I am absolutely delighted.... no ecstatic to have had my image commended in the prestigious Landscape Photographer of the year awards 2018, such an honour and i cannot wait to see it printed in the official awards book upon its release on Tuesday and also then attend the awards ceremony in November!! 

Some of you may have read my original blog on this photo and others taken that night (if not you can read here http://www.peterbrooksphotography.co.uk/blog/storm-over-belle-tout/ )

I wrote that blog a year to the day that i took the image, it was also the day that i found out this had been shortlisted in the competition, having it shortlisted was already exciting and an honour, having followed the competition for years admiring the stunning photography i have dreamt of one day having a photo of mine grace the pages, it has been one of those bucket list todo things that i was working towards and i am so proud to have achieved one of my photography dreams especially with it being the first time i have entered! 

Congratulations to all the successful photographers and i look forward to meeting some of you at the awards ceremony!

If you follow me on any social media you would not have escaped my little owl pictures! throughout the summer i was lucky enough to be able to spend some time with this family and have a little insight in to their world.

I have wanted to photograph Little Owls in the wild for a while and over the last 2-3 years i have managed to find 3 locations near to where i live, the first two locations were extremely hard to get photos, i managed a couple but due to the location restrictions and lack of available time on my part i never got the shots i wanted, but then i met these guys!

The Little Owl was introduced to the UK in the 19th Century and is only 20-23cm tall but has a wingspan of over double that being 54 - 58cm.

Unfortunately Little Owl numbers are declining, down 24% between 1995 and 2008.

I find the best way to get the photos you want is research, find out the most you can about what you want to photograph, i generally use this approach for all my photography be it landscapes, weddings, people or wildlife,  
With wildlife the first challenge is finding the subject, especially with rare nocturnal or illusive species,  the more you know about the subject the more likely you will be able to find it, it is then a case if visiting suitable habitats at the right times of day or night and spending time listening, watching and looking for signs, you can of course take short cuts and visit one of the many paid hides where someone else has done this part for you and you can generally turn up and get stunning pictures with the perfect background and have choice of light direction etc and there is absolutely no problem with that, its great if you don't have time due to the pressures of life or just want to get some great shots but for me nothing beats finding a subject yourself and then working to get the shots you want, the photos often then tell a story and mean so much more. To the viewer i guess there is no difference but to me this is the thrill of wildlife photography.

Above is the first photo i took of a little Owl (well Owlet) at this site, i took this from my van one afternoon when i was driving near to where a few weeks before i had heard a little owl call, i had been back to the area a few times and would just park up various places to watch and listen, this little owlet suddenly appeared, i think we were both surprised to see each other, this little guy was pretty chilled, checked me out for a bit then flew off in the direction of a group of trees, over the next two weeks i visited the area a few more times and the same thing happened again and again, the only problem was they were flying onto private property, i couldn't investigate any further than i had without getting the land owners permission, queue google maps!! after looking on the maps and working out who owned the land i decided to pay them a visit and ask if they would mind me going on to the land and taking some photos, lucky for me they were the nicest people, told me they loved the owls and where they had seen them also said they sometimes have a barn owl too, i showed them my work and they loved it.
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As soon as i had permission to be on the land i thought i would go and check it out, i drove my van into an area by the trees i had seen them flying too making sure to keep a good distance and stay on the track (the track was well used and the land owners said the owls were used to the daily comings and goings and now didn't even bother looking up when they drove by) as i stopped and looked out my side window i was greeted with the view above, an inquisitive little owlet staring straight back at me from on top of a pile of logs, i was literally so excited! i sat still for a good 10 mins as i didn't want to scare the owl away but it just sat there watching me, i slowly moved the camera up and took a few shots before just watching again for a while, i wanted them to get used to my van and realise i wasn't a threat.

Being the beginning of July Sunrise was about 4.45 and the location being about 15 minuets from my house i was setting my alarm for about 4am to make sure i was getting to the location in place and ready for sunrise, this was also generally before the little owls arrived in their favourite tree, it can be hard getting up at 4am especially when you know you have a full day of work ahead plus all the normal day to day things to do but when you are sitting in a beautiful bit of the countryside with just the sounds of nature waking up and views like the photo above to look at, as the sun rises it all makes sense and you know exactly why you are doing it!

We had some gorgeous weather here in the South East of the UK this summer and some absolutely stunning sunrises to go with it, these gave some wonderful colours and the chance to get some wonderful images

The Owls got so used to me being there and so comfortable in my presence that they would at times be to close to get any pictures, other times they would fall asleep 5 meters away, this is when all the hard work has paid off and how wildlife photography should be, the subject always comes before any photo, i see far to many reports of people doing anything for "the shot" i think in a world where people value "likes" on social media more than they do anything else and instant gratification is required we need to do better.

Sometimes i would get to the location and it would appear that there were no Owls about, so i would sit quietly waiting and then id maybe see a small movement or something would just catch my eye and then i would remember why finding these guys in the first place is so hard, below is an image i took after sitting there for a few minuets thinking i was all alone, these owls are so small and so well camouflaged....... can you find the Owl??

As the dry weather continued i worried that the parents would struggle to find enough food for the 3 young but these two were amazing! there was a small pond nearby so water wasn't an issue and every morning i was there the little ones were being fed a variety of worms and insects and to my surprise frogs were forming a large amount of their diet.

I had such a fantastic time watching and photographing this little family, i hope to visit them over the winter altho sadly the little ones would have left the area now, and i look forward to seeing another group of little ones next year, this time i'm hoping to watch them from the first time they look out of the nest through to when they leave to find their own territories, until then keep an eye on my social media for updates on the adult pair,  i'll leave you with some more images,

Thanks for reading, i hope you enjoyed it.

Its hard to believe this was a year ago already! Most of you have seen these shots but i never really shared the story of how they came about!

The shot above went far and wide online, mainly on social media, featuring on pages like Sussex life and the BBC, doubling my Facebook following in one day by being shared thousands of times, became my best selling print and actually paved the way to me getting engaged to my beautiful girlfriend...... all of which my brother is taking full credit for......

The night was pretty normal as i remember, we were just chilling at home, little one was in bed, we had just finished watching a film, my girlfriend went up to bed and i was just heading that way myself when i saw a few flashes of lightning as i was locking up, i then received a text from my brother, it was 23:07.
​he lives on the seafront so has a good view of these things. 

I got to near the pier and sat in the van watching for a few minuets, nothing much was going on, a few small flashes but nothing spectacular, i thought if the storm was further away the best chance to see it clearly was to head up high, i drove from there to beachy head with confirmation from my brother that what i was thinking seemed right, as i got up onto the South Downs BAM i saw a massive fork of lightning come down, i stopped near to the Beachy Head pub where there was quite a gathering of cars with people watching the storm, the views were ok from here but no good for photos, i thought Belle Tout Lighthouse could be the best place to be, the lightning was over the sea in that direction and its a stunning lighthouse, i got there and parked in the lay-by at the foot of the hill leading up to the lighthouse, parking side on so i could photograph from the shelter of the van, it wasn't raining yet but i didn't think it would be long looking at the sky!

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​It was at this point setting up my kit i hit my first stumbling block, i had left my tripod head at home, shooting mainly wildlife i use a big telephoto lens which requires a different type of attachment, the Gimbal head that i use for wildlife is almost permanently on my tripod and i don't generally carry the other one with me unless i know i'll be shooting landscapes just to keep my bag weight down (it now lives permanently in my van! lesson learnt) i managed to set my tripod up and balance my camera on the gimbal head, when you take lightning photos you use a technique called long exposure, this is where the camera takes a photo as normal but instead of the light being exposed to the sensor / film for a fraction of a second it can remain open for seconds, minuets or if required even hours, this is how photos with car light trails and photos of stars streaking across the sky are done. so for this the camera needs to be completely still for the duration of the picture, any movement will blur the image, even the tiniest movement can ruin the image completely, i knew keeping the camera still was going to be the biggest challenge especially  as now the wind had increased and at times was blowing the van rocking it all over the place.
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Having the camera and tripod like this made composing the image difficult too, setting up the shot making sure the lighthouse was in focus and the shot duration was right as well as keeping the composition as i wanted would have been so much easier if id remembered that vital piece of equipment, but as you can see it all worked out pretty well,


​The wind was howling by this point and the rain came down a few times so hard that i had to close the windows and just wait for it to pass as there was so much water pouring in the van and over my equipment (i also now have a camera/lens waterproof cover......always learning)
There was also one crack of thunder at the same time as a huge flash of lightning, it was right over my head and the noise was incredible, it was one of those "is my time up" kinda moments, i could hear the electricity crackling right above me, another thing from this night i won't forget in a hurry!

​The display was amazing and by this point it was nearing 2am, the lighting was slowing and was less dramatic so i decided to call it a night finally getting into bed about 2.45.

As with all digital photography you can only tell so much from the screen at the back of the camera and at 2.45 am i wasn't looking for too long and it wasn't until the next morning when i got them on the big screen that i would know if any of the shots were as good as they looked, luckily they were even better than i thought, i posted one shot online that morning and i got so many notifications and messages about it that my phone battery died in 2 hours! 

One of the messages i received was from the owner of the Belle Tout lighthouse, David Shaw, he had seen the photo and invited me up for a coffee to talk about it and about getting some prints done, one to go in the lighthouse and one to go in his living room. I also got a guided tour, having never been in there is was really interesting and great to learn all about the history, plus it was a beautiful day and the views from the top were awesome.

As well as the prints David also had the image on the Lighthouses official Christmas cards, he also has some small prints for sale in the lighthouse,

David kindly offered me a stay in the lighthouse something i was very excited about, i had been thinking about proposing to my girlfriend and thought this could be a perfect location and something to remember, being only August and thinking about proposing in May (the 5th anniversary of when we first met) keeping the secret of the stay was going to be tricky!

Luckily enough i was able to keep quiet (a minor miracle) get a ring and well to spare you the long version (must remember this is a photography blog haha) she said YES!!  

Well thats kind of where this story ends, we are getting married next summer and have this night and the night of the storm now as a wonderful memory..... and yes my brother still thinks that its all down to him haha, He has one of the shots as a canvas in his living room but he's still after royalties!


If you got this far thank you for reading, hoping to do more of these so open to suggestions about what you would like to read about? Stories like this, camera techniques / tutorials/ camera settings, information about different wildlife, any suggestions leave them in the comments.

So this morning my alarm sounded at 4am, yep with sunrise now just before 5am this is the time i will be needing to get up to get the best morning light, the weather forecast was for clear skies over night and throughout the morning, so after laying in bed for 5 minuets contemplating life i got up and had a look out the window, clouds!! hey ho i was up now and they were scattered clouds and not a thick blanket so the chance for some nice light was still there, 
On the drive to the farm i was then plunged into thick mist (again not ideal) altho mist can be great for photography it wasn't what i wanted today as i was looking and hoping to photograph owls, I got to the farm and as the sun began to rise and popped out above the strip of cloud the mist burnt off and some beautiful light managed to get through, my owl friends obviously had other plans tho, i'm pretty sure i did catch a brief glimpse of a little owl but this brings me to the point of this blog....... below is the only picture i took this morning,

yep a pigeon!! 

One of the most common birds in Europe and considered pests and vermin by many, i often wonder with common species that if there were only a few left on the planet would our perception of them change dramatically?? Would they suddenly become more beautiful and gracious to our eyes?

Sometimes the hardest pictures to get are good pictures of the most common things, Pigeons are so common that you don't get the "wow" factor like you do with a picture of an owl, some people go their whole lives without seeing a wild owl, i'd be surprised if there were many people that go a day without seeing a pigeon, at first i was a bit disappointed that the only picture i took this morning was of a Pigeon but if i hadn't taken this i would have had no pictures at all and i really like this picture!! technically its right, compositionally great and its razor sharp, it just has a nice feeling to it, it perfectly represents the morning i had, great light and chilling out watching the world wake up, i  also i know when the owls do show up I'm ready, you can't expect to only take pictures when a 2 second opportunity arrises and perform to the highest level, until everything falls into place i will continue to take great pictures of whatever i see no matter how common or however viewed by people, some of the most amazing animals around the world are viewed as pests or vermin, maybe photos can make people look again I'm certainly glad i did.

Pigeons are considered to be one of the most intelligent birds on the planet and able to undertake tasks previously thought to be the sole preserve of humans and primates. The pigeon has also been found to pass the ‘mirror test’ (being able to recognise its reflection in a mirror) and is one of only 6 species, and the only non-mammal, that has this ability. The pigeon can also recognise all 26 letters of the English language as well as being able to conceptualise. In scientific tests pigeons have been found to be able to differentiate between photographs and even differentiate between two different human beings in a photograph when rewarded with food for doing so.

Click the image below to check out my blog on the wedding i shot recently, not something i usually do so new and challenging for me.

So just a quick one......... yesterday i had some very exciting news that my photo has been selected to go into the RSPBs 2017 Calendar! this beautiful image will be April, the calendar will be on sale from July across the country and online :)

​Check out my blog on the morning i spent in Richmond Park, London photographing Red Deer

Click the image below to read