I’ve wanted to photograph wild boar ever since I read several years ago, of their re-introduction into the Forest of Dean. Of course there are several zoos and other theme parks where they can be photographed in captivity, but that’s not the same thing at all.  Is it? The problem is, the Forest of Dean is a big place and I could find no one prepared to disclose to me the information I needed to narrow down their whereabouts. Then, sitting in the opticians waiting room last week I read of a guy “in the middle of the Cotswolds” trying to make a living from a forest he’d bought and who had turned to keeping wild boar to do it. E-mail the guy with just the right tone of message to get his attention and persuade him I’m a genuine photographic eccentric not a pig-molester and I’m in business. He can accommodate me anytime before the end of October. Now this sounds like quite a wide window of opportunity, but I’m out of the country for three of those weeks and have other commitments that mean there are actually few days I can do. If I cancel my spin session, Wednesday 17th October is one of them and fortunately he can accommodate me then. So, where precisely is  “in the middle of the Cotswolds”? Stow-on-the-Wold?, Moreton-in-the-Marsh? No, its near Bath! 3.5h away down the M6 and M5. Oh well, I’m in now so the alarm is set for 5am and shortly before 10am I arrive. It’s brilliant, the weather is fantastic, all early autumn light and smells and I get to roam around his forest with my gear. I don’t need to walk far; these are inquisitive wild boar. The 500mm is abandoned under a tree and soon I’m alternating longer shots with the 70-200 with close range stuff with the 24-105. Wild boar aren’t easy to photograph; they’re pigs; they spend most of their time with their snouts in the ground digging up stuff and this does not a great composition make. Sideways on doesn’t work, close up head shots don’t float my boat. I get as many shots as possible setting them in their environment. After all if I’m not doing  this I might as well have shot them in the theme park. The light is good; it’s all over the place, occasionally too strong, but I can get front lit shots, back lit shots and side lit shots. After 5hrs I’m done, I’ve got 400 shots on the memory card and its time to go home. Next day I upload them to my computer; 40-odd survive the first cut and I start to review these. One stands out. I do the RAW conversion and take it into Photoshop. Can I get away without cloning and thus make it available for Nature competitions? Yes I can. Here it is. I hope you like it.

 

2014_09_17EOS 5D Mark II7393

 

(double click on the image for a full size view)