Images Matter: Why a Meet Your Neighbours Photographer is Perfect for Your Biodiversity Campaign.
At Meet Your Neighbours, we believe that images matter. Whether it’s for public outreach, reporting and accountability, site documentation or evidence gathering, professional imagery is the key element in your communications effort. Today it’s pictures, not words, that get your message heard. And the better the pictures, the clearer it is. Meet Your Neighbours is a worldwide network of specialised photographers documenting biodiversity against pure white backgrounds, in the field. Working with a MYN photographer provides your programme or expedition [...]
Meet Your Neighbours technical standards.
Shoulders-back-chest-out-chin-in-head-up, I need to lay the law down here! When it comes to the technical specifications for Meet Your Neighbours pictures, we’re needing uniformity so that ALL the attention is on the subject rather than the prowess of the photographer. We want a picture of a broad-hipped danglefly from Australia to have just the same look as that of a hare-lipped hoghopper from Florida so the pictures are only about the the animals portrayed. Since the start of the project, we’ve [...]
Field studio birds – a start.
It’s been a slow start, but at last I’m making a little headway with photographing small birds in the field studio in our garden. Most species have shown an extraordinary reluctance to sit on the perches I provide – preferring instead to feed on the ground. This normally creates a lot of discomfort so instead I relocated a section of turf 18 inches above the ground on a crate, allowing me to shoot “at ground level” from my plastic hide. [...]
Europarc Conference 2012 Report by Niall Benvie
After two days of participation in the annual Europarc Conference, this year in Genk, Belgium, I am convinced more than ever that the nature photography community needs to get itself into gear and start talking to people outside its own ranks if it has any hope of achieving anything. Europarc brings together many of the most influential people in nature conservation practice and policy in Europe (including the DG, Environment) not only to listen to keynotes but also, through a [...]
Nat’Images Features Meet Your Neighbours
French wildlife magazine Nat’Images is featuring MYN in their October / November 2012 issue. Contributor Denis Palanque conducted interviews with co-founders Niall Benvie and Clay Bolt and wrote the six-page article, which gives an excellent overview of the project’s achievements and goals for the future. To learn more visit the publication’s website here!
Niall Benvie: BioBlitz Bristol, 2012
Niall Benvie recently shared why it is important for people to get to know their local wildlife during a recent BioBlitz in Bristol, UK. In this clip, you can also see how Niall uses a “clear set” technique in this video to photograph insects with fine details. By suspending the clear plastic set over a sheet of white Perspex (or Acrylite) he is able to control the amount of light coming onto the subject, which allows the delicate form of [...]
Wildlife on White: Part 1
A collection of some of the amazing animals photographed so far by the Meet Your Neighbours team, an international environmental photography project, developed to encourage an appreciation of the wildlife within our own communities. Featuring amazing photos by Niall Benvie, Paul Harcourt Davies, Piotr Naskrecki, Paul Marcellini, Clay Bolt, Seth Patterson, Sandesh Kadur, Mac Stone, Carsten Krieger, David Hunter, John Tiddy, Dirk Funhoff, Marko Masterl, Jerry Monkman, and Denis Palanque.
Backyard Naturalists is Born
by Clay Bolt: For some time now, Niall and I have been discussing how we might develop a children’s program for Meet Your Neighbours. We’ve had several requests from organizations who have recognized that our message “Biodiversity Begins at Home” is a valuable one for young people. Well, today I’m very proud to announce that on March 19th, 2012 Backyard Naturalists will be born. Our first 8-week program will be launched in Highlands, North Carolina thanks to a partnership between [...]
About The Project
Founded in 2009, Meet Your Neighbours is a worldwide photographic initiative created by Niall Benvie and Clay Bolt. The project is dedicated to reconnecting people with the wildlife on their own doorsteps – and enriching their lives in the process. These creatures and plants are vital to people: they represent the first, and for some, the only contact with wild nature we have. Yet too often they are overlooked, undervalued. How does Meet Your Neighbours make this reconnection? Through producing [...]
Meet your Neighbours in the southeast of France
by Niall Benvie: Here I’ve used work mostly shot on assignment for Wild Wonders of Europe (and under contract until December 2012!) in the French Alps a couple of years ago. This panel will find its way into Meet Your Neighbours when the material is released. On a technical note, I find the easiest way to work is to drawn a very loose selection around the subject – well away from its edges – to get rid of most of [...]