It's been hard the past year to keep up with work, Photoforums, and life in general as my health has let me down several times. Still i was able to create some wonderful work with big thanks to mother nature who has been my greatest source of inspiration over the years. So...
It is time for an update..
As you can imagine i simply cannot post all images shot over the past year but will try and pick some nice ones for this update..
So..if you are ready here's some of last years work that's been in the files for way too long..
Let's start out with some Kingfishers as i was lucky enough to do another Kingfisher project this year and besides photographing them i have also started filming for the first time and must say that's been great fun too.
As usual i have also been visiting my good friend Vince Jones in the UK who has a rescue centre for birds of prey and Owls and where i host my annual bird of prey workshops. Besides going to the rescue centre we also visit a special feeding programme for Red Kites wich are supported in Wales to help to get their numbers up. This year i had some wonderful groups of guys joining me and we had loads of fun on both visits. Here are some of the images we managed to capture.
Another species i have been spending some time with are Wild Konik Horses wich live in our largest wetland reserve called the Oostvaarders Plassen. I love working with these beautiful animals as there is always some action going on rain or shine.
Landscape has been something i have put too little time in over the years and it was time to catch up so especially towards the end of the season i picked up my box of filters and headed out towards some wonderfuls sunsrises and sunsets in order to start building up a nice portfolio with landscape images. This is not always easy as in my area there is a big lack of hills, rocks, waterfalls etc etc but luckily we do have some nice windmills so i decided to put some effort in photographing these as best as i could..
As can be read in the previous post on this blog earlier this year i made another trip to the Grey Seals and Red Deer during the workshop i host in the UK. We had a blast as weather was superb and all conditions where as we could wish for. Here are some results from that trip wich i have planned again for next winter so anyone interested in joining me is more then welcome!
Last winter we had an invasion of Bohemian Waxwings over here in The Netherlands so this was the perfect opportunity to photograph these beautiful birds from nordic regions. As 2004 was the last "big invasion" we had i was happy to get some more images from these lovely birds.
Winter has brought me many more interesting species and project such as my favourite winter bird the Bittern, but also Horned Grebes wich i managed to capture during a snowstorm. Last but not least i was able to capture some Dippers this winter wich reside as migratory birds in the Amsterdamse Waterleiding Duinen area.
Another bird that's been on my wishlist for many years and i was finally able to get some proper images of was the Hen Harrier. These gracefull raptors where regularly seen in a highly debated new nature reserve in the provence of Flevoland. Visited by many photographers they where at the reserve with numbers reaching up to 10 of then per day and this was a wonderful site to witness.
In spring i hosted another Bird Photography Workshop on the Isle of Texel together with fellow professional wildlife photographer Craig Jones and we had some wonderful times as the weather was on our side and so where the many species out on the Isle of Texel. We have had all sorts of species in front of our lenses ranging from Marsh Harriers to Spoonbills and from Black-necked Grebes to Avocets. Here are some of the images from that trip and if you want to join us on this trip next Spring make sure to book soon as places are scarse.
Ofcourse Foxes have been on my mind like they have over the past few years. Unfortunately i could not spend as much time with them as i would have wanted but nevertheless i was able to capture some lovely images of these predators over the past few months. Here's some of the Fox images i got.
I hope you have enjoyed this relatively small...yet very large update from my 2011 work. It's been another privilege to have been able to capture so many beautifull species. I have a trip planned to photograph Common Cranes in Hungary in october and after that the month of November will be spent in Australia and Tasmania so i have a lot to look forward to. Hope i will be able to update this blog on a regular base and to keep all of you informed on my whereabouts..
All the best and thanks for your attention!
Best regards,
Jeroen Stel
