Digital image Design

Nigel Beers-Smith, west coast photography

MORE OF MY WILDLIFE PHOTOS

After more than a ten year lapse, I returned to photography in the year 1998, I prefer photographing wildlife and their naturel environment , but I will where ever possible photograph any animals because how ever many times you photograph them they always look different! I later moved into more commercialised work, one reason being that i was starting to broaden my sights on photography and another so as to help pay for the very expensive equipment i had purchased.. I am now really enjoying photographing people and landscapes, its so much easier than wildlife photography but i'll never give that up..

My name is Nigel Beers-Smith, born in Telford, Shropshire.i started photography when i moved to wales in 1983, but I didn’t have the equipment that I have today, I started with an old Zenith that my brother gave me, It was very old, but it did what it was supposed to,! I just didnt know how to use it ;-) It was very costly using the trial and error program!!

I had a 50mm a 135mm and then I bought a 500mm f8 or f11 with a 2 x converter, which i thought was going to get me the best shots in the world, but it was really a nightmare, It was that dark looking though the lense, that i needed the midday sun and flood lights to get a good shot (slightly exagerated)! but most of the animals had already gone into hiding at that time of the day. Photographic equipment has come along way now-a-days !

I moved to france in 1989 and photographed mainly birds, the featherd variety. Since i was a kid i was always fascinated by birds of prey and especially the Osprey, i pestered ROLF WAHL for over a year to let me meet him to no avale, because he was just innondated with photographer wanting to photograph the Osprey(hes the person that found the first Osprey nest in france some 20 years ago and has documented them ever since) Then one day i saw a white spec in a tree about 400 yards away and to my surprise it was that long awited Osprey.... I waited for 4 hours to finally get the ''shot'' i had been waiting for and I promptly sent it to Rolf.. With that photo he invited me to stay with him for a week, where i was commissioned by the french government to do documentary pictures, i was thouroughly delighted... I am now permantly invited whenever i chose, after getting the only close-up shot in europe of a pair of Ospreys mating, which Rolf was delighted to send around europe over night :-)

Whilst sat in my hide i was noticing more and more the wonderful landscape shots that could be exploited all around me, which i hadnt notice or been interrested in before, so I started shooting a few of them but they didnt seem to look exactly like what i had been looking at through the view finder so I decided to start to learn more about ''photoshop'' so that I could enhance the photos but there alway seemed to be something missing so I then started to add things into those photos, differents skies, objects etc.. which has now brought me to the point of totally changing some photos from day to night shots with moons shooting stars etc..

Because i had a camera people i knew were always asking me to be the photographer for birthday parties, any family reunions and little by little i was asked to do a few weddings and that really changed my plans i was getting more and more addicted to wedding photography, seeing people's happiness captured for that special day really motivated me to go more into this line of photography.

I now live on the west coast of Ireland after having lived in Creuse - centrale France for 15 years.

Photography now-a-days is a real joy! with the camera equipment i have today from very expensive long lenses to wide angle lenses and not forgetting the new Canon EOS 1DS MKII with its 16.7mega pixel sensor, gives me and my clients the best quality photos available to date.

Nigel Beers Smith

West Coast of Ireland

Office : 00353 (0)9782815

Mobile : 0851431906

nigelbeersmith@eircom.net

Link : www.westportlimohire.com