You would think with so many birds in the sky getting a good photo should be easy, how wrong you’d be! You have to get your ‘eye in’ and attempt to follow one bird at a time with a telephoto lens, as their flight path can be erratic it’s easier said than done.

Worcestershire Life have used another one of my shots for their January front cover, this time Broadway Tower taken in the February snow. Last January they used an image of Malvern in the snow at dusk.

I love doing aerial shoots, the perspective you get of daily life going on from the air and of all the buildings we work & live in fascinates me. It’s particularly when doing these jobs that I feel very lucky to have such variety in my working life.

Hopefully customers old & new benefit from my passion & enthusiasm to produce great images to promote their product or service time after time.

For a photographer it can be a fantastic experience, the trick is to get up before the tourists…

Above is the famous Rialto Bridge just before sunrise, try getting this shot after 9am!

Looking down the Grand Canal early morning

Gondolas lined up just off St Mark’s Square at sunrise.

Andrew Priest is a photographer based near Birmingham in the West Midlands, providing clients a nationwide photographic service across commerce and industry. If you require photography for brochures, annual reports, websites, exhibition or editorial please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Our first encounter was with the ’smiling’ dear below, I got within 10 feet in a car park where the cars were having to drive around her to leave.

A few days later and just as a storm was brewing we came across this family of bears 60 to 80 feet from the road side. Mother and two cubs, how cute is that…. Needless to say on this occasion I kept my distance..

On a number of occasions we had various types of squirrel after food or playing in very close proximity. Below are two babies from what seemed a very big litter playing only feet from a pedestrian pathway.

A favourite of mine is below because the ground squirrel seems totally unaware or bothered by the person in the background. The squirrel only interested in eating a nut.

Another favourite was this big marmot, I spent ages watching and waiting to get a few different shots of him looking relaxed in his surroundings.

Finally this was a shot taken at a transport cafe near High Wycombe on the way back from Heathrow, so not exactly in the USA. There were a number of Red Kites hovering around the cafe, it turns out the reason being the ladies from the cafe feed the birds every day, quite a spectacle.

Quite a change photographing wildlife for fun and a real challenge with either fast moving squirrels playing or birds in flight. Your technical skill as a professional photographer comes in handy and also being patient to capture the right moment. The marmot was a classic example as I hung around for half an hour or more waiting for just the right moment.

To capture it in all it’s glory you need to put something in it for scale, also it helps to act as a focal point, hence I have used people in two of my photos below. It’s interesting to see how other photographers tackle a situation like this, I’m sure you would find examples on flickr and other photo websites.

This type of environment allows a photographer the luxury of visiting the site a number of times to experiment and get the best photo. However, with the majority of professional assignments you have one opportunity to get it right, therefore it’s important for a customer to choose a professional photographer carefully.

As a commercial photographer based in the midlands my customer motto is ‘delivering great shots whatever the conditions and environment’

For all your nationwide commercial photographic requirements, as well as the occasional punk, please call Andrew on 07850 560250