scheduled to coincide with the United Nations International Day for Biodiversity on 22 May.

“Biodiversity Week is Ireland’s contribution to a global celebration of biodiversity which aims to increase awareness of the importance of biodiversity and promote action to tackle the loss of many of our species,” said Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, John Gormley, TD, as he unveiled the nationwide programme of events last week. “This is the second year that my Department has supported Biodiversity Week and already it has developed to the extent that we now have over 200 events taking place throughout the country.” And I have to say it’s a laudable effort in a country where we have plenty to redress when it comes to our environmental credentials.

Keen to get involved, and to expose the children to more of the wonders of Irish nature, we headed out to a Biodiversity Day event at the Irish Natural Forestry Foundation’s headquarters in Manch Estate, Balineen.

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Saw my first swallow of 2007 on April 13th….

We were sitting outside having lunch (making the most of the unseasonally warm spell we’re enjoying in West Cork) when the bird swooped low over the lawn, circled once overhead and promptly disappeared. I haven’t seen another since… though I’m sure they won’t be far behind this trailblazer.

In celebration I’ve changed the header image of this site to a photograph of young swallows at the nest. This is the last brood reared in our old out-house before we converted it into my office. The following year the swallows moved into an old barn on the farm next door — so no harm done.

They say one swallow does not a summer make… but with the weather we’ve been having in West Cork for the last few weeks, I’m not so sure!

Technorati Tags: swallow, hirundo rustica, barn swallow, irish wildlife, nature

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