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 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 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:

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

The Iconic Australian bird, The Laughing Kookaburra

Laughing Kookaburra

My last blog for about a week – I am in Paris tomorrow until Friday with work, so I leave you with one of my favourite Australian birds, the Laughing Kookaburra

“Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree,
Merry merry king of the bush is he.
Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra, Gay your life must be”

The Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) is such an iconic Australian bird that they wrote a song about it (above), which we all knew in England as children.
It is hard to believe that the Kookaburra is a Kingfisher, the largest of the family, I understand.
It is a tree dweller and a carnivore, feeding on small birds, reptiles and small mammals. They are stocky birds compared to their fishing relatives, and much larger, reaching 17 inches in length.
They are most famous for their call (which, of course gives them their name), which sounds like sustained laughter for several seconds and carries large distances.
I can do a passable impression, but my children have banned me from doing it 😉