This week Keswick Photographic Society was treated to a fascinating presentation by Mick Watson, an amateur photographer from Durham, who in 2021 was one of the winners in the very prestigious international Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
Initially, a keen motor sport photographer, Mick began to experiment with other genres of photography and though he became quite accomplished as a landscape photographer he realised that he was becoming drawn more and more to wildlife.
Although birds weren’t his preferred subjects, he nevertheless showed members some excellent images of a very broad range of birds taken in the UK and wider Europe. Notable images were of Pelicans in Greece, Puffins and Osprey in Scotland and an English Heron which was managing to swallow a fish so large that it was thereafter unable to fly away due to its weight!
The presentation moved to Mick’s mammal photographs and he showed some amazing images of Snow Hares in the Grampians, Brown Hares, foxes and squirrels from near his Durham home and rutting Red Deer.
He explained in detail the very challenging experience of photographing Musk Ox in Norway. He camped out and climbed in temperatures no-one should be tempted to go out in! He still thinks it was worth the effort to get the stunning images with which he returned home.
In recent years he has become fascinated and very proficient at photographing Seals. In deed his award winning image in the Wildlife Photographer of The Year was of a seal struggling in discarded fishing net, which of course had a strong photo-journalism and environment message. Donna Nook in Lincolnshire is one of his favoured places for photographing seals in early Winter.
David Woodthorpe