Looking forward to a post-Covid world
Moving towards a better spring
Welcome to the March 2021 Nigel Hicks Photography news!
With an official roadmap now pointing a way out of Covid lockdown, coupled with the growing success of the vaccination programme, I’m ever more hopeful that my plans for most of what I intend to do this year will be possible.
Coupled with a lot of work online aimed at keeping things going despite lockdown, it has been quite a busy time here, ranging from my ongoing online talks to the development of a new online shop.
So I hope you’ll enjoy reading this newsletter. Below is a list of what you’ll find here this month. Click on any of them to go to the relevant section.
A new Farne Islands photo gallery
February’s talk: Low Light Photography, the recording
Upcoming March online talk: Wildlife Photography, Mammals and Birds
This spring’s photography courses
A tour to Iceland this autumn
Farne Islands: a new wildlife photo gallery
Back in the dim and distant past, namely the summer of 2019, I was able to undertake a great photo shoot in the Farne Islands, off Northumberland’s coast.
The visit coincided with the height of the breeding season, so the islands were a raucous scene of thousands of seabirds, ranging from kittiwakes to puffins to guillemots and razobills.
I finally processed the stills images from that trip during this lockdown, and there is now a gallery of sample images on the website. I’m hoping you might enjoy seeing this latest batch of wildlife photography. Just click on the link below to see the images.
The bulk of the photos are now making their way into a number of photo libraries. I’m also hoping to be able to use some of the images in a new book project in the next year or two.
Watch February’s talk online: Low Light Photography
My February online talk about Low Light Photography, went ahead on the 24th, with an audience of over 40 people, and seemed to go down very well.
Not surprisingly, the talk covered photographic techniques primarily for shooting between sunset and sunrise: in other words, when the sun is very close to or below the horizon.
Subject matter ranged from landscape photography at dawn, sunrise, sunset and dusk, as well as photography of urban skylines at dusk, combining the ambient blue dusk light with the manmade warmer lighting.
Also covered was night sky photography, which included photography of the moon, the stars as either pinpricks of light or long-exposure trails, and the Northern Lights.
The talk can now be watched online on You Tube, on my website or on my blog. Click on any of the links below.
Wildlife Photography: Mammals and Birds
March’s online photography talk
This month’s online photography talk is already rushing up towards us, scheduled for:
Wed 24th March, 8pm
As you can see, I’ll be talking about wildlife photography, specifically as it relates to photography of mammals and birds; in other words the (mostly) relatively large stuff!
As usual, the talk is free to attend. You just need to register to be sent the link. Registration is open for this talk, as well as the subsequent three talks.
To get more details and to sign up, click on the link below, and then fill in and submit the short form.
You will see on the registration page that there is now a Donation button, so if you feel like making a contribution towards my costs for running these talks by all means feel free: it would be hugely appreciated.
I’ll look forward to seeing you online on 24th March!
Spring Workshops
Provided things continue to improve, then it looks very much as though only one of my spring photography workshops will have to be postponed. That fate belongs to the Low Light Photography course, scheduled originally for 21st March.
I’ve now postponed that event to 7th November, so there’ll be a lot more news on that much later!
So, my first workshop of 2021 will now be South Devon Coast Photography, scheduled for 17th April.
An outline of the planned list of spring workshops is shown below.
The cost for all courses this year is £95 per person, the same as for 2020.
Refunds and deferrments
Rest assured that, if you are booked onto a course that has to be postponed or cancelled, then as with last year, you will have a full range of options, namely:
- To accept the new date (for a postponed course);
- To transfer to another course of your choosing;
- Simply to defer your booking to an as-yet undefined future event;
- Have a full refund.
Hopefully, things won’t come to this, but I want to put your mind at rest, that you will not lose any money you’ve paid.
See an outline of this spring’s courses below.
South Devon Coast Photography
Bigbury, Burgh Island and Bantham
17th April 2021, 1.30-8.30pm
Photography of some of South Devon’s most beautiful coastline; the beaches, cliffs and river estuary of Bigbury, Burgh Island and Bantham. Finishing at sunset
Wildlife Photography
Dunster and Lynmouth, Somerset and Devon
24th April 2021, 10am-5pm
A day of wildlife photography on Exmoor, stalking deer in countryside near Dunster, followed by Dippers at Lynmouth.
Travel and architectural photography
Bath
16th May 2021, 10am-5pm
A day spent photographing the magnificent Georgian architecture of Bath, in this combined architectural and travel photography course.
Exmoor in Spring
Tarr Steps, Winsford Hill and Valley of Rocks (Lynton)
22nd May 2021, 2-9pm
An afternoon and evening spent photographing some of the beautiful rivers, woodlands, moors and coastal views, along with one of Exmoor’s most famous prehistoric sites. Finishing with the coastal views at the Valley of Rocks, for a glorious sunset.
Dartmoor in Spring
Dartmeet and Bench Tor
29th May 2021, 1.30-8.30pm
An afternoon and evening spent doing landscape photography in the ancient woodlands along the banks of the River Dart, followed by the rocks and open moors of Bench Tor.
To get full details and to sign up for any of these courses, just click on the link below.
A special note about the Jurassic Coast course, scheduled for October: The first workshop in the autumn will be the Jurassic Coast course, in Lyme Regis and Charmouth. Originally scheduled for 2nd October, I’ve had to reschedule it for 9th October, due to a mistake I made with the tides!
An autumn photography tour to Iceland
I’m still intending to run this autumn’s Iceland photography tour, unless Covid restrictions have other ideas!
The dates for the tour are;
18-24th Sept 2021
The itinerary is planned to cover mainly northern Iceland, taking in several major waterfalls, volcanoes and the central mountain ranges, as well as a whale-watching trip.
Admittedly, the way things stand at present the tour cannot happen, but if the roadmap works out well then things should change rapidly in the coming few months.
Already, Iceland (as with Cyprus) has lifted restrictions for arriving travellers who can prove they’ve been vaccinated. Further steps needed to make the trip viable include an increase in the number of flights running between Reykjavik and the UK, and relaxation of quarantine rules upon returning to the UK. I’m optimistic that these issues will improve over the summer.
So, if you fancy awarding yourself an overseas photography break to celebrate an escape from Covid, then of course I would love you to sign up. When making a booking the only payment you need to make at this stage is to pay a £100 deposit, returnable if the tour does have to be shelved.
For the full details, including itinerary and pricing click on the link below.
Books about southwest England
Our books about southwest England are of course still out there, still available. Click on the link below to find out more.
