Andy Rouse  -  Wildlife photographer

 

21

Jan

2013

Jumping Staffies

It’s been a very interesting few days for me. It started off with a bunch of meetings on Thursday to look at a central London talk venue, a gallery for an exhibition and a book design meeting with Eddie. I felt like a real businessman zipping here and there around London. Of course the real reason I was in town was to give two days of talks at the Outdoor Show, courtesy of Steve from Outdoor Photography magazine. Well the talks were very well received, with packed audiences and a lot of very nice and appreciative comments from all concerned. It’s always great to show your latest work and to inspire others, nice to know that my work is still very much respected. I got a great buzz from it all so thanks to everyone who came along and was nice, especially Mrs "Laughing Jumper" who thought I was hilarious!

At these shows it also gives me time to spend with the fellow pros that are presenting alongside me, time to talk business and travel. My views and attitudes on life in the business are always a good topic and my recent comments on cutting down my foreign travel were the subject of much discussion. There is no doubt that I am different from a lot of my colleagues, I don’t feel driven anymore photograph the world, instead I just want to spend time with the species that I love and balance that with my home life too. I certainly don’t earn as much as some of the European pros, and I’m cool with that, as British wildlife photographers tend to have a harder time promoting themselves in Europe (and worldwide) than most other nations. I don’t really know why, but I find it certainly to be the case. It’s great to share stories with my fellow pros though, to see what projects they are working on and chat about solutions to problems that we all face. It’s called networking I believe!!!

Anyway I revealed a few things at the shows that I am working on over the coming months, and this BLOG will be seeing some huge changes. More on this when I have something to show next month, suffice it to say that for those of you that want to learn from my images it’s going to be perfect.

The snow came down with a vengeance in Wales and rather than careering off around the UK I stayed here at home and worked the birds in the garden. Top of the list though was our rescue Staffie, who is called Higgins. He is a real snow dog and loves jumping around and playing in the snow, his favourite trick is catching snowballs in his mouth. So here are a few images that I took of him yesterday, with the 1DX and the 300mm f2.8, mostly at ISO 1000 and above. Hopefully they will make you smile, he certainly had the time of his life!!

Proof that Staffies are fun dogs and don’t deserve the treatment that they get. Hope that you enjoy!