Links
A variety of links for European wildlife, esp. butterflies, orchids, and birds, as well as a few things for nature photography, along with some of my landscape- and film-photography inspirations.
LANDSCAPE AND FILM INSPIRATIONS
: The big two – still – in the UK, Joe Cornish and David Ward, with excellent websites. Joe’s new website is a revelation: a sign of a distinctive move towards more intimate scenes, and finally, I feel, a sense of contentment in the shift from large-format film to digital photography using, for a lot of the work, a technical camera with digital back. His recent book ‘This Land’ is excellent (a compilation of film and digital work), but the colour saturation there is somewhat more muted than in earlier work exclusively shot on film, such as in ‘First Light’. The new work on the website – particularly for me the close-ups – is phenomenal: you will have to go very far indeed to see better photography of rocks and trees, composition, and mastery of a full range of lighting conditions, anywhere.
For recent UK photography books, take a look at some of Jem Southam’s work: really quite extraordinary how an incredibly patient and contemplative approach to a landscape or location can transfrom a scene. An 8×10 film hero!
Further afield, check out Chris Bell’s 5×4 film work on Tasmania; for beautifully luminous black and white work, including large-format film, check out the website gallery of Len Metcalf (who was a recent feature on Onlandscape): http://www.lensschool.com/galleries/.
BUTTERFLIES
: an excellent general website for UK butterflies, with a vast range of expertise on offer. Lots of useful info inc. covering identification and sites, along with reports and reviews covering all butterfly-related activities. Particularly strong on UK and European species.
: the homepage for my local Butterfly Conservation area. Regular updates on what’s flying where in the Oxfordshire area.
: Matt Rowlings’ excellent guide to European butterflies.
: my report for a trip to the mountains of the central Peloponnese, Greece, June/July 2012.
EUROPEAN ORCHIDS
: Zissis Antonopoulos’ guide to the Orchids of Greece.
: a useful site for identification purposes.
: Jan Van Lent’s amusing and informative blog covering the Orchids of the Greek island of Lesvos.
: Paul Manning’s Lesvos website, particularly strong on Orchids.
ONLINE MAGAZINES
: an inspirational UK-based Landscape Photography online magazine, with excellent content, images, and contributors (including, recently myself!!)
PHOTOGRAPHY FORUMS & BLOGS
: the best nature photography forum online.
: an excellent all-round blog from the (now) Hasselblad man.
: super macro blog by naturescapes.net macro moderator and trip-leader
: fascinating stuff here on large-format landscape photography; zen-like thoughtfulness exhibiting the virtues of working very slowly.
: all things large-format
OTHER NATURAL HISTORY
: my local wildlife trust
: a general wild bird forum
: Steve Dudley’s excellent website for the birds of the Greek island of Lesvos; see also the Facebook Group.
: a new guide to birding sites for Greece
DWFNaturePhoto 
Been enjoying your website after meeting you near Lambourn yesterday. Interested to see you use photo-stacking for macro shots – must try it sometime.
Very kind, Mike. Good to meet you too. Will post some pics from the day as soon as I can.
Cheers,
Dave