I love spending time watching wildlife and if I have the opportunity to be outside with my camera, then there is little that beats it, especially if you are in a wonderful location, such as Shetland. Most photographers love looking at others’ work. I find it inspirational… to find photographers who capture the natural world in a way that expresses not only their knowledge of the subject, but their passion for it too!
Today I had the chance to spend some time with Shetland Photographer Richard Shucksmith. Richard’s work has been widely published in magazines, journals, books, newspapers, advertising agencies around the world and has won many awards for his work. In 2011 Richard was overall winner in British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPA) as well as winning the animal behaviour category in 2014. He has had many highly commended images feature in BWPA since the competition was founded. Many of his images have won awards in the Scottish Nature Photography Awards (SNPA), Ocean Arts Photo Competition and Underwater Photographer of the Year (UPOY).
I follow lots of photographers but some of Richard’s work has remained in my mind as, when you see some of his winning images, they are the kind of shots that make you actually say ‘Wow, out loud! Anyone into wildlife photography will have seen and been in awe of these shots. You can see a sideshow of these on Richard’s website
I remember the first time I saw this otter with puffin image, when it won the BWPA Animal Behaviour Category… I just imagined what it must have been like to have seen that down the lens of your camera and knowing it really was a ‘once in a lifetime’ shot!
Richard specialises in underwater photography and I was blown away by his underwater gannet images …
Richard and I had a wonderful day today… a lot of chatting and binocular searching rewarded by views of otters, gannets, arctic skuas, arctic terns and the spectacular Shetland coastline. I didn’t really get many shots that warranted sharing but what I did get was an insight into a man who is passionate about the wildlife he photographs and I think his images say it all. I am one of his biggest fans… you can probably tell!