Thursday 25 January 2018

2017: A Year In Review

Well 2017 came and went incredibly quickly!

It was a busy year for me after moving back to the UK permanently, and I didn't manage to get out with the camera anywhere near as often as I would've liked. Despite this, I did manage to have some fantastic wildlife encounters which produced some of my best work to date. Most of my photography however, was confined to a two month period during the spring/summer seasons.

I made it back to Canada for six weeks in the spring, bought a minivan, and converted it into a temporary home for the duration of my visit. The sense of freedom I felt from being able to go anywhere, and sleep wherever I wanted to, was so refreshing.

I spent a couple of weeks in and around Jasper, and though I had some great encounters during that time, they were few and far between for the most part. I then decided to head west into BC to explore parts of the country that I'd only briefly visited in the past. The decision to head west resulted in my first ever coastal wolf, my second spirit bear, and my first cross foxes. When the trip finally came to an end back in the Rockies, I had clocked up a cool 18,000km in a little under five weeks on the road!

After arriving back in the UK, I flew to Scotland to visit Shetland and Orkney for the first time ever. The main aim of the trip was to photograph puffins and river otters, an animal that had been a priority of mine for quite some time. Despite having seen otters in Canada and America over the years, I'd never been able to photograph them. The Eurasian otter population on Shetland is thriving, so I hired a local guide for a couple of days and finally had some amazing encounters with these extremely shy animals.

Here's a selection of my favourite images from last year.

(click on an image to enlarge)


Cross Fox kit - Northern BC, Canada
Cross Fox kit - Northern BC, Canada
Cow Moose in a blizzard - Kananaskis Country, Alberta, Canada
Atlantic Puffin at sunset - Shetland, Scotland
Coastal Wolf in sedge meadow - Northern BC, Canada
Great Horned Owlet - Canmore, Alberta, Canada
Grizzly Bear swimming across river - Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada
Black Bear cubs in a tree - Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada
Cross Fox kit in the rain - Northern BC, Canada
Black Bear resting - Monashee Mountains, British Columbia, Canada
Cow Moose with calf - Kananaskis Country, Alberta, Canada
Eurasian Otter - Shetland, Scotland
Cross Fox kit - Northern BC, Canada
Cross Fox Kit - Northern BC, Canada
Black Bear cubs in a tree - Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada


I've been back in work full time since getting back from Scotland, so unfortunately I didn't have much in the way of wildlife encounters for the rest of the year. Occasionally, I made it down to the coast on the weekend for a walk or to photograph a sunset, but other than that I hardly picked up my camera at all in the latter part of 2017.

I did however, spend a lot more time working on the business side of my photography than I have in previous years. I ran several Christmas market stalls in Cardiff almost every weekend throughout November and December, which were very successful. I also produced my very first calendar of wildlife images, which is something I'll be doing every year from now on.

Right at the end of the year, I landed my first magazine cover shot too which was a nice feeling. It's not a popular photography or wildlife magazine, but rather a visitors guide to the Canadian Rockies which is stocked in almost every shop, gas station, and bank from Calgary to Vancouver.

WHERE Canadian Rockies Visitor Guide 2017/18

I'm not too sure what 2018 will hold, but I have recently booked some flights back to Canada once again of course. I'll be there for two months this coming spring to do a similar trip to the one I did last year. I'm also thinking of checking out somewhere new later in the year. It's been a while since I've visited a completely new location so I'm leaning towards a trip to Brazil possibly, or maybe even Russia!

In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy the rest of winter, and once again thanks for reading.

Cai

Wednesday 24 January 2018

2016: A Year In Review

I'm getting worse at these blog posts. Two whole years since my last end of year review! Anyway, luckily I have plenty of photos to remind me of what I got up to back in 2016.

Last time I wrote something here, I was preparing to leave Banff once again and head back to city life in Cardiff, something I always have a hard time adjusting to. However, on that occassion things changed all of a sudden.

About a week before I left, I went to check the post office one last time and to my surprise I had a letter from the Canadian government, which stated that they were extending my work visa for another year! I had applied for an extension because you can stay in the country and continue working if you have an application being processed. Even though most people have their applications for an extention refused, it buys them a few extra months in the country on 'implied status'.

I had been working on implied status for four months by this point, and knew the impending refusal was on its way, so I had booked a flight home already. I was in complete shock when I opened the letter to find out that my application had been successful and that I had eight months worth of visa remaining. The transition back to full time city life suddenly turned into an extended visit home instead. I caught up with friends and family, went back to work to save some cash, and renovated a house in Cardiff that I had bought with my brother. Within two months of getting home, I was on a plane back to Canada to enjoy the remaining six months I had left on my visa.

The wildlife encounters I had that year were some of the best I've ever had! I spent an entire afternoon with a wild lynx, who was so unbothered by my presence that she took a nap just a few feet away from me, I photographed two different litters of coyote pups (something I'd been dreaming of doing for years), and I had some of my best black and grizzly bear encounters in the Rockies to date.

So here they are, my favourite twelve images from 2016.

(click on an image to enlarge)


Black Bear cub - Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada
Canadian Lynx - Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada
Grizzly Bear claw detail - Kananaskis Country, Alberta, Canada
Black Wolf in a rain shower - Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada
Short Eared Owl - Alberta Prairies, Canada
Morning sunshine - Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
Columbian Ground Squirrels - Kananaskis Country, Alberta, Canada
Coyote Pup - Rocky Mountain Foothills, Alberta, Canada
Canadian Lynx - Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada
Great Grey Owl - Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada
Larch Valley in fresh snow - Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada
Coyote Pup - Rocky Mountain Foothills, Alberta, Canada

My final summer living and working in Banff was easily my favourite spent in Canada. I bought a lot of camping gear and managed to get out into the backcountry on almost a weekly basis. I hiked well over 300km that summer, and spent close to twenty nights in a tent (or sometimes just in my hammock if it was warm enough).

I also managed to visit Vancounver Island for the first time and was blown away by its beauty. I hiked the Juan De Fuca trail in five days, and it was the best multi-day hike I've ever done. I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance, and it wasn't very busy which made it a perfect alternative to the more popular West Coast Trail.


Thanks for reading once again, and don't forget you can get an almost-daily dose of nature if you follow me on Instagram. I tend to post there more regularly than I do on my Facebook page these days.

Cai