I love my job. I love the weird and wonderful briefs I get and the unpredictability of this whole photography malarky. One day I am photographing the Duchess of Cambridge for a charity visit and the next I am donning falconry gauntlets to follow a hunt in Bedford for Countryfile magazine.
The brief was simple enough - join a hunt with birds of prey. Unfortunately, I can’t show you those pictures yet as it hasn't been published. However I like to go beyond my brief and add my own twist to a shoot. The client’s commission is a starting point of the process for me. I make sure I fulfil it and then I try to do more than asked for. This time the impressive birds and the passionate individuals begged for a series of portraits. I could not resist setting up a little studio in a shed to capture the people and their birds.
Birds of prey are scary, I can tell you that. They may look small from a distance but a meter tall eagle deciding to fly off in a small, dark shed with a slender young girl holding on to him is quite an experience. Luckily, the handlers were much more composed than I was and we got some great shots of the impressive animals and the people who love them.
Labels: animals, birds, birds of prey, commission, countryfile, eagle, editorial, falcon, falconry, magazine, portrait, prey
