_____________________________________________________

11.11.09 - Indigo

It is with deep feelings of pride and joy I want to let everyone know about the arrival of my baby, Indigo.

Tiny hands like rosebud petals

Opening, closing as they grow,

Downy head upon the pillow

Shows a hint of golden glow.

What a masterpiece of beauty

Is the tiny baby there,

What a trust bestowed upon me

As she grows in beauty rare.

She has already been to photograph the seals at Donna Nook with me!

_____________________________________________________

27:09:09 - British Wildlife Photography Awards 2009

RUNNER UP - British Wildlife Photography Awards 2009

I was delighted to be awarded the overall runner-up at the premiere of the British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPA) - a celebration of British Wildlife and photographers.  The above image of a male and female blackbird fighting to the death in the heavy snowfall in February this year (2009) claimed not only the winner of the Animal Behaviour section, but went on to be the overall runner-up.  I had promised to keep the news quiet since late July about the win, but was genuinely surprised on the night to get the second prize.

I took the image at a slow shutter speed looking into a low sun filtered through the trees. The image is almost full frame in width but cropped off the bottom to make square.  As the birds jumped I had to pan upwards with them.  It was taken in the recent snowfall in February very early in the morning.

The whole night of the awards was excellent, held at Hoopers gallery in London.  Lots of well known UK photographers were there either to watch or receive awards.

There was 80 photos on display and will now form a tour around the UK.  I have another 2 photos in the exhibition (commended images):

Collapsed Honey Bee (Animal Portraits)                                                              Wild Boar and Piglet (Animal Portraits)

I do feel proud to have got 3 photos in the exhibition, especially considering I only entered 9 images. I am particularly pleased with the competition rules for not allowing any form of image manipulation!  Well done to the others who are in the exhibition as the quality of photos and the number of well known professionals who entered made it tough.  Also thanks to Maggie Gowan, the organiser, who told me the entire thing was done for no profit (next year she hopes this will change!).  Having been a past runner-up in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards, and having been to that award ceremony, I can say that the quality of images and potential to make new friends on the night was definately comparable.  I'm sure this competition will have a good audience and following in the coming years.

You will soon be able to buy these prints framed by going to the Showcase Gallery page.  Just give me a day or two to get that ready!

_____________________________________________________

19:08:09 - Codex Petition to Downing Street

If you are appalled like I am at the Codex Alimentarius proposals as outlined in a previous blog (here), particularly the potential changes to Vitamin Supplements, please sign a

 Downing Street petition here (UK).

or to the Head of the FDA’s Office of Nutritional Products (USA)

People are getting ill in greater numbers than ever before despite modern medicine.  Disconnection from nature and all things natural is the cause.

This has been the ONLY way you; the demos, the people, is given the slightest voice on this process since 1963.  You really need to contact your MEP or Member of the European Parliament (if you know who this is!).   You can also support the Alliance for Natural Health, and the Natural Health Federation, who are fighting this in the shadows for you.  This Codex will be passed at the end of this year.  You are invited to attend the Codex meeting (try and find out how), but you are not allowed to speak.

"Politicians don't see the Light, they feel the heat.  Be vocal and persistent.  Write letters and join together to protest"  

Scott Tips, 2009  Natural Health Federation.  Personal communication.

People laugh when I mention Codex Alimentarius down the pub, they think it's a joke (it's their conditioning).  Please Google it if you've sniggered (lazy man's link here).

"Our challenge is to demonstrate that no corporate strategy can be effective against the universal desire to retain the  

basic human right to food and health FREEDOM".     Ian Crane 2008

_____________________________________________________

12:08 2009 - Light in Dark Places

So far, August has been a very low energy month.  Have you felt it?   I need to look up if any Astrologers can explain it.   There seems no reason for it at all.  Life is wonderful.  I was notified of yet another success with my photography yesterday - the fighting squirrel photo has been awarded by the American media corporation MSNBC as one of the Best 40 Photos of 2008.  Incredible!

I think my low energy level is due to my mind, body and spirit sinking slightly back towards the mundane reality of the Matrix - the false sense that money, position and ego are what is needed to survive in this world.  I know it's wrong but when the Matrix starts to win.....

I gotta tell you though, I've gained nothing in terms of financial gain from these awards.  As I've said, the image was selected by anonymous forces (Zuma Press), and has since been used to promote these forces in THEIR business, not mine.  But on the surface of Matrix land, it seems great.  Go back to sleep Dave, you are but a battery slave helping keep their inorganic heart beating!

But I can't help dwelling on the fact that earning even a small living from wildlife photography has got very desperate. I can't take a chance with travel to take photos any more in order to keep expenses low.    In fact I have now gone a whole year of working at home, with the exception of just 2 journeys outside of the Forest of Dean.  The climate doom-mongers will be proud of me as my expenses for travel are almost nil, and so therefore, is my carbon footprint.  Something to be proud of: Yippee!

As the propaganda of a recession started to get press coverage, prices for images fell to an all time low, with newspapers in particular (the new rulers) driving down the prices, encouraging an all out battle between agencies competing for their business.  The newspapers are basically telling the agents what they will pay, and not the other way around! At the same time, a new internet market is developing called Microstock (see link) which is making matters even worse and making photography look cheap and ridiculous, a commodity like a grain of rice.  Earning even a poor man's living from stock photography is dying.  The flood gates have opened and sad wannabees, like deluded X-Factor failures, cram the virtual shelves of "photos for sale", hiding the good stuff in a pile of crap nobody wants to sift through.  Many of these photos are being sold at under £1.  And now the traditional agencies believe they have to compete with this trash, and have started matching these prices!  Unbelievable and unnecessary.

But the place I love to be is out there in the unconditional outdoors that is the natural world. It is still there.  I shouldn't be so glum.  I can adapt and Wow, as David Bellamy would shout,  life is still great - if only we could all "see" it, including the politicians, the yobs in the street, the willful polluters, animal killers, hate groups....  If we let it, it is the invented fears this machine drowns us in that destroys our free will and our dreams.  So don't let it.

The best things in life....aren't things.      Art Buchwald (b. 1925)

We need to leave Plato's cave now.

The free man can only live for himself and is powerless to change the world of the prisoners on his own. Would they lock him up again if they could?  Put him in a mental home?  Will social services lock his children up under a Kidscape "correction facility" to aid the control of him again (and his children who may be like their dad - free and properly educated).  Is he becoming a danger to their illusion, as well as to the manipulators agenda? (Is this the proof?)

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.  Plato (c300BC)

Are photography awards just a prize offered out for blind men, so that the organizers can keep their control, influence and power?  They too play a game amongst their own peers (who may also be blind to a lesser extent).  Sometimes what seems like a great thing isn't.  Are there fruits to this experience?  Yes!  Do I have to get back in the cave to make good?  Maybe?  Can I do it?  I can do anything....

_____________________________________________________

29:07 2009 - The Squirrels get First Place!

THE BEST OF PHOTO-JOURNALISM AWARDS 2009

"My" Squirrels have been awarded FIRST place in the Natural Environment (still photos) category of this prestigious international competition run by the NPPA (National Press Photographers Association).   Now in its eighth year, the BEST of PHOTOJOURNALISM (BOP) is the world's largest photojournalism contest.  Founded in 1946, the NPPA claims to attract the best in news photography, news video and multimedia.  This year there was 53,000 entries submitted by 3,700 press photographers from 147 countries.

The photo has gained quite some acclaim in 2009, appearing in many newspapers and magazines across the world, so this is the icing on the cake.  I am obviously delighted and humbled that the judges liked my photo so much (click the image to see the other winners).

...the strange thing is, I never entered the photo.  It was picked out from the anonymous ether by anonymous forces!  I definitely believe in the power of coincidence!  Do you feel it yet?

_____________________________________________________

06:06 2009 - David Bellamy

It seemed no coincidence that I ended up seated next to David Bellamy for a whole weekend at the recent International Alternative View Conference in London - dining, drinking, and enjoying each others company.  No-one knows who I am, everyone knows David.  I am a silent voice doing my bit, he is a public one doing his.  I didn't even know his views or his battles before I met him.  But we had so much in common regarding our views on global warming, the personal insights into how politics and conservation really works, and the personal persecutions we have suffered due to our "knowledge" and persistence to speak out against the orthodoxy.  No-one else at the conference seemed to have much clue about ecology,  the long debates about wind turbines, rainforest clearance and so on, but especially the wonderful natural world we all live in, but very few "see".  I am hoping that you do also, as you have an interest in visiting my website of images of this world.  I thank you for this interest from the bottom of my heart.

David and I are both passionate it seems about seeing the good side of humanity, and furiously rebel at how the media never show us these things that are happening in "our" collective reality and physical world.  The spreading of negative energy to lock us into a subservient prison of the mind, a prison-planet, was what frustrated us both the most.  We can deal with debate, facts and figures, and even crackpots and politicians (we have both had our fill of them!) who are deluded.  But when you know something is right and good, but the media and its corporate sponsors twist and turn at every chance to keep peoples minds, those you love, locked inside their pessimistic prisons, the media tiptoeing unwaveringly and without remorse through the pages of justice and honour to stay clear of them, selling us their sick thoughts and even the pills to take, we both hate it.

There is much to be said in favour of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.     Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

David Bellamy was once a well regarded celebrity bringing us all the joys of discovering nature.  He has no less than 35 scientific "letters" after his name, has travelled the world many times around, setting up conservation projects that no-one else has dared to do.  He truly believes in the natural world being at the heart of humanity, if only we could all acknowledge it as both beautiful and all essential to our physical and mental survival.

But when he questioned the new politically motivated movement that the planet is warming at an alarming rate due exclusively to mankind burning fossil fuels, he lost his jobs with the media (who once loved him) and they turned against him using pseudo-intellectuals such as George Monbiot.  Some conservation charities that he Presided over for years (eg Wildlife Trusts) disowned him in an instant.  There was an immediate attempt to smear and ridicule him.  Could you cope with this?  How brave is this man?  Or is it stupid to you...must keep the money coming in even if it means lying and deceiving your beloved family, friends and the whole of mankind?

What is it, in our society and individual minds, that makes us SO need to belong to the "consensus reality", that we all KNOW is a result of the media, political spin and dishonourable individuals who infiltrate well meaning organisations such as the WWF, RSPB, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, YET we so happily turn on those who reject that fake consensus?  Is it some psychological need to bond via hating a common enemy?  This is a proven fact and often employed by certain military and geopolitical organisations (The Committee of 300 and Tavistock Institute being the premier examples).  But surely we can rise above this brainwash; or is that only a few of us are immune to the hypnosis that most of our friends, relatives and colleagues can't see?

So here's to you David Bellamy, a not so lone voice of reason, in a world of madness and fakery.

Prof. David Bellamy and Dr. David J Slater at the Alternative View Conference, May 2009.

There were so many more heroes I personally met at the conference and I would love to mention them also, such as David Halpin (see link), literally fighting in his 60's against the brutality of Israeli and Anglo-American policy against the Palestinians. And Dr. Len Horowitz (link), investigating how and why we have all been poisoned and damaged by Vaccinations over the last few decades.   But his main message is an uplifting one.  Maybe next time...

_____________________________________________________

08:5 2009 - Naturally Human

Life is the only miracle I have ever subscribed to, and whether it's the work of an omniscient god, or a freak of evolution, it still feels very miraculous.  Just how did life change by simple evolutionary biochemical steps from a primordial single celled bacterium to a sentient complex being called a human?  Just doesn't seem enough time nor the probability that it could have occurred (and I speak as a Doctor of Geology here).  Many scientists try to explain evolution, speciation, adaptation and so on, but I don't think they tap into their own instinct to realise that it just simply cannot have occurred the way they have been taught.  They simply repeat what they have read in a book.  It is difficult to "feel" evolution at work or to gain an emotional understanding of it, and that is why science often feels cold.

In the last few years, many tens of millions of people have been moving away from organized religion into a more personal and spiritual sense of being.  The human race seems to be waking up and rejecting the cold science of education or the dogma of religion.  This quantum change in thinking could indeed be part of the same miracle that brought us life in the first place (link).  It could be part of a grander divine plan, with humans playing a pivotal role in the change of the universal consciousness and energy field.  We started life's journey as material substance, both in an evolutionary cosmological sense, and also at the more recent intimate level of your birth and arrival into this time frame.

Star Children  11:11  A Time to Wake Up.

Many Eastern religions have had yogis (link) and so on, all having tried to explain the sense of place of the human in nature and as an evolving spiritual energy force both collectively as a world society and as an individual.  It isn't a new concept, but a concept largely dismissed by increasingly brutal and totalitarian religions and political movements.  But surely, there must be a moment in our lives when consciousness is delivered into the material substance?  This happens more than once and can occur throughout our lives - but only if we allow it to enter.  We have free will.  But has it been corrupted?   The miracle of life was usurped by science and religious teachings, all aimed at ridding you of your compassion to yourself and to life itself.  You became a chemical collection of cells and hormones, and then you die. You are also born with sin and require redemption through an intermediary called the Church or Mosque.   Many people think like this, and they tend to control the rest through taking power, money and influence upon themselves.  More spiritually minded people would rather marvel at all the things Mother Nature has put into our world and our immediate consciousness.  This is the balance, the Yin-Yang or duality of human nature on a collective level.  Both are crucial, but the balance is the most important.  Which type do you think is winning in this see-saw game?   Is humanity in need of more nature or more money?

Watch this video.  It is very clever and outlines both sides of the debate.  We in the west will tend to agree with the materialist on the left due to our indoctrination and also learned logic, yet we also want to support the man on right.   But remember, both men quote only what they read.   They take their thoughts from others and create a bias in their own minds.   But it is the same mind (same actor playing both parts).  Are we schizophrenic?  One uses logic and selfishness, the other uses compassion and fear.  Here is the hidden power of psychological social engineering and control.  Divide and Rule.   We become the slaves of other men.  This is bad.

What we should do is rejoice at our differences and a balance will ultimately be maintained.  Some greater NATURAL force is at work that is good.  Hostilities should end today, the 8th May, a significant enough date.  Humans are as diverse in consciousness as the nature surrounding them and dwelling within them.  Don't be trapped by what you read, but become "Illuminated" and nature will flourish accordingly. 

No-one can tell you the truth - you have to discover it for yourself.

This, I know, is our true and truthful nature.

_____________________________________________________

27:4 2009 -  Swine Fever.

If anyone read last months update on the Wild Boar here in the Forest of Dean, you may have frowned upon reading a prediction of mine - that an invented disease scam is imminent.  Well it took just 23 days for this prediction to creep into the newspapers.  I'm not going to reveal how I know this, but you may now want to take notes.

The prediction I made in March was a lead up to a final meeting by the Forest of Dean Councilors, who were calling for the Wild Boar to be culled.  As it happens, the meeting gained much support for the Wild Boar, thanks to a talk by Martin Goulding and an eminent ecologist called Dr Peterken.  The science backed up what people instinctively know - the Wild Boar are natural ecological assets to the Forest as well as earners of potential tourist revenue.  Some councilors were not happy.

Within a week of this meeting, a very strange event occurred.  A photograph, allegedly one from a Defra experiment at a Boar Baiting station here in the Dean, was leaked to the press.  It showed a boar eating raw meat.  How strange that just as the Wild Boar were getting more friends, they hit the headlines as being a possible source of disease like Foot & Mouth!!!!!

Now, just one week after this local scare, the national press go full steam ahead on promoting another Piggy issue - Swine Fever or H1N1 Bird Flu.

Please take notes now :-):  This H1N1 virus was produced as a bioweapon in a laboratory using DNA from human, pig and bird flu-infected tissue.  Some of this tissue was from stored virus samples from the 1918 "Spanish Flu" pandemic (this is the bit that gives this particular flu its approximation to the  H1N1 virus type).

US Disease Control officials "detected a virus with a unique combination of gene segments that have not been seen in people or pigs before,” according to an Associated Press report.  As this release states, Swine fever in humans is rarely, if ever caught from pigs.  Furthermore, pigs don't seem to have caught this cold yet, which is also very suspicious - we should really be calling this human flu that may mutate to infect pigs!!.

Video Added 26.06.09:  A news report 25th June 2009.  The truth will always prevail... Read between the lines of the daily news "hog" washing.  The UK are now to set up anti-viral drug distribution centres and swine flu testing clinics - the foregone manipulated conclusion:- Enforced vaccinations and/or enforced taking of the psychoactive nerve agent Tamiflu or some other expensive drug that does nothing to stop you catching the flu or stop the spread of flu, but does make you sicker in the longer term (read this).

And for those who will dismiss anything as conspiracy crackers unless its in a sweaty broadsheet, read this from the Independent (date 30 June 2009).

And Yahoo News and Sky News and many others over the last 10 years if you care to research this uncover the Tamiflu scandal and lie.  The government, WHO, and big Pharma are poisoning your children ON PURPOSE. The side effects of Tamiflu are now being described as the new disease to scare you: The idiotic puppets at the BBC and ITV and CNN etc call it "Suspected Swine Flu", as the symptoms are similar, but the after effects are much worse. Now do you understand why it affects children and not the elderly?

But we are being led to believe the piggies are somehow implicated.  Are there even experiments ongoing on Wild Boar in the UK to infect them with Swine fever?  The use of baited meat perhaps?  Mmmmmmm.  (I have been informed of the official response from Defra, to be released soon to the press, that an officer did in fact bait the boar using meat, but without permission from senior staff.  Do you believe it?  I will keep an open mind).

Research this topic folks.  You will soon learn a few other interesting facts.

After the last Bird Flu outbreak, investigations discovered that Flu vaccines were contaminated with the deadly avian flu virus which were then distributed to 18 countries by the American company Baxter. The Czech Press (at least) asked whether this was part of a conspiracy to provoke a pandemic.  Since the probability of mixing a live virus with vaccine material by accident is virtually impossible, this leaves no other explanation than that the contamination was a deliberate attempt to weaponize the H5N1 virus and distribute it via conventional flu vaccines.  Spreading bird flu would create an instantaneous surge of demand for bird flu vaccine.  The profits that vaccine companies such as Baxter International, Novovax, Gilead and venture capital firms backing these companies, could reap out of such a panic are astronomical.

However, this is not the first time that vaccine companies have been caught distributing vaccines contaminated with deadly viruses.

In 2006 it was revealed that Bayer Corporation's hemophiliac injections were contaminated with the HIV virus. Internal documents prove that after they positively knew that the drug was contaminated, they took it off the U.S. market only to dump it on European and other world markets, knowingly exposing people to the live HIV virus (watch news clip here). Government officials in France went to prison for allowing the drug to be distributed. The documents show that the FDA colluded with Bayer to cover-up the scandal and allowed the deadly drug to be distributed globally. No Bayer executives ever faced arrest or prosecution in the United States.

Do you also remember in 2001, Britain's Foot & Mouth disease was traced to a government laboratory, Pirbright, which is shared with an American pharmaceutical company.  Even Pirbright themselves at the start of the "outbreak" tried to suggest that Animal Activists stole vials of F&M from their high security military installation!!!  (Read about the latest court case against Pirbright here)

And remember the debacle over the Anthrax outbreak in the wake of 911?  After all the vaccinations had run out, it was found to have provably came from a US military / CIA / pharmaceutical installation called BMI or Battelle Memorial Institute (and connected to Pirbright, UK)!  When things like this are discovered, the press go silent.  Why?

And the last time there was an outbreak of swine flu in the U.S., guess what?  It too originated at an army base (Fort Dix, New Jersey). (Important - Read this)

Do you still think these diseases are natural?  No, they are profit making exercises for Corporations and a sinister way of controlling populations by 1. Fear, 2. Disease, 3. Martial Law.  This is the New World Order at work. (Read this document).

Solution: DO NOT TAKE A VACCINE no matter how convincing the doctor on Breakfast TV or GMTV appear!  The vaccine will help spread the weaponised disease to those who haven't taken the vaccine.  Anyone made ill by the Flu (Norovirus) vaccine in the UK?  Now you know why. (PS. Tamiflu pills are made by Gilead and have been promoted onto world markets very aggressively for many years by warmonger, Donald Rumsfeld - be very wary of this pill).

Above all don't panic.  This virus will soon die, just like the last Bird Flu incident.  Stay fit. Drink water, take MultiVitamin pills and get plenty of sleep.  You are extremely likely to have some immunity already.  Once again, this is a nonsense panic perpetrated by the media at the request of big Pharma.  They will keep trying.

Added 12.07.09:  I publicly declare as MY AFFIDAVIT to my government, health officials, people of the world, and to God or any other Conscious Power, that I am of sound mind and intellect and that I hereby state that I refuse any vaccination, in particular a flu vaccination of any sort, as is my fundamental human right, instituted by (among others) the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act.  I also refuse vaccination on religious, spiritual and moral grounds.  I also refuse on the suspicion that the science of vaccination is flawed.  I also refuse on the grounds of historical fact, some of which are outlined above, in that our world Governments have previously coerced, manipulated or mandatory administered vaccines to Real Lawful Persons in full knowledge of the vaccines ineffectiveness and toxicity that has led to suffering and death.  I also elect that any child of mine is also not violated by any vaccine.  I understand the implications of this and will take all care and due diligence to keep my child healthy in other effective and natural ways until such time the child can decide for itself whether to accept a vaccine.

_____________________________________________________

03:4 2009 -  A New World Odour - announced by yet another Puppet.

In 1841, the most famous freemason and Satanist, Albert Pike, wrote in his book " Morals and Dogma":

" THE GREAT FINANCIAL CRISIS WILL HAVE TO BE CREATED TO THEN PRESENT THEM A " NEW WORLD ORDER " AS A " SOLUTION" AND TAKE AWAY ALL THEIR RIGHTS FOR THE TOTAL DICTATORSHIP"

Countless researchers have been following this agenda, that started in 1776 as America gained it's independence from the Banksters of Britain and Europe.

Many times has it been announced as a way for a leader to somehow gain credit for what is far more powerful than any person or country.  Most famous of all is George Bush senior, on 9/11 (1990), exactly 11 years before the more infamous 9/11 (2001).  This announcement was almost surely at the request of the Council on Foreign Relations, an unelected elite think tank working on behalf of the supranational corporations and criminal banksters.  At the head of this organisation are Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brezinsky, both of whom are major advisors to another puppet called Barack Obama.

Here is the usual outline of what the New World Order stands for:

1.  A One World Dictatorial Government with a unified church and issuance of a single currency under their direction.

2. The utter destruction of national identity in the developed world.

3. Control and surveillance of each and every person through means of database technologies and mind control via the media and fear.

4. Depopulation of the world via birth control, deadly vaccination, eugenics, spread of disease, genetic manipulation and war.

5. To cause a total collapse of the world's economies and engender total political chaos.

6. To take control of all foreign and domestic policies of the United States and Europe.

7. To give the fullest support to supranational institutions such as the IMF, World Bank, and the Bank of International Settlements.

8. Penetrate and subvert all governments, and work within them to destroy the foreign integrity of nations represented by them (ie Iraq).

9. Completely organize and control a world-wide terrorist apparatus.

10. Take control of education and food.

Added 6.6.09:  Canada hosts elite conference for major bankers and industrialists "Adapting to the New World Order" (link here)

Now, just because you can't see just how so few can manipulate so much against so many without ever being found out, then think again.  This is actually a plan manipulated by many clever people against huge numbers of brainwashed people who don't understand much, and believe in what the media say.  Most people say they are worried about overpopulation, disease, food shortages, corruption, war, climate and so on, and willingly support policies such as Mr. Brown's, in the ignorant hope that he his working in their interest.  But no.  He is another puppet working in the interest of the New World Order.  They create the problem, or invent it in the media, and get you to decide the solution via the tabloids - the solution they wanted in the first place and why they created the fear.  Where do you get your information about overpopulation etc from?  You have no proof of the problem directly have you?  Same goes for climate change being your fault, and education needing targets, the hospitals needing more money, and so on.  You repeat the headlines down the pub, just like you're trained to do.  I read that..., I heard this....  It's all nonsense folks.  Think for yourself and question everything.

"They shove it in our face and laugh"

Gordon Brown is probably ignorant of all of this due to his own indoctrinations and fears brought upon him by the Corporatocracy.   Each one person or institute or media mogul gains great wealth for his advancement of the agenda against you. And if you dare to stand up and expose any of this, you or your character will be assassinated!  BUT, Mr brown, Obama, Kissinger and all the rest are fearful of YOU and the rest of Humanity.  We have deeply hidden but significant Godlike power to rule over them.  They are, after all, supposed to serve US, the Divine masters of this Earth.  Albert Pike knew this, and so do millions of Freemasons today, and are now a threat to the New World Order.  The New World Order are worried, but arrogant.  They shove it in our face and laugh.  They use attack via newspaper headlines, job losses, and promotion of yet more fear, as their form of defense.

So get rid of the fear, stand up for divine justice, and We will win over all of this.

ARE YOU SLEEPWALKING INTO A NEW WORLD FASCISM?

New Video: added 1:5 2009

_____________________________________________________

19:1 2009 -  Canon 5D mkII.

I recently traded in my old Canon 5D for the newer Mk2 version and the results from its first test in Andalucia are very impressive (see parrot, wagtail, cattle egret).  Not wanting to bore you, here's the basic first impressions.  The price gives good value, but still a lot of money at £2,100.  Park Cameras traded my old version, so I paid £1,600, not bad!  Image quality is fantastic, but with an over-hyped high ISO noise ability (I still wouldn't use it higher than 400ASA, but 800ASA results are reasonable) and the camera is very easy to use (no complicated custom setups).  Improvements are file size; that is, if you want to submit to agencies (8bit Tiffs are 60mb).  There is an option to take a reduced size of RAW file, but I don't see the point of using this as standard - you buy this camera for its huge files.  Focus tracking is much better than the older version, as I found it would lock onto quite small moving objects (rock martins) even with complicated backgrounds.  Lastly, the LCD is large and a delight to use.  The first drawback is storage.  I save my files as 16bit Tiffs, so that's 120mb per image.  Second, you cannot edit nor convert the RAW file into TIFF using Photoshop CS3 or even the ZoomBrowser software that comes with the camera!  You have to install the Digital Photo Professional software (that comes with the camera) to convert yet this doesn't allow editing of the RAW first.  The only way to edit the RAW is get yourself CS4, which is expensive, or download Adobe's DNG convertor software.  CS3 will then enable you to edit the newly converted DNG file (a sort of universal RAW).  Personally, I don't see ANY difference editing my RAW files versus editing the TIFFS, but there you go, many think otherwise!  Maybe it only makes a difference if you don't know how to take well exposed shots in the first place?   In conclusion, this is a camera only of real value to professionals and very keen amateurs who submit work to Alamy or other agents.  Otherwise, buy the original 5D secondhand for around £700.

_____________________________________________________

19:1 2009 -  The Dictators.

I've never been into films, so it was a nice surprise to learn about Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator.  Written in 1940 it is a satirical look at fascism, and for its date is outstanding.  It was Charlie's first talking movie, and what wise words he spoke.  It warms my heart to know that even world class comedians have tried to open peoples eyes to what is often hidden in plane view, and also suggesting a solution - of love of humanity.  In Charlie's case, the enemy was an obvious threat on the UK doorstep.  Today, the same ideological dictators are still around us (Hitler died but his Corporate ideals continue) and they are running your government, your Europe, your America, your United Nations, your Banks, and maybe your future Identity.  What will you do about it?  Here's what another talented artist called Dan Reed has to say - enjoy whilst listening carefully to Charlie's words:

_____________________________________________________

12:12 2008 -  Crouching tufty, hidden dragon: The amazing Kung Fu squirrels.

I awoke yesterday with phone calls from the press wanting to talk to me how I got some pictures of Cape Ground Squirrels fighting.  Newspapers everywhere had printed them, and there's even talk of them appearing on the TV.  I'd had an email from my agent basically congratulating me, but I hadn't yet seen the message.  It was all a bit of a shock.  Synchronous energies at work again?  

The quick answer to how I got the pictures is sunburn.  I had to lie down flat in the roasting heat for a couple of hours, breathing in the white salty dust of the Etosha Pan, and becoming totally absorbed in the brilliant antics of my new found friends.  It definitely wasn't easy, and I had to delete most of them because of blur, missed focus, or just getting a squirrels tail leaving the frame.

By popular demand from my 2-footed friends, I've re-vamped the African rodent gallery for you to see the pics the press had, plus a few more they didn't.

And now it seems the world has stolen my images and put them on blogs all over the place.  Fred Miranda's site (see link) for one, a very well respected photography site - and if your looking Fred and others, NO!  The journalist from the SUN didn't take the pics, and NO, I didn't use a remote trigger, and YES, they ARE real!  Any more of these allegations and I'll send the squirrels round to sort you out!

What amuses me most about all this is the fact that obviously people like the shots immensely, both technically as well as the story and amusement vale, YET, when these were put in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest (2006!) they didn't even get a semi-final position!  Mmmm, and I thought back then it was me with a poor sense of what a good photo is!  Anyway, I enjoyed taking these pics, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

_____________________________________________________

01:12 2008 -  Where the Hell is Matt?

This one floored me and I can't stop wanting to love everyone on it.  It literally brings tears to my eyes each time I watch it. 

One humanity sharing the same crazy consciousness on the same crazy planet, enjoying the cosmic joke that is life.

Please help to keep this dance going.  Think of others sharing this world because we are all the same deep down.  Don't be divided and closed down by the media and politics and power forever pushing you and me and them closer to war and hatred of each other.  Stand up for justice.  Unconditional love.  Learn to resist your ego and go with your inner consciousness, that bit inside you that has always been there and has never changed.  Project, then love the real you, for this will bring the secrets of life itself for we are all united and communicate with this identical inner consciousness.  Don't be controlled, don't become a number, don't be tracked with a microchip.  Enjoy....

 
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

“Stream of Life”

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

(Bengali Poem: Praana)

_____________________________________________________

Opium Worship Day, 11:11 2008 -  No Photography - but don't panic.

I've just finished a long stint of managing an engineering project to restore some former grassland.  I got few opportunities to take photos and for some reason began to worry my photography was suffering.  But no sooner as my invented worry surfaced, I was asked by BBC Wildlife to supply some Wild Boar photos for the December 2008 issue (so look out for that), then on almost the same day I was asked by Martin Goulding to help him out with images in his forthcoming book on Wild Boar - how's that for synchronicity?   I do no photography at all for a month, for the first time in years, start to worry I can't "compete" with those who are "out there", and people call me up wanting lots of photos!

My entire philosophies on life are going through quite a change, a culmination, or reaction perhaps, of all of my life as an atheist and a scientist.  The above example was further confirmation of my developing belief in self-awareness and the synchronicity it brings.  When you practice this, things come to you - and you need to follow them.  I think it started when I was much younger but didn't follow it.  I was a clone of the system.

I only began to challenge orthodoxy during my PhD, which resulted in the usual mocking.  In 1990, as my PhD came to an end, I wanted to find funding (via the Earth Sciences network) to study things like crop circles and earth energies (in a scientific way of course).  It didn't happen as I was far too shy to shout loudly enough above the ridicule (link: Doh! I was 9 years too early!  Leeds University is the loser now).  I ended up as lead scientist in a volcanic eruption prediction study, using clever gas sensors, in the vain hope I could have an exciting career and help to save thousands of lives as well.  In 1996, the invisible hand of corporate control reared its unholy head and I opted to leave the world of science for something more humanitarian and honest.  I picked up my old camera, signed on the dole, and went for walks in the mountains to clear my head.

Strange thing is, I'm now meeting people who are experts of the things I wanted to study.  I didn't initially seek them, they just appeared!  Yet these people are also fellow critics and researchers on global warming, pharmaceuticals, 911, globalization, UFOs, the Holy Grail and so on.  All this time I was not alone in my thoughts and fantasies.  How can such disparate knowledge streams and yearnings be so commonly held among so many people?  This is the University (of Life) I always wanted to attend.

Image. 2008, a simple mathematical message, a crop circle that amazed even the cynics.

I shall do a piece on Physical Earth mysteries soon.

Through my OWN study and inner journey, I've now shed almost all of my indoctrination.  Everything is clearer and I'm optimistic for the future when so many people are beginning to stand up against the tyranny and big-brother states that are unfolding across the world.   I now believe humanity can, if it wills it enough, create its own future through the power of collective consciousness without any need for war or violence. 

"We must become the change we want to see in the world".    -Mohandas Gandhi.

What's more, I must learn not to think about "competing" when it comes to photography or understanding nature.  "Going after" an animal is a basic urge (in men at least) that promotes stress if "failure" becomes possible.  It is this urge that psychological Darwinism, capitalism and the constant fear of something, controls you.  Stressed out,  will you really "feel" connected with nature, and will you remain frustrated or struggle to be satisfied?

I dare any nature photographer to keep the camera at home for a month and go for walks, slowly, appreciating and respecting everything you see.  In fact, don't just see it, but feel it as well.  Feel nature as one, a whole ecosystem, a single source of energy and wisdom.  I'm sure you will be rewarded with a different perspective if nothing else.   My ambition is now to capture this essence (see front page image of fungi in sunbeam).  And it doesn't matter if I fail.  I will enjoy the journey.

Wildlife photography is a deep passion and also an outlet for the artistic soul.  It gets me close to the unconditional acceptance and truthfulness of nature, something rare in humans, even close friends. Here, there is no ego, no agenda, just LIFE, DEATH & LIGHT.

Image. 1996, it all started for me with a Snake.  A photograph that became runner up in the

1997 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards rekindled my early passion for the need to understand the Natural World.

When you open your soul and accept there is no greater authority than the inner and outer consciousness and its potential,

 things and people come to you without you seeking them.  The journey continues....

_____________________________________________________

9-11-08 -  ID Cards - Nothing to worry about?

It's raining again so here's a joke.  For anyone who thinks ID cards won't affect them because they never do any wrong...try ordering a pizza after 2012....

click this link whilst your in the queue for your microchip and enforced vaccination      Nothing to worry about?   Go to: .

_____________________________________________________

8-11 2008 -  My Alamy.

One of the most successful image libraries of recent times is Alamy.  It's an image library where amateurs as well as professionals can submit images, and provided they pass a fairly rigorous quality control process, they will be uploaded for sale.  This has meant that Alamy has been flooded with all manner of photos covering almost all the subjects you care to mention.  Almost 14 million images are now for sale supplied by 5,500 or more photographers and over 200 other agencies.  The downside for the individual of course is the huge competition for sales.

About 12 months ago, Alamy were the first and only library to allow the contributing photographers to see how they "rank" with the other photographers.  I'm pleased to say I've been ranked within the top 100 contributors since ranking began, was 10th for the last 6 months, and currently positioned in 5th place.  My pride hasn't swelled too much since you have to opt-in to get your rank, and only 1,594 photographers out of 5,500 have so far done this. [type "bhz" as a search term to get the rankings]. 

As there are many photographers who visit my site are also with Alamy, here is a breakdown of my statistics for anyone who is interested:

Joined in late 2003 with a portfolio of 46 images.  I had a sale for just $81 within a month of joining.

Had to wait another 8 months for the next sale, but had another 5 sales in the next 10 months.

In June 2005 I added to my collection.  Carefully selecting and editing my collection, my portfolio went to 150 images.  The next 18 months brought in a further 24 sales.  I was now averaging 1 sale per month.

The collection went to 180 in December 2006 and broke 200 by the following October 2007.  Sales by now had climbed to 50 in 3 years.

The collection has slowly been added to and by August 2008 it was at 250, and has remained at around this number ever since.  Sales now average 3-4 per month.

My total sales now number 98 with a gross income of almost $40,000 in 5 years (Alamy take a 30% commission from this, the Inland Revenue another 30%!).

I don't know what the secret is, honestly, but good clean conceptual images aimed at the editorial and marketing industry seems a key ingredient, and I will never add images that look similar.  I try not to add subjects with a huge competition, although my African wildlife photos have done quite well.  I don't crop my images by more than 10% of the original, but most of my images are un-cropped.  This helps with quality and I believe this has led to many repeat sales from the same customers.  My best sellers are.....ah, that would be silly of me to say!  I'm not thinking of adding many more images just yet as I want to concentrate on supplying my other agents at the moment.  But I know it would make sense to throw hundreds more at Alamy.  I may change my mind.  See how well the other agents do for me first.

I hope this helps anyone who has joined Alamy.  Ever since the dawning of the affordability of digital photography, and all the evils that means (see below), prices are now too low, and it is ever harder if not impossible to make a living from stock photography these days.

_____________________________________________________

02-11-08 -  Energy for Free....dom.

I find it harder each month knowing what to post here.  It's not that I can't think of anything, rather the reverse.  Do I make it photography related cos after all, this is a photography site.  Or do I make it more interesting and make it Environment related (often too depressing)?  Shall I wander into side-alleys and say something more pressing and political, at least in my opinion, as I know many people like to read this sort of stuff as it makes a welcome change from our boring and dumbed-down TV.

I learn new things almost every day now, and the saying that, "the more you know, the more you realise there is to know", holds very true.  But what I do know is that something strange is happening to our world right now.  I call this the New World Order agenda, some like to call it something else.  It doesn't matter what you call it, or like to "blame" it on, I instinctively and also intellectually feel it is for real.   The so called Credit Crunch and "Bail Outs" are premeditated inventions and are being manipulated to further some larger agenda.  Global Warming being your fault is another.  Population control another.  Vaccination programmes yet another.  Peak Oil another.

Sadly, these topics take a long time to research.  To understand and believe in the "New World Order", their beliefs and the modus operandi can take many years.  I'm now in my 11th year.  You may now have to decide who you believe in - "them" or "us".    Thankfully, I think that "us" are getting through to more and more people each day.  There is a mass awakening going on.  It is quite spiritual, but we need each other to research this and act upon it.  This is old knowledge, or old religions,  coming to the surface again.  It's inbuilt into our collective consciousness or DNA if you like.

So again I've decided that the Planet and its people are more important than photography again.  I want to show something that is being kept from the mainstream disinformation and indoctrination programme ("The News"), and I hope you can be a skeptic along with me, open your mind and ask yourself, "What if he's right?".  Does this explain a few things or does it make you knee-jerk what you've been conditioned to do, and that is laugh or ignore things that upset your belief about the world?  Time could be running out to change the political situation as currently exists.  Rumours are spreading that the Internet is soon to be policed and only "approved" sites will be allowed.  You may soon have to pay a lot of money to read non-approved information such as this.

Like it asks in the film the Matrix, which pill do you prefer - your continued belief in a happy illusion which may harm you and especially your children, or the truth which may undermine your entire belief system but at least you can now do something about it?

The 2 videos below are your pills to see through the veil.  To help you turn off the TV.  To reconnect with the people of the world, the environment, its wildlife and all the other treasures that life should be bringing you.  They are strange, but you need to believe them, to investigate for yourself, for you need to reach such low points in your emotions to find the highs.  To escape.  To wake up.

------------------------

Added 14.12.08 UPDATE: 

I've now updated the first video that was on here.  This is the conclusion of the video that was originally posted.  You can still watch part 1 after part 2!   Well done to those who spotted this original secret message!  I'm now happy to show you this, because as it alludes in the Matrix, this rabbit hole is very deep.  It may shock you.  But, this IS IMPORTANT to see in the wake of the staged war on terror and the staged bank bailouts!!!  This also addresses my position about the police! 

I am saddened and sickened to be continually thought of as a conspiracy nut.  Not everything in this video is true I'm sure, but there is too much evidence to show that its main message is fact.  Don't knee-jerk this information into ridicule, it may save your life.  There is NOTHING more important than this issue.  There is a War on Freedom not terror.  Love this planet and its people unconditionally and you will beat it.  There is hope and I feel good.

PLEASE WATCH

(Both have full screen modes)

This lays out the game and the illusion........................................................THIS IS THE SOLUTION

And God said, "Let there be Light", ..and he separated the light from the darkness.     Genesis 1:3-4

[or, The Illuminati (Illumination) was separated from the People.]

I may put myself up to do public talks on this issue.  Please Email me if you would be interested so I can gauge the demand.

_____________________________________________________

08-08-08 - Environmental Catastrophe Awaits?

CODEX ALIMENTARIUS

An unelected United Nations front organisation called Codex Alimentarius is a European Trade Commission working in the interests of big Pharma and Corporations that are hoping that by 2010:

1.  Every animal used for food must be treated with subclinical antibiotics.

2.  Every animal must be treated with growth hormone.

3.  All food must be irradiated.

4.  Seven out of nine previously banned "Persistent Organic Pollutants" are to be reintroduced into our food.

5. Herbal remedies shall only be available on prescription.

6.  Nutrients such as vitamins and minerals shall be declared toxins and therefore controlled.

7.  Definition of "ORGANIC" food to be changed allowing for non-organic and GM pollution.

8.  GM food to be widely introduced, including terminator genes.

9.  World population reduction by disease and starvation will increase many fold.  Yes that's right.  They may be targeting YOU.

Prince Charles' comments about GM becoming an environmental disaster is the fallout of Codex (see below).

You will become ill, and the Pharmaceuticals will profit from your illness.

"Education should aim at destroying free will....DIET and injections will combine, from an early age, to produce the sort of character and beliefs that the authorities consider desirable...and any criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible"    Bertrand Russell, 1953 (Prophet of the NWO)

Please demand that your MP resists this action and that this agenda is made mainstream and debated.  You are being lied to and kept in the dark about this truly awful corporate and United Nations agenda.  Please Google "Codex Alimentarius" and find out for yourself......this is not conspiracy theory.

So many reasons to fight this and the other topics I have been helping to expose for 10 years.

Have a look at this video for an overview of these 10 years (there is a full screen button option):

Don't let others do all the work for you and your children.  Spread this information.  Become part of the movement!  I am.

(the small print:  beware that this may become an all consuming but beautiful passion where you will wake up and meet so many enlightened people who care)

Added: March 2009.  This year's Alternative View Conference is 29th - 31st May 2009.

Go to: www.thealternativeview.co.uk

I hope to see you there. Say hello if you see me!

Added: 2.12.08   Codex Alimentarius is somehow connected into AGENDA 21 (click for video).

Listen carefully for the Prince Charles-George Bush-Agenda 21 connection!

_____________________________________________________

7th June 2008 - Those who find beauty in all of nature will find themselves at one with the secrets of life itself - or, awakening the inner consciousness....

2012 is the start of the wake up.........don't be fooled by the agendas of others who want to stop it or even claim it for themselves.....

2012 Olympic logo full of Nazi-NeoCon symbolism.

The logo will not be rubbished...."it represents a goal we believe in."  Sebastian Coe.  2007.

The 2012 ceremony: "it'll be about London, it'll be about us. And it's just revealing a little bit of our DNA as we go forward". Sebastian Coe on the Andrew Marr Show, August 2008.

Zion - The quest for a New Jerusalem.  A New World Order of the Zionist religio-political movement.

The beauty of the world may about to be seen by all .......

_____________________________________________________

7th May 2008 - Police State turning on photographers now!

"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth." - Albert Einstein

No surprise at all that the ever-increasing surveillance and control grid orchestrated by the New World Order has finally got around to turning on photographers.

The Metropolitan Police are urging the public to report photographers taking photos on the street in order to cut down on terrorism.  What they are really doing is stopping the reporting of peaceful protest, police brutality and wrongful arrests of the innocent.  Thankfully, some MPs as well as the NUJ, BPPA and others are taking seriously this infringement of liberty and freedom of the press and calling for an early day motion.

"Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety".  Benjamin Franklin

The police have started an ad campaign (link) against photographers.  Photographers have now started a campaign against the police using their poster as a template:

(Thanks to Wnjr for poster - very funny and clever)

There is a Downing Street petition to stop Police fascism here.

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTING POLICE-STATE INTIMIDATING BRITISH TAXPAYERS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS

Added October 20th 2008:  And don't think this loss of freedom is being perpetrated by just the British police.....this is an interlocking worldwide strategy to control the press.  Read here how photographers are gassed and jailed for attempting to highlight the truth about everyday law abiding Americans speaking out against the Rise of the Fourth Reich.

And now there's examples in Greece and France of the same....

Added 8.5.09.  The score so far: 

Citizens and tourists detained and searched by police under section 44 in the last year = 102,000 or 280 people per day (up 300% on last year). 

Innocent people in the UK killed by police under section 44 of the Terrorism Act = 2.  Terrorists caught or killed = 0.

2nd May 2008 - Making Waves for Power

Having become a bit of a pessimist in recent years, I have been proved wrong twice this month that the environment can never be of greater global importance than capitalism and money.  The first bit of news is that the Maltese government have been ordered by the European Court of Justice to stop killing birds in the Spring.  The Maltese are infamous for their ruthless hunting of anything that moves.  Widespread cultural trapping and storing of the smallest finches in cages, pilled to the ceilings in storehouses for weeks, are used to lure other birds into range of a shotgun.  Birds killed are often pickled and eaten as delicacies!  A lot of these birds are migrants on passage between Africa and Europe, and some commentators have blamed this wanton destruction on the huge fall off in numbers of our more common garden birds.

The second snippet of good news is that the large scale wind farm proposal for the Lewis (Outer Hebrides) peat bogs and wilderness area has been turned down by the Scottish Government.  Of course, there are two sides to this result, the worrying side being a stronger push for nuclear energy.  I worry that the applicant will keep resubmitting amended proposals of the wind farm, as happens in most house building applications, until the right number of backhanders have been agreed.

Although not news as such, but I was delighted to find yet another organization who not only state the Al Gore and the Climate Doom prophets are purposefully misleading the media and the public for some hidden agenda, but claim that it is LOSS OF TREES that is causing the carbon dioxide levels to rise.  This organization, "10 BILLION ACRES FOR HUMANITY" seem to have a much more plausible and balanced argument for climate change than anything you will have read in the mainstream puppet media.  As someone who has been around the world to see the scale and impact of rainforests on the life of this planet, the destruction that is going on in these places, I totally agree and applaud this organization for their stance.

Now for the down.   A rich entrepreneur is making waves, or actually not, by submitting an application to build a barrage across the Wash Estuary!  The Wash Estuary is perhaps the premier wildlife site in the UK.  It is also protected by many designations, including one under the European Ramsar Convention.

This is obviously a spin off to the similar environment wrecking proposal across the Severn Estuary.  Everyone wants to spin their damage as saving the environment in terms of Global Warming.  Here's where the doubters of this myth may start to understand the truth and the transparency of the lies behind the Great Global Warming Conspiracy.  This entrepreneur, Peter Dawe, merely claiming himself to be "a businessman" is hoping to get corporations and organizations to partly fund this private scheme. 

This is going to be a test of how much protection the designations such as "Ramsar Site" and "SSSI" really have.  Are these labels just pleasing box-ticking afterthoughts because nobody wanted to destroy them at the time of designation?  The Severn Estuary is also a "RAmsar Site" and internationally important area for wildlife.  It even includes places such as Peter Scott's famous Slimbridge Wildfowl & Wetland Reserve.  But this looks as if it will be damaged by a barrage that is well down the path to planning consent.  

I only hope that any corporation contributing to either barrage scheme will receive the huge backlash and adverse publicity they deserve.

Oh, and as an aside to all this, who is also amazed that nobody in power is getting angry and wanting to protest about rising fuel prices.  Believe me, this is also a scam and a test of the British mentality who now seem to accept regular abuse and deterioration of their standard of living because of an underlying myth or two, i.e.  Oil supply is finite and climate catastrophe is your fault for using this oil.  Mmmmm, if oil is running out, then no need to worry about future global warming - it will sort itself out of course!  It makes sense.  "THEY" need to start building barrages and wind farms quickly before the scam of Peak Oil and Global Warming are simultaneously blown open by you and me, your MP, and brave journalists who seek the truth....SOS

More on Global Warming below

1st April 2008 - Nobody's Fool

The heat is warming up on something and it's certainly not the climate:  No this one isn't a joke or a myth, it's about the Wild Boar here in the Forest of Dean and the UK as a whole.

The guns are coming out folks.  One of our truly native wild animals (unlike fallow deer, rabbits, hares, pheasants, mandarins, grey squirrels, etc)  is getting the chop again, thanks to the hunting lobby, the blood lust and ignorance of the Forestry Commission, the puppet media and the gullibility of a public who have lost all connection with the natural world.

The BBC are pioneering the death of the Wild Boar.  Two BBC programs have recently been aired, one of which I was interviewed for (BBC Breakfast News).  Both of which Dr Martin Goulding also gave his side of the story.   No surprise to either of us that our opinions on the good and gentle side to these animals were edited out of the programs.  Indeed, a huge slice of air time was given to a farmer who is claiming the wild boar are killing her cows!  I've never heard such rubbish.  Other folk are claiming they are prisoners in their homes because of these savage beasts roaming on their doorstep. 

Bah!  Wake up people.  Where is the journalism here.  Why is this tripe being kept in the documentaries when anything to the contrary is chopped?  What happened to evidence and seeking the truth?  Now I don't expect many of my readers to believe me about manipulation and conspiracy regarding the serious stuff I write below (all's it takes is a little net-research though!), but surely we can see the lies and spin of this affair.  Wild Boar are trivial subjects on the world stage and yet even here, there's manipulation and brainwash for you to become subservient to.  Surely then, we are being lied to about important issues like terrorism, global warming, WMD, viruses, and so on and so on.

If the wild boar are to serve the public in some way before their guts are blasted about every tree by the sniggering gung-ho men in camo gear from the Forestry Commission I at least hope it is to show everyone once and for all how we are all being lied to by the media and our so called leaders! 

This is not an April Fool, it's an Everyday Fool, and the joke is on you, the boar, the innocent iraqis, the tax payer - unless you stand up and fight it.

10th March 2008 - Global Fool

Today we are told, in the UK, that the winter's worst storm has caused disruption and fear across the country.  WELL.  Did you feel anything?  Were the waves larger than in a normal winter?  Did the gusts make you think something abnormal was going down?  I hope you can see objectively and say NO!  Of course, the underlying theme of this propaganda (and propaganda has an hidden agenda) is to make you think that this is global warming and it is YOUR fault.  The media now believe this tenet is unquestionable and therefore does not need spelling out.  They want YOU to claim that the solution to this problem is to accept global warming is your fault and to give up more MONEY to a swelling gravy train.

But objective thinkers see otherwise.  They see the spin.  So, has global warming becoming tepid?

“Reason obeys itself;  Ignorance submits to what is dictated to it”    Thomas Paine

Thanks to the power of the internet, the only "real" freedom of speech and information tool still available, the world’s greatest global warming profiteer, Al Gore, seems to be exposing the myth for what it is.  MONEY!

For sure, Gore has led the "cut-your-energy consumption" climate-change issue since his infamous and now thoroughly discredited film An Inconvenient Truth, for which he received a Nobel peace prize.  Gore has led government debate on how YOU are causing climate change since the 70s, and has written profusely on the subject in many of the "mainstream" journals of the day. 

If this were you, in the spotlight and making a new rich living leading a cause you believed in, would you...

• Drive 5 cars 500 yards from your hotel to the screening of your own film An Inconvenient Truth at the Cannes Film Festival?
• Increase your electricity consumption by 13.5% over your previous year, to now equal more electricity than 20 average American households combined?  This is the same year your book and “documentary” calls on everyone to reduce electricity use.
• Claim to offset your huge carbon footprint by buying carbon credits from a company (Generation Investment Management) of which you yourself are the Chairman and Founding Partner?

Well you may, since Gore has gone from being an almost $Millionaire during his election campaign against his cousin, George W Bush, to an awesome $100M as a doom and gloom merchant.  All thanks to Your and Your Government's (or unelected, unaccountable Federal Union's) "belief" and support that Global Warming is Your fault.

Added 2nd October 2008:  Carbon Tax Credit-Trading System Hidden in Bail-Out Bill:  Stealth launch of trading in fictional carbon-based funny money to make Gore and other traders very rich at your expense (Details of Bill: pages 114-115).

Added 5th November 2008:  Canadians vote NOT to implement Carbon Tax Scheme.  UN and Gore's Scare-mongering not working.

So take a moment to think about polluter Gore and his profiteering as your behaviour is being manipulated to stop using airplanes (cutting tourist revenue to underdeveloped nations) and to accept and pay through the nose for more and more green taxes, forcing your standard of living ever lower.

And what if the world doesn't warm and the polar bears don't die?  Congratulations everyone - your MONEY has helped save the planet from catastrophe.  But we must keep it up.  Keep the MONEY coming this way please.....

25th January 2008 - Barn Owls

A cold and cloudy Norfolk photographing Barn Owls ended the long spell of wet weather.  Chris Grady, Brian Davis and myself shared a cottage for a few days and enjoyed such delights as marsh harriers, snow and lapland buntings, bearded tit and several barn owls.   The snow and lapland buntings turned out to be far too easy, being habituated to seed on the beach at Salthouse (see images), so it was the challenge of the barn owls that we were most delighted with.

 This was the first time any of us had attempted photographing these birds, and despite finding the light levels very low (higher than normal ISO and difficulties locking the tracking focus on the birds) we all thoroughly enjoyed the chase.   We were thrown out of one field by the landowner after we strayed onto it in our excitement of following an owl in the car then a quick dash out to follow it onto the field in question.   But another landowner was so pleased that someone was enjoying "his" owls so much, he invited us back to his house where several were nesting each night.  We also found many owls near Holt, and one in particular seemed to have it's routine of flying up and down the same field time and again.  Learning where the owls would be and their pattern of hunting made life easier, and it took just a day before we were getting good pictures.  We also thought we were getting good at creeping up on owls, especially the time we carefully stalked one to within 10 metres via bramble undergrowth, careful to keep the trees between us and it, only to find it was a large white mark on the top of a stick!  

Other highlights were the 12 marsh harriers at Cley Marsh (image here), two fighting stoats also at Cley, and the delighted whoops from Brian after winning his first ever Trivial Pursuits! (he might be clever, but he did forgot to bring along his camera kit on a photography holiday!!!!!).  We have all vowed to return to get stuck in to a proper session of owling, so look out for better pictures in the near future.

November 2007 - UK Wildlife Photographers lag behind

I've recently been upgrading my image bank.  To me, that's the number of images I have in my head of other photographers' work.  I recently attended the WildScreen symposium at the Royal Photographic Society in London which confirmed to me that the British style of wildlife photography is too clinical and formulaic (aka boring?).  The images that went into the memory bank where all from European or American photographers. Franz Lanting's presentation (and book) on Life was stunning (link here) and truly inspirational.

Maybe the difference is because British wildlife is much harder to find and is very timid.  Grab shots or setting up feeder stations (artificial outdoor studios using food as bait) seems to be the norm in Britain whereas elsewhere, carefully planned and executed WILD photos are more the norm.  Maybe the British weather is also to blame because: A. it's not nice to spend fruitless hours in a hide in the cold, dull light or rain, and B, the British are a soft race that like their comforts :-)  Of course, I couldn't say with certainty that images from elsewhere didn't start life as a baited experiment, but the end results are often totally different in style and atmosphere.  If I could generalize at all, I think that lighting and realism are crucial and the unconscious essence of a brilliant photo.  The formula approach tends to erase any mood by the misuse of white balance, levels, etc in photoshop - and that's before the insidious overuse of cloning things out.  Don't follow the crowd.  Don't listen to the self appointed teachers of what a good photo is.  My advice is to remember this,

The perfect shot is like the holy grail - a dream and not a material possession - it's in the heart. 

Include as much natural history into the shot as possible. Use a wide angle lens and make the most of what you can get close to.  Don't fall into the trap of just being a birdwatcher with a camera and a big lens.  Slater's law now states,

"The more uncomfortable you are, the more likely the photograph will be better". 

Get lying down in the mud, sit for hours until your bum is sore, stay out in the rain, get up ridiculously early in the cold of the morning, stay out late and catch the last rays of dusk.  All these situations produce new angles, light, and moments that are unusual, and therefore more interesting.

One last thing concerns baited wildlife.  Here in the UK baited hides have not taken off too well.  Rich photographers regularly go off with British companies to Scandaniavia, Eastern Europe or America where this practice is common.  Some individual's on the continent are also promoting their baited setups so they can earn from wildlife photographers.  Once again, this approach leads to photographs that everyone has.  They may be stunning (eg. go to Mate Bence's site) but soon enough we will start to yawn in full knowledge of how the photo was achieved.  Baiting wildlife for profit can also lead to bad consequences.  The Sea Eagles on Skye have been baited using fish for some years now so that wealthy photographers can take the short cut to stunning images.  But now the seals eat the fish, and the Eagles go hungry, maybe even die (chicks especially) now their regular food source has dried up.  The ONLY people to blame for this are the wildlife photographers, not the fisherman attempting to exploit this trendy market.

July 2007 - Conservation Assignment

I hope to bring back many inspiring photos from the trip, and will update this section on my return in early September.

Nicobar Pigeon - a threatened Indonesian rainforest species.

_____________________________________________________

July 23rd 2007 - Flooding

The government is expected today to give its blessing to build hundreds of thousands more new houses in floodplains.  I sit in my house today in Gloucestershire with several friends who are homeless, quarter million people are out of drinking water, thousands without power, due to flooding!

The fact that the government cares little about houses in floodplains is PROOF that those in the know are confident that climate change is nothing to worry about.

Just as dangerous, but undebated by journalists and politicians, is building in the immediate catchment areas of floodplains.  This is also continuing at a dangerous level.

It has long been realized that houses in floodplains destroy marshes, wetlands and other soakaways that prevent rivers bursting their banks.  The same is true of the soils across the catchment areas.  Every tree cut down is a step towards a flood.  Today's protection measures, encompassed within planning guidelines, are a joke as developer after developer has removed natural soakaway and replaced it with concrete and pitiful drainage systems or barriers that are often unscientific and spun to give confidence to committee members who vote these developments through (often with a cheap house as a backhander to boot).  One common trick by developers is to raise the land above the 1 in 100 year flood line before covering it in bricks, concrete and tarmac.  Are developers writing planning policy??   Are we, the Sheeple (people acting like sheep and following the herd without question), buying these houses thinking all is ok??

As a doctor of hydrogeology, I was cited in several newspapers over 10 years ago that this would happen, as I studied and fought several housing developments in Banbury, Oxfordshire, and also in Mountsorrel, Leicestershire.  I met with environment agency officials, town planners and even the council ecologists, but to no avail.  These people are simply morons or puppets in a centrally-controlled machine they have no sway over.  Solution - DO NOT BUY A HOUSE IN A FLOODPLAIN even if you are given assurances it is protected.  That assurance is a lie, and that house is directly responsible for flooding someone else further downstream.

High rainfall events in summer months are not new nor have they suddenly increased in their ferocity.   But as soakaway has been drastically removed in the last decade through blind planning and inadequate hydrological assessments, the dangers have rocketed astronomically.  Those in power have been simply crossing their fingers, sitting back in their million pound houses as the profits from the house building industry have rolled in.  In recent times those fingers have uncrossed slightly thanks to the convenient myth that we are all to blame for extreme weather events (note that climate change theory predicts hotter summers and wetter winters LOL).

We don't need the houses, this is another myth spread by these dangerous fanatics of corporate greed, and climate change is not to blame for the floods.  It is greed and ignorance that is to blame.  What we need is more environmental awareness among the voting public and appreciation of our fantastic landscape and ecology.

_____________________________________________________

7 -7 - 7 - A Prophecy Incarnate?

A long awaited day - did you realise it?  Here's hoping this planet, it's unique environment, and peace on Earth will begin from today.....(link)

November 2006 - KILLING FOR SPORT: How Gamekeepers are Devastating Britain's Wildlife

"For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other.  Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love." 

Pythagoras c550BC

Here's a subject I am learning more about and feel I should highlight what so called "Gamekeepers" are usually up to in their quest to rear non-native species so rich clients can blow that animal's brains out.  This aspect of gamekeeping is NOT conservation in any sense.  Our wildlife are under enough pressures these days with habitat loss and encroachment of humans.  Wildlife Photographers in Britain often wonder why their wildlife are so nervous and elusive - this is why....

More than 12,300 animals are killed by gamekeepers in this country EVERY DAY!!!! According to the Game Conservancy Trust, as many as 4.5 million mammals and birds of prey are killed annually in a largely unreported and frequently illegal programme of predator control. Gamekeepers snare, trap and poison these animals to protect the millions of game birds shot every year by wealthy businessmen and tourists who are keen to experience a day or weekend of country shooting.

Animals, including protected badgers, foxes, hares, stags, owls, kestrels, domestic livestock and even pets, die often excruciating deaths.   To give just one example, a 'vermin return form' sent to Sir Jocelyn Stevens by a gamekeepers on his Millden estate in Scotland records that in the single month of April (2001), gamekeepers killed 698 rabbits, 37 hares, 19 stoats, 23 crows, three magpies, three jackdaws, one rook, three foxes, two "feral" cats, six gulls and one stag.

There are currently 2000 estates and farms involved in this industry, which claims to be one of the country's fastest growing 'sports'. These establishments include some of the oldest and most prestigious estates in the UK. Amongst those willing to pay £400 to £2000 per day for a day of shooting include Madonna, Guy Ritchie, Vinnie Jones, Bryan Ferry and Marco Pierre White. It is unlikely that any of these people have any notion quite how bloody their new hobby is or how much of Britain's wildlife is dying to support it.

The rich and famous who shoot on Viscount Cowdray's Sussex estates are probably unaware that one of his gamekeepers narrowly escaped prosecution for the widespread use of illegally set SNARES in woodland managed for pheasant shooting. This particular estate has been rife with other offences.  Click here to see an image of a snared badger.

Only a small percentage of wildlife crimes are ever detected.  But those that are reveal a flagrant disregard for wildlife protection laws. The large number of prosecutions involving offences committed in the immediate vicinity of game bird pens is a clear indication that this calculated slaughter is all about protecting an industry and nothing to do with the conservation gamekeepers claim to have as their primary goal.

A small sample of prosecutions in the past seven years include: a Hampshire gamekeeper fined for using live mallards and jackdaws as decoys in traps, a Norfolk gamekeeper killing three kestrels, an Essex gamekeeper asphyxiating three fox cubs, a trainee Norfolk gamekeeper setting pole traps, which have been illegal since 1904, and a Buckinghamshire gamekeeper charged with 16 offences, including snaring, trapping and killing badgers, owls, foxes, a sparrow hawk and a buzzard.

The information contained in this report will shock many. Let us hope it also leads to improved legal protection for wildlife, including a ban on snares, and proper enforcement of laws.

The above is an Excerpt from a report by Douglas Batchelor, Chief Executive, League Against Cruel Sports. October 2003.

September 11th 2006.    Thinking of all those killed by the American government since 911, including those within the 3 imploded towers that fell that day and the Pentagon.  The million innocent children are also remembered who were killed by sanctions imposed upon the Iraqi and Afghan people by the American government and the American-controlled UN.  Let's also not forget "our" soldiers dying through "our" own government's treasonous acts.  This includes 450,000 US and UK guinea pigs (soldiers) still dying through exposure to our own WMD, an atomic weapon called depleted uranium, that was scattered around the Gulf in 1991 in full knowledge of its effects (read more).  This dangerous contamination cannot be cleaned nor will it ever die away.

I also remember the freedom that I and many millions of Americans once had and will continue to lose in the next 6 years. 

Recommended videos on 911 (BELOW) include Loose Change, 911 Press for Truth and David Shayler.

Also take a look at the evidence on the similarity with The London Bombings: Ludicrous diversion and The 911 to 7/7 Connection.

Terror Storm by Alex Jones gives an insightful prediction into where all this is heading!

The above video library requires Macromedia Flash Player installed on your computer

Also read a previous article of mine below

August 25th 2006.    The Evils of Digital are here...

For some time now I've been attempting to put forward my vision of where digital wildlife photography is heading.  I've been on one well respected forum (NaturePhotographers.Net) without any success of converting one of the many digi-manipulators on there.  In short this vision is a future where wildlife images will no longer represent the real world.  They will even be total inventions where the photographer will no longer need a camera - just lots of cash and a big computer. 

Don't believe me - then please go to this site and have a look at the dinosaur photographs of Kim Taylor!

  www.warrenphotographic.co.uk/prevhtm/index2.htm

Images are being over-manipulated, due largely to perceived demands from the "market" for "perfect" images (this is just a poor justification used by those who are guilty).  Firstly this demand does not exist.  The "market" only takes what is offered by photographers.  This "market" is largely picture editors who are not photographers and ask no questions about the ways in which a photo was derived.  Professionalism in wildlife photography is tenuous with little to distinguish this class from the amateur other than consistency of quality and volume of images taken.  Amateurs take their lead from professionals, and since that is increasingly one of holidays in baited hides, tame wildlife, and computer manipulation, everyone will soon be partaking in the ILLUSION.  It as already begun, although I actually suspect the manipulation part is being driven more by the amateurs than the professionals.  Professionals don't have the time or the need to manipulate their images all that much!

Wildlife photography urgently needs a code of ethics.  One that picture researchers are aware of.  Thankfully, the major photography competitions still resists manipulation of the image (but for how long?). After all, they want the image to represent a skill with a camera rather than a computer.

Of course I'm also guilty.  Below is one example of a manipulated image (nightjar and moon).  I have often taken these sandwich shots on slide film by using the double exposure setting, but with digital it is even easier.  This is just the thin end of the wedge, followed by cloning out small distractions, that is rapidly leading to in-computer dinosaur as well as ordinary wildlife photos.  99.9% of my images, however, contain NO manipulation (including cloning out) whatsoever.  I have only ever photographed tame wildlife on 4 occasions, and have only paid £2 to use a baited hide (Gigrin Farm). Where is your line in the sand?

July 23rd 2006.     Nightjars.

A blended shot of the nightjar and the moon.

I've made a small effort this year to locate and photograph the elusive Nightjars in the Forest of Dean.  What an enjoyable challenge!  The long spell of warm weather has made the essential night time visits a joyful experience with cool temperatures and the lovely aroma of pine and heathland all around.  Just before true darkness descends the eerie whirring chirrups, screeches and wing claps of the nightjar signal their approach.  As the mosquitoes tuck into bare arms and legs I've witnessed several close passes of the birds, some chasing others, but most simply inquisitive at my presence as they glide over my head.  The spectacle never lasts long, a half hour if your lucky before darkness halts progress, and the long march back to the car begins with the chance of a grabbed glow worm photo on the way.

The darkness was almost complete when I made out that this bird had landed in a tree about 40 metres away.  It took a 30 second exposure at +2 stops exposure and a good guess at the focusing to produce a very pleasing image with superb detail being captured - to my eyes it was just a black blob against a dark evening sky.

June 6th 2006.     6-6-6 - Beastly Climate Change - the hidden facts.

Added 21 January 2009:  It's getting boring now.  If you're still buying the scam (RSPB and Wildlife Trusts?) - read this.  Wake up folks!

Added 17 November 2008:  Gore and NASA caught out manipulating warming statistics.  Wake up folks!

Added 2nd May 2008:  Clouds not CO2 are main driver of global warming.   

Added 29 April 2008:  Loss of Trees are responsible for changes in CO2.   

Added April 29th 2008:  Global Cooling cannot be ruled out!!

Added April 29th 2008:  POLAR BEARS are doing great!  WWF research shows stable or increasing numbers except where cooling of the ice sheet is making it harder for them to hunt. (Added Nov 5th 2008: WWF have removed their own findings from their own website!).

Added March 20th 2008:  NASA scientist and global warming alarmist is abuser of data.  Global Cooling is more likely.

Added 8th January 2008:  Read this letter to the UN signed by many climate scientists.    

Added 29 May 2007:  Article here  on how the IPCC editorial board masquerade as scientists and spin the lies about anthropogenic climate change.   

Also read here the many scientists who submit articles to newspapers and journals stating how the current myth of global warming being our fault is dangerous.   

And yet more articles here in case you're still not convinced).

One of the foremost environmental scare stories of the modern day is climate change.  Deforestation, ozone holes, meteor strikes, etc are no longer talked about by the media or politicians: they must have been solved now I guess? (Yeh right!).

Climate change is a natural phenomenon.  Our climate is driven on a geological scale by variations in the plate tectonic setting, erosion of the land by releasing CO2, sedimentation on land and under water by absorbing CO2, algal and plant abundance, solar activity, and the angle the earth makes to the sun, and ocean currents.  Ocean current are always changing due to variations in water temperature and the geomorphology of the ocean (that constantly changes with ocean floor spreading and volcanic activity).

Man has been on the planet for an infinitesimally small time.  He has grown to influence an infinitesimally small component of the geological process in the last 200 years, namely ecological imbalance and release of CO2, H2O, acid vapours, particulates and so on from geological deposits called "fossil fuels", and especially during times of war (we are still feeling the effects of WW2 in terms of atmospheric and land pollution).

Carbon dioxide and methane are proven "Greenhouse gases" that reduce the escape of heat from the land into space.  This heat comes principally from the sun, the rocks themselves (the earth is heated internally by radioactive and thermodynamic processes), and from organic activity.  Water vapour, particulates, and acid vapour are proven heat sinks.  They remove heat from the atmosphere by thermodynamic and kinetic reactions, and by reflecting the sun's heat back into space (the albedo affect).  Such heat sinks are produced by volcanoes (90% of eruptions is water, and this water is believed to be the origin of the oceans) and man-made industry - his most successful industry being WAR.

Carbon has 6 protons 6 neutrons 6 electrons and is the essence of life on earth.

Models that predict global "warming" are at the mercy of the data that is input into them.  This is done by humans with biases.  Such models are few and far between, with the most eminent being sponsored by world government institutions.  I mean, ask why it is that US-controlled institutions like the UN advance controls on world industry via climate protocols, yet the US refuse to sign up to them?  Control!!!  Empire building!!  Dictatorship!!  The US military-industrial complex understand the science is weak and manipulated, but they will enforce it on others nevertheless for there own advancement via US-created "front organizations".  (The entire environmental movement is, at it's core, controlled in the same way, via bodies such as the Club of Rome, WWF, and I now suspect the RSPB as well with its policy of pro-climate control yet being against wind farms). (See also Schwarzenigger promoting a Global Warming Tax.)

None of the climate models include the effect of cloud formation (water vapour) on the heat budget of the earth.  None suggest the effect of particulates on the heat budget, not only from human activity but also from volcanic eruptions.  None explain why satellite data monitoring the entire earth surface (rather than pin-point land based analysers) show a net cooling across the earth's atmosphere.  And none explain the fact that ice is actually accumulating across Antarctica, where 90% of the Earth's ice resides!  And this is where the ozone hole is!  55% of the world's mountain glaciers are actually advancing, but this is never mentioned in the mainstream propaganda.   

Why is it then, that the Arctic is focused upon in the media-dominated Northern hemisphere?  Because it's closer to home, but also because the Artic is actually undergoing some warming, or is it?.... Maybe this can be explained as a reaction to the cooling at the Antarctic (the accumulating ice here is causing a shift in heat balance between polar regions?) or because ocean currents are changing - also explained by lop-sided cooling at the poles as well as through tectonic processes.

More likely, the explanation is the fact that the present cold period of the CURRENT Ice Age is finally at its end and natural warming is now starting (the sea-level is at its lowest since the start of the last great ice Age and a new warm inter-glacial about to begin).  Maybe because the Arctic IS closer to us that we are affecting it through low-atmosphere pollution (particulates melt ice, giving the appearance of warming).    I don't know, but warm interglacial periods have always been good for trade and civilization. 

IF the Artcic were to to melt wholesale, and some model-orientated and biased scientists stake this, then NO sea-level change would occur due to the displacement affect of ice in water.  Sea-level rise is another naturally occurring event controlled by tectonic activity, but is being used to scare us into conforming with the disinformation - the tenet that global warming is YOUR fault!  Rubbish.

Cooling of the earth has been going on since it's creation.  We are moving further away from the sun, and the earth's core is cooling.  If it were not for "Greenhouse Gases" we would all be dead.  These keep the planet warm enough for life to thrive.  It is countered by the water vapour (clouds) and particulates in the atmosphere. If the Earth warms, more evaporation of the sea occurs forming more clouds, and hence cooling - it's in check.  No model includes cloud affects on the global warming model due to lack of understanding, their complexity and difficulties in numerically evaluating this effect for a model.

This Earth we share with all other forms of life regulates itself all the time, YET allows moderate changes for life to have evolved into the wonderful array we see around us.  Moderate change is driven by plate tectonics and extraterrestrial events, not humans.  Carbon dioxide is plant and algal food.  Lower the CO2 concentration and plants die back, and visa versa through the creation and destruction of tropical, ocean and other habitats dominated by plants.   Unless we wake up to the lies, man will destroy himself through war and politics long before his natural time is up.

!Our Earth is AMAZING!

Here's a must read for more detail on this...

February 13th 2006 -  Goose Step by Goose Step by Goose Step....

_____________________________________________________

October 30th 2005 - Zambia

It's Sod's Law as we say, but Zambia was to be many things that weren't supposed to be!  Never before had Jenka and I planned a safari so finely with a list of subjects to photograph for clients and agents, and never before had I set off with the image of a country being so poor and surely so cheap to survive in?  I was WRONG!

Our trip soon revealed itself to be an old style safari packed full of breakdowns, road blocks, changes of plan, with the distinct paradox of being very expensive.  To boot, the animals I had hoped for were being elusive (lion, leopard, elephant) which led to heighten our growing frustration with the country.

The cost of living here, even for locals, is outrageous, comparable with America in terms of fuel, most foods and luxury goods.  More expensive were the park fees and if you wanted to live in moderate comfort (i.e.scruffy lodges or tented camps) you're looking at $200-400 PER NIGHT!!!!  Bring the bank manager with you!

What was a nice surprise was the friendliness of everyone we met.  Zambia is a harsh country that brings people closer together.  Shared tales were common - of corruption at Police road blocks (expect to be ripped off by corrupt police), hardcore off-road driving experiences (most people have palm sweating tales) and not to mention the insatiable appetite of the Tsetse Fly.  For once, we were able to meet and enjoy the company of fellow travelers, and life long friendships have been hopefully forged.

Such was the adventure of the driving, the corruption and to be truthful, the shoddiness of the entire tourist industry here, the wildlife photography was in perpetual danger of taking second place.  What we were getting was a "normal holiday" of meeting people, lazing by swimming pools, drinking beer.....but without the luxuries.

But don't let all this put you off Zambia as a wildlife photography destination.  To be fair it is good.  There's no Etosha or Chobe or Masaii Mara here, just South Luangwa and Kafue to be honest.  All other parks have either been ruined by hunting or poaching or are specialist (Kasanka and Benguela Swamps fall into this category - birdwatching with telescopes only!).  Of course, our impression may be wrong, especially as I was here in the dry season.  After the rains the country becomes green and lush and birdlife abounds to such an extent that maybe you can get close to it - I don't know. 

We came at the height of the dry season to hopefully make finding predators more easy - concentrated herds of prey at the few remaining waterholes was our impression, but as Sod's Law kept reminding us, nature is full of surprises. 

So with the predators proving elusive by day we tried night safaris.  This added some unwelcome costs to our trip but we did SEE leopard and lion - but PHOTOGRAPH them we did not.  Safari guiding here is still well behind the rest of Southern Africa in terms of quality.  Many, if not all guides, seem dull and unexcited by the animals.  "That is a blue duiker, that is a puku, there is a Pel's Fishing Owl", the list goes on but the enthusiasm doesn't.  Nothing is added to the otherwise mundane name of the animal in question.  Successfully explain to them about lighting for photography and the importance of keeping the vehicle motionless to prevent camera shake and your a better person than I.  Expect to have many photos lost to your imagination or the bin.  The choice is to get your own vehicle at huge expense ($100 per day minimum) or chance it with the guides at $25-35 per half day (normally 3 hours).  I prefer the former because included in this price is an unforgettable driving experience in untamed Africa.  I shall tell you no more to keep it a surprise!

One exception to the harshness of the Zambian experience is Livingstone.  Stay a while in the sheer luxurious surroundings of a well run tourist industry.  Some things here are actually value for money such as a whole day white water rafting, including 3 meals, for US$95.  Victoria Falls can be visited for US$10 (or US$0.5 if you say you're a resident - nobody questions it!).  Be warned, however, crossing into Zimbabwe is no longer cheap - US$50 for UK, £US$30 for USA residents.

All in all, despite the hardships (that's Africa as they say) I'm glad I went and the memory of South Luangwa and the Zambian people is a fond one.  Please feel free to e-mail me for advice of where to stay / car hire / itinerary etc.

_____________________________________________________