Summer 2021 Shoot Like a Pro e-Conference Sunday 11th July 2021
Flora, Birds, Wildlife, Macro, Landscape & Fieldcraft
Wanna get new tips and tricks for your photography from top gurus?
Want to be inspired by 7 top nature professionals?
Experience the great atmosphere of a live conference!
Want to do all this from the safety of your own home?
Discount WildBunch and Conference tickets available
Special on the day discounts on kit too!
Make a contribution to Otter Conservation too!
Then here's our Summer Shoot Like a Pro e-Conference!
Buy the recording for streaming anywhere in the world (free to delegates)
Friendly and Inspiring
The low down...
COME AND BE #INSPIRED - In these tough times, photography is one of the best tonics for our mental health, so we have deliberately chosen inspiring photographer gurus who walk the walk and talk the talk. No matter where you live they will give you new and fresh ideas for your photography, inspiring you to get out and about with those cameras. We are platform independant so as well as Olympus gurus we have expertise from other systems as well, but for us it's all about the images!
There is nothing like the feeling of a live conference, everyone has loved the last three as they have a very special atmosphere.
So the Shoot Like a Pro Spring e-Conference will be on Sunday 11th July 2021 from 8.30am BST
Here's the main exciting bits:
Inspiring Professional Photographers - So we have brought 7 outstanding professionals to share their passion and vision with you, right from the comfort of your favourite armchair! They will share their knowledge, their favourite images, and will give you killer hints and tips that you can use for your own photography. So we have experts on bird photography, mammal photography and fieldcraft, flora and landscape photography.
Of course you get to ask questions after as well. As before @Wildmanrouse will be the joint host during all talks, asking questions and ensuring that you get max benefit from our gurus.
Online session - The conference will be hosted on the popular Zoom platform, with regular breaks during the day, so you will get all this wonderful knowledge without leaving the comfort of your home! Full instructions will be sent.
Conservation donation - As with all previous conferences we will be donating a portion of the proceeds to a UK wildlife charity / project that we believe will use the funds for good. This time it's the UK Wild Otter Trust, details below.
Network and chat - Via the Zoom Chat function you can message and chat to other photographers in complete safety.
Recording - The Conference will be recorded and will be available to all delegates for streaming for free via a FREE membership of the Wild Bunch platform. So no matter where you live in the world you can buy a recording of the conference so your photography can benefit too!
Discounts - We are negotiating special discounts on the day so watch this space!
WildBunch Discount Membership Packages - The conference is open to anyone to sign up and benefit. WildBunch members receive a special discount price for the day and if you wanna join in the fun we have a great membership / conference combo package for you too!
This awesome day will inspire your photography!!
BUY YOUR TICKET HERE
For those that have been before and just wanna buy a ticket here are your links, otherwise read on and there is another link at the end!
Tickets are only £85 for the day's entertainment, great value for what you are gonna get and the skill of our speakers.
If you wanna join the WildBunch too then we have a special combo ticket priced at £130, that's a £30 discount.
Presenter Line-up
We have a superb line up of top professional photographers for you, curated by @Wildmanrouse. They have been chosen because they take jaw dropping images in their own genre and are good at communicating their way of thinking too. We do not choose photographers because they tick a box, we choose purely on the quality of their images and nothing else. All presentations will be based around the concept of showing inspiring images and analysing how they were taken, so you can take the techniques into your own photography. Alright check out this amazing line up!
Chris Packham
Naturalist, photographer, conservationist and mates with @Wildmanrouse for over 35 years. He's got a CBE, has been awarded Conservation Hero of the Year and has regularly been on our TV screens since The Really Wild Show. He organised the People's Walk for Wildlife and regularly campaigns against wildlife cruelty.
As a broadcaster he is a presenter of BBC’s BAAFTA Award winning Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch series. He presents notable natural history series such as Nature’s Weirdest Events, World’s Weirdest Events, World’s Sneakiest Animals, Cats V Dogs, The Burrowers, Inside the Animal Mind, Operation Iceberg and Secrets of our Living Planet. His "Aspergers and me" show broke down many of the barriers and stigma surrounding this condition by letting us into his world.
During lockdown, with stepdaughter Megan, he hosted the weekly SIBC broadcast on social media, gaining a huge audience and inspiring so many people to get inspired by their local nature.
TV and conservation aside, Chris is an amazingly artistic photographer, looking at his subjects in diverse and often innovative ways. He has developed his own unique style of artistic nature photography and his talk will focus on his ethos behind his photography and the way he sees the world. A fascinating and inspiring talk for us all.
Matt Doogue
Matt Doogue is a wonderful macro photographer who has been published in most of the UK's top photography magazines, has done features with BBC Earth, Canon and BBC Springwatch. He's been featured with National Geographic and personally featured and interviewed on the BBC Autumnwatch TV Show.
In his spare time Matt loves to visit schools and educate children of all ages on the importance of our planet's natural state, discussing things like climate breakdown, wildlife decline, habitat loss and ways in which we can help. These sessions are awesome, everyone has a great time and if you they are lucky, he brings along some of his insect friends.
Matt has been a champion in promoting Mental Health awareness, from his own personal experience, and freely discusses how he helps overcome his issues through the power of nature and photography.
His talk is entitled Mindfulness and Macro and will explore his local macro photography and the thought process behind his stunning macro images. A wonderful talk that will inspire you to love local nature and to get out and explore the world around you.
Ross Hoddinott
Legend. Ross Hoddinott is a superb nature photographer that is able to turn his professional skill to any genre of photography.
He's won multiple awards in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year, British Wildlife Photography Awards, International Garden Photographer of the Year and the Landscape Photographer of the Year. He's written a number of best selling photography books, is a Nikon Alumni, Manfrotto Ambassador, LEE Filters Master, a Nikon Alumni and a Global Icon for F-stop Gear.
In his words "I’m lucky – I love what I do. That is not to say it is not hard work, though. The hours are often unsociable and tiring. I’m dedicated, addicted – obsessed even. I always want to improve and am striving for something I can’t ever achieve – perfection. I’m passionate about conservation and keen to inspire others to appreciate, respect and enjoy wildlife."
Of the many subjects that Ross could have inspired you with, today it's his love of marco and especially all things plant and fungi that we have asked you to focus on. Concentrating on his native West Country he will show you how to take amazing flora images on your local patch via his stunning work. This session will be in the form of a Q&A hosted by @Wildmanrouse, a fun chat between two professionals to ensure that you get the maximum out of it to use for your own flora photography.
Peter Baumgarten
Peter is an Olympus Visionary, professional landscape / astro photographer and mentor based in Canada. His work is simply astounding and finally our diaries align to have him show his fabulous work.
Peter has been a passionate photographer for over thirty years. He is also a 30-year veteran of the teaching profession at the elementary, secondary and post-secondary levels. Peter has been able to combine these two loves with the development of photography and graphic design courses and multi-day workshops. “There is no greater joy than seeing a student’s eyes light up when you pass on the power of creative thought and expression.” Peter is also an outdoor enthusiast with a passion for wilderness camping, canoeing, kayaking and hiking.
Photographing the Natural WorldLandscape and nature photography has been, and still remains the most popular style of photography. Whether you travel the world, or just explore your own backyard there are countless photo opportunities that exist in the natural world. In this talk, Peter discusses the challenges and joys of outdoor photography, the value of travelling light using his mirrorless equipment, and the compositional strategies he employs “to get the shot”. Numerous tips and techniques will be discussed in the area of landscape photography.
His talk will showcase his amazing landscape work from his career, focussing on the mindset he uses to capture those stunning landscapes.
Sandra Bartocha
Sandra Bartocha is simply one of the most gifted artistic nature photographers alive today and she specialises in looking at her local surroundings in a surreal way using slow shutter speeds and other camera techniques.
In her own words "I am not concerned with the general documentation of nature and landscape , but rather with the aesthetics of natural contexts in detail. The spectrum of my nature photographs ranges from classic to my own perception of moments. The meditative silence of a dawning morning, the dramatic play of wind and light with clouds and landscape, the color palette of the flowers in fields and meadows, the intensity of the human gaze ...Clear shapes and strong colors, sometimes loud, sometimes quiet - atmospherically condensed."
Sandra has won too many awards for her photography to count, having been placed multiple times in both the WPOTY and the EPOTY. Since 2007 she has been Vice President of the prestigious GDT, the Society of German Animal Photographers.
Her presentation will simply show her favourite work and explore the mindset and techniques behind her stunning images.
Matthew Maran
Matt is a UK based professional wildlife photographer who for the past few years has been building a wonderful relationship with his local population of foxes. It's probably one of the best studies of urban foxes every to have been done and rightly Matt has won a plethora of awards for this work in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year, European Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and the British Wildlife Photography Awards.
He works with commercial and non-profit organisations to showcase conservation efforts taking place on their land in the form of books and video. Running private and group workshops, Matt helps people to engage with nature through photography, encouraging them to explore ideas and themes with an end product, such as a book or archival print. He's also got a very active Podcast, which features many great wildlife photographers and worth a listen.
His talk will be on his urban fox work, how he built the relationships, what he learnt about them and how you can do something similar with wildlife close to your homes. It will be an inspiring talk packed with great imagery that we know you will love!
@Wildmanrouse
@Wildmanrouse (known as Andy Rouse on earth!) is a positive thinking, professional wildlife photographer and animal hugger who advocates the benefits of nature and photography for mental health and well being. Throughout 2020 he inspired countless thousands of people worldwide with his motivational social media posts, Youtube videos and ideas about working with local wildlife and dealing with his "down days". He has now organised 4 online conferences and built the highly successful WildBunch online community.
He has won over 30 international awards for his photography, received the Cherry Kearton medal from the Royal Geographical Society for services to wildlife photography and supports conservation causes worldwide. He even had his own TV series when he had hair.
He shoots with the Olympus camera system and loves the amazing tech and super lightweight kit, which allows him to take world class imagery that inspires others to love nature and photography like he does.
As a proud ambassador for the UK Wild Otter Trust (alongside Chris Packham) @Wildmanrouse will be giving a talk on his experiences working with wild river otters (as opposed to the kelp munching variety). Plus some recent work of the antler variety, as always a talk packed with amazing pics and tips you can use in your own photography.
Day Plan
All presentations will be via the Zoom platform. You will need to install Zoom 5.0 on your laptop / computer...it's quick, seamless and free.
Don't worry if you are a bit challenged technically, we will send full instructions to you as we are very experienced now at running these events. So don't worry you are in good hands!
The presentations will be spread out during the day so there will be plenty of time for breaks in between. During all presentations you will have your video switched off and will be muted. At the end of each presentation you will be un-muted by the host and can switch your video's back on to say hi and ask any pressing questions. We will also have a CHAT function to allow you to all interact.
On your screen you will see the photographer speaking in a window, together with the host @Wildmanrouse and of course their amazing images shown full screen. @Wildmanrouse is there to ask questions where needed and to give more of a personal conversational feel to the event. As a professional photographer for over 20 years he knows what questions to ask to get those vital tips explained so that you can use them in your own photography.
It's easy and we will manage every aspect of it so don't worry, here's the rough running plan:
08.30 - Conference open
08.45 - Introduction and Welcome - Andy Rouse
09.00 - Session 1 - Chris Packham, artistic bird photography
10.00 - Session 1 ends
10.10 - Session 2 - Matt Doogue, magnificent macro critters and mindfulness
11.10 - Session 2 ends
11.20 - Session 3 - Ross Hoddinott, fabulous flora
12.20 - Session 3 ends, lunch
13.15 - Session 4 - Andy Rouse, dodgy pics of anything
14.15 - Session 4 ends
14.20 - Session 5 - Peter Baumgarten, awesome landscapes
15.20 - Session 5 ends
15.25 - Session 6 - Sandra Bartocha, ethereal imagery
16.25 - Session 6 ends
16.30 - Session 7 - Matt Maran, urban foxes
17.30 - Session ends, @Wildmanrouse final bits and goodbyes!
17.45 - Conference ends!
As we are on Zoom expect us to over run!!!
Now this is the itinerary as it stands and things change, so a few days before the event we will contact everyone with final details including the final agenda, which is different from the Final Countdown (cue 80's rock anthem and dodgy perm).
Conservation Donation
We know that you are all decent people and so we wanted the natural world to benefit from our e-Conference. So we chose our beneficiary as the UK Wild Otter Trust whom Andy is a proud ambassador.
They are a great small organisation dedicated to promoting a positive understanding of otter conservation, and raising awareness of the species through education, involvement, and engagement. They also rehabilitate injured otters / abandoned cubs as well.
We will be donating £5 from every delegate to the Uk Wild Otter Trust to use in their awesome conservation work. For more info on them please click here
The WildBunch
So what is the WildBunch? Simply it's a modern and fun online community for like minded photographers. We've premium content videos from @wildmanrouse, inspiring talks on our monthly online club nights and fun challenges with stunning galleries to display the results. We are a friendly bunch, the club nights have a great atmosphere and the galleries get so much support from our members.
Click the link here for more info but remember that you can purchase a discounted membership and conference ticket below1
BUY YOUR TICKET HERE
So you wanna come? Great!! We will inspire you.
Tickets are only £85 for the day's entertainment, great value for what you are gonna get and the skill of our speakers.
If you wanna join the WildBunch too then we have a special combo ticket priced at £130, that's a £30 discount.
Q&A
Here are the answers to the most frequent questions that we expect you to ask, if you have anything else just click here to contact us.
Q. How can I ask a question if we are all muted?
A. Ah that's why the CHAT function is there on Zoom. It's the Zoom equivalent of a messaging system
It will be disabled during the presentations but at all other times it will be enabled so you can ask questions. Andy will be monitoring this and when he sees a question he will find whoever asked it on his display and un-Mute you so that you can ask it in person and get a response. It's VITAL that we do this as otherwise Zoom meetings can descend into chaos!!
Q. Will the sessions be recorded?
A. The sessions will be recorded and available to stream to all registered delegates a week after the conference. Please note that only the presenter sessions and the Community session will be recorded, no user images or names will appear in the recordings to protect your intellectual rights. Personal recording is strictly forbidden, as is distribution of the videos of the presentations.
Q. If I can't attend can I purchase the recording?
A. Yes you can. Once the delegates have their copies (see above) the recording will be available for purchase to anyone who did not attend and will be streamed via a free membership of the Wild Bunch platform.
Q. Do I need a good broadband connection?
A. If you can watch videos on YouTube or the web then your internet is well good enough for Zoom. We will not be showing movies as in our experience this does cause broadband issues. Before signing up to this event please ensure that you have a broadband connection as specified, we are not able to give refunds for any poor connection issues during the day. If your web drops out during a session or something comes up then don't worry, you will be able to sign back into the next session and will of course have the movie to catchup on.
Q. Can I access from my smartphone?
A. Of course but we don't recommend it. To get the full experience and see the images in all their glory you ideally need a laptop or better still connect the laptop to your TV! So please don't access the session by phone if you want the best experience.
Q. How safe and secure am I during the conference?
A. Your online security is of vital importance to us. All delegates will be required to authenticate their email address to Zoom before joining this conference. We will use a waiting room before entry. Our meeting address and password will be secret and only shared with registered delegates. During presentations all videos will be switched off and so will audio. When video is enabled before / after the session, our moderators will be monitoring all feeds and any inappropriate behaviour or language that they see will result in immediate removal of the user. So you will be as safe as we can make it.
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