The past few months have been pretty hectic what with exams, revision and university interviews however for the first time this year I finally have the time to start writing more on here!
For those of you reading this that do have a keen interest in photography, particularly wildlife, then hopefully you will know of the photographer Heather Angel. Heather Angel is a British wildlife photographer, TV presenter and author, with more than 50 books to her name. As well as this, from 1984-1986 she was the president of the Royal Photographic Society and throughout her career has travelled to hundreds of incredible place on numerous occasions. Pretty much the dream from my point of view!
So why am I writing about this lady? Back in February I was fortunate enough to spend a few hours with her at her home and learn some very useful skills. Since last September (14) I have been going through the process of applying to University to study photography, predominantly Wildlife and so I took the opportunity to also talk about and show her my portfolio that I was going to be using for my interview. (a blog post on my portfolio will follow shortly). This was hugely helpful and I even got some photos whilst with her that I used in my portfolio.
Being able to talk to someone that has had the career I could only dream of was fascinating. Hearing about the trips and seeing some of her photos whilst she explained the thought process behind them was so motivational as well as eye opening into how much time goes into capturing these photos.
Not only did we go through my portfolio but we set up a mini shoot. This included shooting numerous items that Heather had picked up herself on her travels such as Peacock feathers, skeleton leaves, gorgonian soft coral and a Haliotus Iris (a shell). To some, these items are ordinary and boring but she taught me how to compose and angle the items to add a whole new aspect to the items. We also used a lightbox which i’d barely used before so that was really good, especially for the skeleton leaf. Below is some from the shoot.
Peacock feather
Paua Shell (Haliotus)
Skeleton Leaf- shot on a lightbox
Iris- shot using natural light and a plain black background. A ‘Plamp’ was used to angle the stem and petals.
I feel very lucky to have been able to meet Heather and to have learnt so much from her.
Hopefully there won’t be such a huge gap between me writing the next post but in the mean time take care!
A x
Heather Angel’s website : http://www.heatherangel.co.uk/#/Portfolio/Wild%20China/1/thumbs
Abigail Hobbs Photography 