Digging for Gold
If you are reading this then there’s a good chance like me, you have the wildlife photography bug. Particularly since digital came into our lives over 15 years ago (can it really be that long?!), many of us have been filling up hard drive after hard drive with thousands of images. If I have particularly good weather conditions combined with obliging subjects, it’s not unusual for me to rattle off a couple of thousand frames during the course of the day. I’m guessing that many of you are the same.
This inevitably leads to hundreds of images lying around unprocessed; perhaps not even looked at. After all, we will get round to doing something with those images and processing them someday right? The reality is that if it weren’t for the extra spare time Covid has enforced upon many of us, a lot of those images would likely still be buried in the recesses of our own and our computers’ memories. Perhaps yours still are?
I’ve been reading dozens of social media posts recently along the lines of ‘I’ve been taking the opportunity to go back through my photo archive, and I came across this image I’d forgotten I’d taken and never got around to processing’. These are normally accompanied by damn good shots and it inspired me to make good on my own repeated promises and go through my own archive. Low and behold I’ve come up with some surprises of my own which I thought I would share with you.
I have to admit that I have really enjoyed the experience. Not only is it an opportunity to take a trip down memory lane and relive some great trips and sessions, but I find that when I look at old images with fresh eyes, I often see them in a different light (quite literally sometimes!). We all know that post-production can reveal hidden qualities in many photographs: an image might come to life in black and white for example, or cropping something in a different way may change its impact. So, I thought I would undertake a little experiment.
A couple of years ago, Olympus kindly loaned me some kit to try (I am a devoted Nikon shooter) and for a couple of weeks I took possession of an EM1 mkii with their 300mm prime and 1.4x converter. We all know that it’s best to try out new kit on easy and confiding subjects – the sort of sessions where it doesn’t really matter if you balls anything up because you’re not used to the equipment. So off I went and did three sessions on local lakes where the waterbirds come and play anytime you turn up. Now, of course I have looked through these images before, I even processed a few of them and have used them too, but I didn’t do it with the thoroughness I would normally afford a shoot. These were the image folders I decided to revisit.
The images below are all ones that I overlooked previously in my haste to scan through the hundreds of shots I took. Now I’m not claiming that there are any prize winners in there necessarily, but I’m actually really surprised at what I missed. I will certainly add these to the archive of images I use regularly for the features I write. I will even post some of them on my social media channels!
The point to all this is to demonstrate that, although we may all be restricted in what we can get out and photograph with current restrictions, I bet you that you have hidden treasures on your own hard drives just waiting to be unearthed. These images might even turn into real treasure through competitions like WildArt Photographer of the Year. You never know, you may have a winning shot hiding away. There is no time limit as to when images should be taken, so you can go back through your archive as far as you like.
Next time I’ll show you the images I’ve managed to take in my own back garden over the last few weeks, demonstrating that your creativity doesn’t need to be put on hold just because we can’t travel far.
Finally, many thanks to Olympus for the loan of the kit – I hope I did the quality of the equipment justice.
Rob Read. January 2021.
