Amateur Wildlife Photography by Tony Hovell

 

Born very early in the 1950’s a stone's throw from Wormwood Scrubs in London I have always been interested in wild life, but the pressure's of nest building, and bringing up the brood limited the time I could spend. Now the young have fledged I am able to spend more time watching and photographing our wildlife. My main interest is birding, but I will photograph anything that lets me get near enough or stays still long enough.

I used to be content just to watch birds, but after seeing the Long Billed Murrelet at Dawlish in 2006 I realised how good it would be to be able to have photographs of the things I saw, especially when it was only likely to be once in a lifetime, so I started taking photos, firstly just for record shots then, later hoping for something slightly better.

As well as being a late starting photographer I was also into my 50’s before I flew anywhere but since 2009 we have watched wildlife in many of the worlds birding hot spots including, Austrailia, Goa, Gambia, South Africa, Trinidad, Ecuador, Costa Rica and the USA.

My wife, who thank goodness, is also a  birder, and I now live in Aylesbury Bucks, having lived for 30 years in Ruislip on the North West edge of London.

Sadly, I cannot claim to be a great photographer and only a reasonable birder but I hope the combination of the two produces something that may interest you.