My interest in wildlife started at an early age, at my grandmother’s house at Carisbrooke, then a small village on the outskirts of Newport, Isle of Wight. In those days, the 1970′s, it was more rural than it is now and was teeming with wildlife. Nan always encouraged our interests and we would nag her to feed the birds in winter – one winter, it was extremely icy, Nan said that there was no way she could get outside to feed the birds as it was dangerous; apparently me and my sister cried, so Nan went out, promptly slipped on the ice and broke her shoulder and to the day she died (in November 2001) she never let us forget it! More positive memories are my first Redwings, Long-tailed Tits, Cuckoo and many other species all seen in the garden there. I went to school in Carisbrooke, from ages 4 to 13, and one of my more pleasant memories was watching a Treecreeper on an oak tree outside the classroom window when I should have been listening to the teacher!
I did the sort of things kids in the 1970s and 80s did and which ‘elf and safety would have a fit over in the paranoid 21st century; climbed trees (and fell out of the trees), fell in streams and rivers, got dirty, kept caterpillars in jars until they turned into butterflies or moths and spent hours and hours out in the countryside and on the beaches on my own. However, once I got into my teens, my interest waned before reawakening when I was around 19 or 20.
I have loved photography since I was about 10 years old and my aunt gave me her old instamatic camera for a family holiday to Cornwall in 1980. I still have the pictures from that camera; the SS Canberra returning from the Falklands war in 1982, our family holiday in Cornwall (murky pictures of moorland and seals in a seal sanctuary), pets, and some long distance shots of the QE2 in the Solent.
As a teenager, I was always frustrated by the awful 110 camera I had (a replacement for the instamatic), with its tiny negatives, poor quality, usually grainy photographs and absolutely no reach on the lens at all, until I was given a 35mm film compact with a fixed 32mm lens for Christmas when I was 16. This was an improvement over the 110, but still terrible, and I resorted to using my stepfather’s Praktica SLR (he’d lost interest) and a short zoom until I could afford my own decent SLR – a Vivitar V2000, with a Pentax lens mount and a set of lenses – as soon as I got my first proper job. Over the past 22 years I have got through various cameras, from the aforementioned Vivitar, through Pentax, Nikon and the digital Canon system I now use.
Despite my interests in wildlife and photography it was not 2007 that I started getting into bird photography, with two trips to South America where the birds are a lot more approachable and easier to photograph than they are here in the UK. The main reason for this was that the cost of films and processing was prohibitive until the digital revolution came along and, like many people, I couldn’t afford to spring for films and developing only for 99.9% of the pictures to turn out to be rubbish!
I use software (Photoshop) but only for enhancing photos - cropping, resizing, noise removal, adjusting exposure, removal of colour casts, sharpening and that sort of thing. I don't manipulate a photo any more than that and I certainly don't add anything in that was not in the scene to begin with. People associate Photoshop with 'cheating' and fakery but it doesn't have to be like that. Besides, I haven't the first clue how to add 'extras' into the picture and I don't know what most of the PS filters do!
Until July 2008 I used a Nikon D80 DSLR with various lenses but have now switched to Canon.
Birds are my favourite subjects but recently I bought a 100mm f2.8 Canon macro lens and am planning to take insect macro shots during the spring and summer and fungi later in the year. A lot of my pictures are opportunistic shots, ones taken in the garden, on nature reserves, from my car or when I am out birding. I will never attempt to take a photo if it would disturb the birds, as no photo is ever worth disturbing or distressing wildlife for; I would rather have no photos at all than harm wildlife.
I am still based on the Isle of Wight (although I have lived on the mainland in London, Cornwall, the Midlands and Southampton), just off the south coast of England, where I live near Sandown with my aunt, three dogs one of whom is my little miniature long-haired dachshund, called Ruthie, who is now 12 years old, and one very old cat. Most of my photography is done on the island, with some trips further afield and abroad.
Other interests include astronomy, travel, sport (watching, rather than playing, these days - favourite sports teams include Southampton FC, Hampshire CCC and England cricket, football and Rugby union), science fiction and spending too much time on the net.
Faith ‘Fay’ Jordan
I did the sort of things kids in the 1970s and 80s did and which ‘elf and safety would have a fit over in the paranoid 21st century; climbed trees (and fell out of the trees), fell in streams and rivers, got dirty, kept caterpillars in jars until they turned into butterflies or moths and spent hours and hours out in the countryside and on the beaches on my own. However, once I got into my teens, my interest waned before reawakening when I was around 19 or 20.
I have loved photography since I was about 10 years old and my aunt gave me her old instamatic camera for a family holiday to Cornwall in 1980. I still have the pictures from that camera; the SS Canberra returning from the Falklands war in 1982, our family holiday in Cornwall (murky pictures of moorland and seals in a seal sanctuary), pets, and some long distance shots of the QE2 in the Solent.
As a teenager, I was always frustrated by the awful 110 camera I had (a replacement for the instamatic), with its tiny negatives, poor quality, usually grainy photographs and absolutely no reach on the lens at all, until I was given a 35mm film compact with a fixed 32mm lens for Christmas when I was 16. This was an improvement over the 110, but still terrible, and I resorted to using my stepfather’s Praktica SLR (he’d lost interest) and a short zoom until I could afford my own decent SLR – a Vivitar V2000, with a Pentax lens mount and a set of lenses – as soon as I got my first proper job. Over the past 22 years I have got through various cameras, from the aforementioned Vivitar, through Pentax, Nikon and the digital Canon system I now use.
Despite my interests in wildlife and photography it was not 2007 that I started getting into bird photography, with two trips to South America where the birds are a lot more approachable and easier to photograph than they are here in the UK. The main reason for this was that the cost of films and processing was prohibitive until the digital revolution came along and, like many people, I couldn’t afford to spring for films and developing only for 99.9% of the pictures to turn out to be rubbish!
I use software (Photoshop) but only for enhancing photos - cropping, resizing, noise removal, adjusting exposure, removal of colour casts, sharpening and that sort of thing. I don't manipulate a photo any more than that and I certainly don't add anything in that was not in the scene to begin with. People associate Photoshop with 'cheating' and fakery but it doesn't have to be like that. Besides, I haven't the first clue how to add 'extras' into the picture and I don't know what most of the PS filters do!
Until July 2008 I used a Nikon D80 DSLR with various lenses but have now switched to Canon.
Birds are my favourite subjects but recently I bought a 100mm f2.8 Canon macro lens and am planning to take insect macro shots during the spring and summer and fungi later in the year. A lot of my pictures are opportunistic shots, ones taken in the garden, on nature reserves, from my car or when I am out birding. I will never attempt to take a photo if it would disturb the birds, as no photo is ever worth disturbing or distressing wildlife for; I would rather have no photos at all than harm wildlife.
I am still based on the Isle of Wight (although I have lived on the mainland in London, Cornwall, the Midlands and Southampton), just off the south coast of England, where I live near Sandown with my aunt, three dogs one of whom is my little miniature long-haired dachshund, called Ruthie, who is now 12 years old, and one very old cat. Most of my photography is done on the island, with some trips further afield and abroad.
Other interests include astronomy, travel, sport (watching, rather than playing, these days - favourite sports teams include Southampton FC, Hampshire CCC and England cricket, football and Rugby union), science fiction and spending too much time on the net.
Faith ‘Fay’ Jordan
© Fay Jordan Wildlife Photography