Nature photographer Mike Brown's new book is full of images of dimensions of nature that happen so quickly we rarely get a chance to observe them properly, writes Rosita Boland.
Odd as it might sound, the most difficult subject that wildlife photographer Mike Brown finds is the deceptively simple one of plants and flowers, many of which feature in his new book of wildlife photography, Images of Irish Nature.
"Even though plants and flowers just sit there, you need completely windless, ice-still conditions to photograph them, along with a dull light that doesn't cast shadows. You have to magnify the subject, when you do that, you also magnify any movement in the plant or flower. Trying to get a day without wind in Ireland is quite difficult," says Brown.
This is Cork-based Brown's second book of photography focusing on Irish nature: the first, Ireland's Wildlife, came out four years ago. Originally from Yorkshire, he moved with his family to Courtmacsherry in 1974 when he was 14, and has spent most of his time in west Cork since. His day job is as a commercial photographer, mainly concentrating on weddings. Unlikely as it may seem, his work as a wedding photographer has quite a lot in common with his wildlife photography. "You're under time pressure and you're at the mercy of the weather. The one thing that's different is that you can direct people - but there's no directing wildlife."
Most of the images in the new book were taken in counties Cork and Kerry over the last two years. (Brown, who used to shoot film, now works only in digital.) Some of the more striking images are details: a close-up of the body of a hawkmoth, in stripes of black, russet and white, looks like the vegetable-dyed feathered costume of a nomadic tribe. Berries from the flame-coloured poisonous cuckoo pint plant look like a dessert of glazed persimmons. Blue and silver ice patterns on a frozen lake resemble the shapes of "eyes" on peacocks' tails.
Then there are other images that make you look twice. A basking shark photographed just under the surface of pellucid jade water looks as deceptively insubstantial as a fossil. An otter entering water at sunrise and caught looking absurdly like a hippopotamus.
There are also some classic shots. These, like all the best wildlife pictures, illuminate a dimension of nature that usually happens so quickly or at such a distance that we rarely get to observe it properly. Such a picture is the shot of a whitethroat perched on a bramble, its crest like a child's ruffled hair and a smorgasbord of green caterpillars, spiders and flies, all held firmly together in its beak, en route to its chicks. That the bird managed to collect them from various locations and then take them all to the nest in his beak in one run beggars belief, but the proof of it is there.
Brown's own favourite is a shot of leaping fox cubs. He is also very fond of a shot of a hen harrier he took in Kerry. "There are only about 200 in Ireland for a start, and they nest in secluded spots," he explains. "To get that shot, I had to spend more time on it than anything else in the book. First I went out with local wildlife rangers in Kerry. Then I set up a hide. I knew I wouldn't be using it for a month; it was just to get the birds used to it. Once the chicks are two weeks old, the male does most of the hunting, and flies in and out to the nest about three times a day, so you have to wait a long time to see the hen go out."
The trick is for two people to arrive at a hide. When one leaves, the other stays, but the bird - apparently - does not register numbers and thinks both people have gone. "There was a lot of waiting, and a lot of wet and foggy weather, where I had to abandon the shoot."
EVENTUALLY, BROWN GOT his shot of the hen harrier returning to the nest. His caption reads: "If you look closely at this female, you will notice a tiny set of legs hanging below her. Not hers, but those of her prey. most probably a meadow pipit, clutched tight in her own talons as she returns to her hungry brood."
Brown acted as mentor to amateur photographers for the recent RTÉ series of Wild Trials, where various people in the public eye attempted to complete a wildlife photography assignment. Among the subjects the programmes focused on were otters, urban foxes, whales and dolphins, red deer, gannets and golden eagles.
Most of what Brown taught his students was not in the technical use of cameras, but how to behave around wildlife to get the shots. "It sounds basic, but you must understand your subject. When you're photographing wildlife, you have to be aware that they can smell you. So I wouldn't be advising women to be wearing perfume going out on shoots. You have to work upwind, and be in place early enough to catch the subject. Birds work more by sight."
BROWN'S BOOK ALSO contains several essays. Along with a foreword by Éamon de Buitléar, contributors include this page's Another Life columnist, Michael Viney; Pádraig Whooley, sightings co-ordinator of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group; and naturalist and artist Gordon D'Arcy. Viney's essay, At the Edge of the Tide, is a lyrical and thoughtful piece on beachcombing over a period of several decades, which deserves a wide readership. Whooley's essay is an informative and interesting account of how this island has finally woken up to the fact that the world's largest mammal regularly passes our southern shores, and where and how best to observe it.
Whether the subject is as big as a whale or as small as the slit of colour that is a blue damselfly on a rock, the challenge for the nature photographer is the same - to try to make the familiar new. "Unless you investigate closely and get to know your subject, you won't see it," Brown says.
Images of Irish Nature by Mike Brown, is self-published at €40 and distributed by Easons