On 7th of May David re-visited Pinetum Gardens near St Austell.  The gardens are very beautiful and quite rich in wildlife, including Canada geese, but like most gardens are not easy to photograph.  He decided to stay on until almost dark to use the artificial lights to enhance the entrance and the Japanese Garden.
David has completed his next book; 'Walking around the Fal and Roseland'.  It is going to print next week.  Here is the cover.  More about this in the 'Book' section of David's website when it is published.
David went out with Joe Gray on the 3rd of May, to capture early morning at Trebah from the air, using Joe's drone.  Joe was in charge of the drone and David tried to compose the photos.  Here are two.  Both were taken as multiple, bracketted exposures and these exposures have been processed using HDR to bring out the best in the highlights and shadows.  The drone is an amazing piece of equipment and Joe handled it really well.  The quality of image is good but doesn't match a full frame DSLR, hence the need for HDR.  To see more of Joe's work have a look at his website: www.jgrayphotography.co.uk
David's photo of Godrevy features on the cover of The Caravan and Motorhome Club Magazine for May.  This is one of a number of photos used to illustrate David's article on 'Photographing the Coast of the UK'.
David and Sarah found a lot of tadpoles and sticklebacks in a pool which is drying out so they have done what they can to save them.  Here are two photos of the sticklebacks: on the left is a male; on the right is a female with male bottom right.  Male sticklebacks have red throats and blue eyes when breeding, this one is getting there!
David and Sarah have just had a few days away in Looe to write an article for MMM.  The photography has been almosty entirely landscapes (and seascapes).
David has started a contract to photograph Pinetum Gardens, in St Austell.  He will visit the garden through the seasons and produce a catalogue of images for use on the garden's literature, website etc.
Getting birds in flight is not easy and even if the shot is sharp there is no guarantee that the bird is going to be in a pleasing position. 
David has had a couple of photographic sessions this week, one on a dull day at Lamorna and the other, a bright afternoon attempting to photograph birds in flight from his hide, the photograph below right shows a female chaffinch.  This will be an on-going project over the next couple of weeks if we get some bright weather and some free time.
David's photo is on the cover of Wild Cornwall magazine (spring issue).
David is struggling to cope with a backlog of image processing but has just found time to stitch a panorama of Kynance Cove in the snow which he took on the 28th of February.  A reminder of how variable the weather has been in the last few weeks!
David's photos will be used on Trebah Garden's calendar for 2019.  This is the 9th year Trebah have used his images.  The calendar will be on sale in Trebah's shop from May 2018.  You can also buy a selection of David's cards and fridge magnets at the same time.  What a treat!  Here is the cover image.
David is working on two new books at the moment.  One of them is on 'Walks around the Fal and Roseland'.  With this in mind he got up early when the sunrise coincided with high tide to get some reflections in the creeks.  He visited St Clement (top left), Boscawen Park (view of Truro Cathedral, top right), Cowland (not shown here), St Just in Roseland (bottom left) and Coombe (bottom right) all in the one morning!  Then he went on to do a walk from Percuil to Portscatho.  He is struggling to keep up with the processing of images at the moment.  Maybe we need a few wet days.....just joking!
For the second batch of snow David went to Trebah Garden.  David provides the photos for Trebah's calendar each year so it's possible that his images might be used for that purpose in future years.  Here are two photos taken that day.  Unfortunately the light was dull but the heavy snow falling has given a certain atmosphere to some of his photos.
David has now had the chance to process some of the images from the 1st of March, the day after the heavy snowfall in Cornwall.  It was a dull day so David decided to stay at home and photograph birds from his hide.  Below are: fieldfare, great tit, brambling, blue tit, fox, great spotted woodpecker, greenfinch and robin (as well as a fox).  These are just a few of the species he photographed that day.
David made the most of the fresh snowfall and dramatic conditions on 28th of February by visiting Lizard.  He is going to write about his visit for Cornwall Life in December 2018 so only four photos here:
In early February David and Sarah spent two weeks in Finland.  Sarah wanted to experience proper snow and go cross-country skiing.  It wasn't a photography trip but David took his camera and got some photos.  For most of the holiday the weather was very cloudy, in fact only the first and last days were sunny and nights clear, so they had to wait until the very last night for a reasonable display of the 'Northern Lights' near Ruka.  The temperature at the time was -25 degrees Celsius and though this didn't stop his camera working it did begin to freeze the tears in his eyes!  Finland is a remarkable place in winter.  
(The snow-covered, sculpture-like trees were at Iso Syote; the Lappish hut was near Ruka; the Siberian jay was coming to food near a cafe and the lynx was photographed in a wildlife park.)
This month David has the cover of Cornwall Life along with his usual photography article inside, this month featuring the Isles of Scilly

and the stone curlew was used on the cover of Suffolk Wildlife Trust's magazine this quarter.		        
There are a lot of white-winged gulls in Cornwall at the moment, David photographed glaucous and Iceland gulls in Newlyn (photos show adult glaucous gull in flight and juvenile with fish; below that are adult Iceland gull on the water and a juvenile at rest)
David continues to develop the set up in front of his hide and took these photos, along with many more, on the 7th of January:
The first sunny day for quite a while, David spent some time in his hide.
A good day out with Sean Witts at Helston, a bit of good light, nice reflections and a cafe to escape the worst of the weather.  The shovelers were playing hard to get but three of them took off in quick succession giving us the chance of a flight shot.
In December David had a few days on the Somerset Levels.  The weather could have been better but David saw some fantastic wildlife including otter, marsh harriers, bearded tits, bitterns, great white egrets and much more.  Here are a few photos.
Having fun with squirrels!
David continues to work from his hide with birds coming to berries.  Today he had a visit from a male hawfinch, a beautiful bird which paused to eat the kernel from a haw.  Blackbirds dominate the berries including this male who had to work hard to pull a berry off!
David took a group of photographers from Lostwithiel U3A Photo Group to Cot Valley on the 29th of November.  Here are two photos he took.  It was a tricky session with rain making it difficult to keep the filters dry but there were a couple of dry spells to take photos.  Neither of these photos is 'perfect' but they give an idea of the types of images taken by the group, all of whom were keen to try out their ND filters with a bit of advice from David!
David has been photographing from his hide on his smallholding, and at Helston boating lake, here are a few photos taken in the last few days:
This week David has photographed the white-rumped sandpiper at St Gothian Sands; some wildlife from his own hide on the smallholding and has spent a day at Golitha Falls where he found some wonderful eyelash fungus.
 
Much to Sarah's consternation David took a trip to London in October.  The aim was to photograph deer and other wildlife in Richmond Park and to visit the Wetland Centre amongst other places.  There was a bit of rutting activity amongst the deer, more so the fallow than the red, but David was also taken by the ring-necked parakeets which have multiplied significantly since he was last in London (about 18 years ago).  In fact there are a lot of non-native species in London including the Egyptian geese (bottom left) and many wild creatures are tamer in London than in less-populated parts of the country, such as the grey heron.
David and Sarah spent some time on the Isles of Scilly in September.  The flowers below are autumn ladies tresses on Harry's Walls and least adder's tongue fern (an exceptionally rare, and small, plant) on Wingletang Down; the birds are green and pectoral sandpipers and David took a few panoramas as well as standard landscapes.  Some of these photos, and more, will form part of a Cornwall Life photography feature in February 2018.
A few colourful photos taken in the last few days:
A couple of pond-related photos: a female beautiful demoiselle, taken during a day out with Lostwithiel U3A Photo Group and a swallow drinking from the pond on David and Sarah's smallholding.
David has had a couple of days out in the last week.  On Saturday he took St Agnes Camera Club out for a day working on macro subjects and at Helston boating lake there are some young tufted ducks.
The range of shapes and colours found in moths is incredible.  It's been a great year for elephant hawkmoths (bottom right) so watch out for their larvae in August/September.  Can you spot the two peppered moths in the photo below?  (Also shown are coxcomb prominent, Chinese character, pale prominent and buff-tip.)
David and Sarah have spent some time away in their motorhome in early summer, they visited the Forest of Bowland, Arnside and Silverdale AONB, The Yorkshire Dales and Cumbria.  David has written articles about wildlife in each of these areas.  Here are just a small number of photos.
Forest of Bowland
Yorkshire Dales (from Ingleton to Wensleydale and Swaledale)
Cumbria (from Kirkby Stephen to Ullswater and the Langdales)
Arnside and Silverdale