My 45 minutes of fame in November

I reckon I had 3 allocations of my Warhol 15 minutes of fame last month and I enjoyed every one of them 😉

Firstly I made my first “real” photo sale (I don’t count sales of cards and small unframed prints).
I have some of my photography on Fine Art America with the aim of feeding my lens lust and still being able to feed my children!

I sold a 34 X 40 inch framed canvas of a Great Egret taken in Shark Valley in the Florida Everglades, and best of all it was sold to a Florida Resident! Click to see the original:

Great Egret Everglades — Great Egret in Shark Valley, The Everglades National Park, Florida, America

Secondly I put 3 photos into a National Geographic macro photography competition. I got an email saying that one of my entries had got an “Editors’ favourite” award. Please note that this was not “THE” Editors favourite and that this did not mean that I was to be published in the esteemed magazine itself, but what a buzz that was – There were more than 18,000 entries and I am sure that there were a few “favourites”. Still delighted with this news. It was interesting how the Chinese whispers of Facebook worked as Mrs B wrote about it and each repost by friends and family became ever more impressive, until the latest from Mrs B’s sister stated that my work had been sought out by the publishers and was the photo of the month in the latest edition of the magazine…………… I wish 😉

Here is the photo (an extreme macro of an Elephant Hawk moth Eye and face) in question and click for a link to the National Geographic site:

Extreme macro elephnt Hawk moth eye — Extreme macro of an Elephant Hawk Moth eye National Geographic

My final 15 minutes was my first photographic exhibition:

While I dream of making a living through wildlife photography, as a day job I am the Financial Controller of the London arm of the French Investment Bank, Natixis. They wanted to put on a display of artists in the bank and I was one of 5 to exhibit. I must say that it was a most enjoyable experience and a wonderful chance to chat to people about what I love doing. So here is one of the only photographs to be found on the web of yours truly:

Natixis exhibition

So November was a month of firsts, each one very satisfying :0)

4 thoughts on “My 45 minutes of fame in November”

Congratulations James and good to see you at your exhibition. 45 minutes of fame is a great deal. I think I would be most happy with the reaction of colleagues. I think wildlife / nature photography is a bit arcane to many until they see something that has the wow factor. When people first knew I was a birder it was the subject of much amusement. After a while people started sending me clippings from newspapers all round the world. It is introducing conservation in a subtle way. Sales and competitions feed the ego and bank balance. Respect for the subject feeds the survival of the planet.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Mr Bennett Kent says:

December 14, 2014 at 9:23 am

You are absolutely right, Andrew. I do not broadcast my passion for wildlife photography to casual acquaintances for fear of their eyes glazing over in front of me!! Those who do know about my hobby send me emails and links regularly. Probably the nicest element of the exhibition was seeing the reaction of people I barely knew and their many questions, positive words and genuine feedback / interest was good to hear. The most common question was “how long does it take to get a shot?” As you know, with Wildlife Photography this can be a few minutes to a few days, and my statements that the Otters on Mull taking 6 days hard search and that some days you get little more than record shots, were invariably met with a look of respect and sometimes bewilderment! What some failed to grasp was that the hobby / passion is so much more than “getting the shot” – being able to have a beautiful and shy creature to be comfortable in your presence can take a lot of time and patience, but this is what makes it the hugely rewarding pastime which it is

LikeLike

Reply