Welcome to the Darren Clark Photography Blog RSS Feed, a slimmed out version of my webpage! http://www.darrenclarkphotography.co.uk I've just uploaded some new portraits taken at the recent British Touring Car Championships at Croft Circuit. The models were very obliging to having their pictures taken and some of the drives made for some good shots too! Something a little different from my usual wildlife photograph anyway, so check them out on the Portraits Page. I've also uploaded a whole page of cars taken at the event including the British Touring Car Championship, Porsche Cup, Formula 3000 Racing, Ginetta Racing and Renault Clio Cup. Check these out on the Touring Car Page. http://www.darrenclarkphotography.co.uk/Blog.htm Well i've finally taken delivery of all my new Nikon camera gear so it's goodbye to Canon and their constantly failing pro bodied cameras and hello to no noise and an auto focus system that actually works! Items include a D3x, D3s, 14-24mm, 24-70mm, 70-200mm, 200-400mm, SB-900 flash, 1.4x and 2x converters and spare battery. The only thing i'm still waiting for to finish the lens lineup is the hallowed 600mm monster! http://www.darrenclarkphotography.co.uk/Blog.htm I just found out that out of the fifteen entries I made to the 2010 Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, five made it through to the first round and ten made it through to the semi-finals. Needless to say i'm increadibly happy with this result and hopefully next year I will have more success at this annual competition that showcases the very best nature photography. Some of the images are now available on my Prints Page so take a look there. http://www.darrenclarkphotography.co.uk/Blog.htm Hello once again. This is just a quick not to let you know I have made a few minor changes to some of the pages and added a few new pictures. I've added a Miscellaneous Bird Page, Miscellaneous Mammal Page and Miscellaneous Reptile & Insect Page. I've also added a few more shots from the 2010 Kite Surfing Championships at Redcar's Majuba Beach to the Kitesurfing Page and also created a new African Landscape Page. Have a look at these new pages and enjoy the images. I'm away at the moment for a few weeks so things will be fairly quiet until I get back. http://www.darrenclarkphotography.co.uk/Blog.htm Just a quick note to let you that I am now uploading a lot of my latest images to my Apple MobileMe Gallery page so why not take a look there. I've been out and about lately shooting in Scotland and locally and here are a few of my newest images. First a few local Dipper shots, these birds are such fun to watch bobbing up and down and swimming through the torrents catching insects to feed on. And here's one or two others from the last couple of weeks. Yellow Wagtail have been showing very well at my local RSPB Saltholme reserve, a chirpy Corn Bunting and finally a Buzzard from Scotland. That's all for now so watch this space... http://www.darrenclarkphotography.co.uk/Blog.htm Rwanda's Mountain Gorillas are finally online on the official page so click HERE to be taken directly to them. I've also added one or two new shots to the general Wildlife Page so take a look. http://www.darrenclarkphotography.co.uk/Blog.htm Hello once again. Well after a very busy and simply amazing trip to the beautiful country of Rwanda i've finally got round to processing the images. I haven't uploaded them to the official website yet but they are on my Apple MobileMe Gallery Page which can be found HERE. Rwanda is not only about the awesome Gorilla, it's the people that make it such a special place. Everywhere you look there are smiling faces that are happy to see you. I hope these pictures inspire you to go out there and help save the last of the Mountain Gorillas. http://www.darrenclarkphotography.co.uk/Blog.htm Having had two brand new Canon 1D Mk4 cameras fail over the last month I have decided to switch systems from Canon to Nikon. The superior sensor quality of the D3x and high ISO performance of the D3s along with a superb range of lenses and a far better auto focus system to the Canon helped to make the decision final. So over the coming months i'll be trying out and getting used to this new system and hopefully will have some even better images to post. That's all for now, i'm off to make the most of the nice weather! http://www.darrenclarkphotography.co.uk/Blog.htm I've finally got round to getting some html editing software installed on my Mac so have updated some of the pages and added new pictures. There are a few more Snipe now on the Snipe Page, one or two more shots on the Ducks Page and a completely new page for the Great Crested Grebe i've been photographing recently. There are one or two other pictures elsewhere too! http://www.darrenclarkphotography.co.uk/Blog.htm Well I've been out and about this last month shooting various things here and there and the latest is these great Common Snipe shots. I'll be adding more to the Snipe Page over the next few weeks but here is a taster couple of shots for you. I've also been watching a lovely Little Owl on an evening in the hope of getting some shots of it in some nice light. So far my success has been a bit hit and miss but I'll keep on trying until I get some shots I'm happy with! Not long now to my trip to Rwanda to photograph the amazing mountain Gorillas so can't wait for that as it should be an amazing life changing experience. I've also sold one of my Canon 1D Mk3 cameras and am now using the 1D Mk4 as my main camera. It's 16MP sensor and higher ISO performance is already allowing me to get shots I could not get before. If also takes full 1080HD video so i'm gonna have a play around with that over the coming months. That's it for now but don't forget to keep an eye on Twitter for my latest news. http://www.darrenclarkphotography.co.uk/Blog.htm Sorry that I haven't had much of a chance to update the Blog as I need to get software to run on my Mac that allows me to edit my web pages. I've been using Microsoft FrontPage in the past but this is only available for Windows. At the moment I am having to go back to the old laptop to do any html editing which is laborious to say the least. Anyway, here's a nice shot of a Blue Tit that really was having a bad hair day during some heavy showers! Keep an eye on Twitter and Twitpic in the meantime as I will continue to post pictures on there. http://www.darrenclarkphotography.co.uk/Blog.htm I'm very pleased to say that my recent entries into the local RSPB Saltholme Big Photo Competition did very well indeed. All the effort and patience finally paid off for me. I won first place in the landscape category with this shot of a flock Canada Geese flying over Saltholme Pool with the Tees-side petrochemical industry behind. Second place in the wildlife category went to this shot of a Greenfinch feeding on seeds of the last of the summers sunflowers. I also had a total of nine Highly Commended pictures in the competition ranging from my Starling Murmurations to a Water Rail with reflection. All of the photographs from the competition are in an exhibition at RSPB Saltholme now so please go and take a look and help to support the RSPB. http://www.darrenclarkphotography.co.uk/Blog.htm Sorry that things have been very quiet recently on the blog but i'm in the process of converting from Microsoft and my poor old PC to a new and shiny Apple Mac. I've never used an Apple machine before so it's a steep learning curve and so far I have to say that I am very impressed. I'll keep you posted on how things go. http://www.darrenclarkphotography.co.uk/Blog.htm Just added to the Landscapes Page this lovely black and white image of a snowy Norwich city snapped on my Canon G10 whilst heading to work last week. http://www.darrenclarkphotography.co.uk/Blog.htm Whilst I'm away I've been busily processing some more pictures in the queue from last weeks outings including some more Water Rail on Ice shots which can be found HERE and also a short sequence of rare Bittern flight shots that were taken at RSPB Saltholme last week. It was a rare opportunity to see this secretive bird and although the shots are not great (taken at a huge distance with a 600mm and 1.4x converter) seeing it out in the open was such a great experience. Click HERE for a link to the Bittern. http://www.darrenclarkphotography.co.uk/Blog.htm Well first of all Happy New Year to one and all and wishing you all the best for 2010. I just thought I would share this little fella with you which was taken last week out in the snow. I've never had the opportunity to get this close to a Brown Hare and he seemed pretty happy bounding about but it wasn't long before he decided to try and settle down in a comfy little hollow out of the cold. I'm currently away at work and over the next few weeks will be processing a huge backlog of Water Rail pictures taken at my local RSPB centre at Saltholme so watch this space and check out the Water Rail Page over the next few weeks for some new shot additions. So until next time, bye for now. http://www.darrenclarkphotography.co.uk/Blog.htm