New Macro Session in Liverpool

As we progress with our exciting moving plans to Scotland, we are very pleased to announce we will be working with Wilkinson Cameras and ‘Animal Teach’ to offer amazing new macro events in nearby Liverpool. We have known the team at Animal Teach for many years, and their fully licensed animal collection is perfect for the studio photography we are planning.

We are offering a highly informative day in a superbly set up studio with fantastic subjects, perfect for anyone interested in capturing some awesome close-up images. Animal Teach will be rehoming many of our animals, adding to the already great line up of creatures they already have.

Animals you may see on the events might include;

Harvest Mice

Crested Gecko

Gargoyle Gecko

Leopard Gecko

Praying Mantis (various species)

Stick insect (various species)

Borneo Eared Frogs

Tomato Frog

Cinnamon Frogs

Panther Chameleon

Yemen Chameleon

Blue Tongue Skink

Millipedes

Poison Dart Frogs

Macro Photography Workshop, Liverpool 
£198 (members price £158.40)

16.06.22
07.07.22
15.09.22

Setting up your Canon R5, R6 and R3 for Wildlife Photography

After everyones feedback on wanting some training on the new Canon R series cameras we are really pleased to now be able to offer our ‘Setting up your R6, R5 and R3 camera for wildlife photography’.

The new range of Canon mirrorless cameras have many of the features you may be used to seeing on the traditional mirrored version, but once you start diving into the menu systems there is so much more you can set up to help you with your photography. New technology brings amazing opportunities but also presents challenges in terms of mastering new features and more complex set-ups.

This can be daunting and sometimes you simply don’t understand why you would want to set it up differently to how it comes out of the box. With so many new tools and the customisable ability to assign different features to different buttons, we will talk you through these features and why you might want to play around with the set-up to really get the best out of these very capable cameras to better your wildlife photography.

Whilst of course, the photographer is always more important than the camera, if you are concentrating on wildlife and capturing those fleeting action shots, the customised set ups we will run through, should really help you to record these exciting moments.

We are offering these sessions both online and in person, so you can learn in the style that best suits you. After the course is complete, we will of course, send you through all of the notes from the session, giving you plenty of time to play around and set things up with your camera, in your own way and at your own pace.

Topics covered will include:

  • Basic auto focus set up
  • Using subject tracking and eye tracking
  • Options for assigning button functions
  • Exposure setting options
  • Controlling ISO
  • Using RF lenses, EF/RF adapters & accessories
  • Setting up ‘my menu’
  • Setting up custom shooting modes

If you are attending the course at Knowsley, once we have finished you can take the rest of the day to explore the park with the included admission to try out any new settings straight away.

If you are attending the course online, with only 6 people there will be plenty of time to ask questions and with zoom we can guide you through the settings with your camera in front of you.

Workshop, Knowsley 
£89 (members price £71.20)
27.05.22
29.05.22

Workshop, online
£44.50 (members price £35.60)
12.05.22
24.05.22

Spring Photography Competition

Competition time!

With another year of Covid disruption behind us, we’ve decided it’s time for another photography competition! We had a wonderful response last year and we’ve had lots of customers saying how much they loved the challenge, so we guessed it was about time we got everyone involved again.

We’ve decided to start a bit earlier than last season, but it should be a perfect time of year to start getting out with your photography. So dust off your camera, tripod and filters and let’s see your best spring pictures!

In the same vain as last year, we want to make this incredibly easy. We’re giving you the month of April to head out and take some inspiring images for us to see.

We have 3 categories and you can submit up to 3 images per category. Our team will then pick the ones we feel best meet the brief, and are of a technically and creatively, very high standard.

Without any further ado, here are the categories;

1) ‘Silhouette’

This category does what it says on the tin! It’s all about amazing silhouettes. The important thing to remember here is, it’s the outline or shape that make the best silhouette shot – something very undefined won’t work so well. For example this beautiful mountain pony, gives a great shape against the dramatic clouds.

2) ‘Together’

This category should encourage you to really try and think outside the box! Remember it’s not just about two people being together, but could be connection between anything; 2 animals together, an animal together with nature, nature together with a human etc.

We think you can have a lot of fun with this one!

3) Joy of Colour

After a drab grey winter, this is the perfect category to get you thinking about the beauty of colour! With new spring growth and the vibrant colours that brings, there should be many things to inspire you in the natural world.

Of course there are loads of other ideas too, like this garden snail and the beautiful colour of a sunset.

Prizes 

So, onto the second most important bit, the prizes!

The winners will be contacted via email on 13th May and then announced on our website and Facebook on 14th May 2022.

How to Enter

To enter simply send your pictures (as a JPEG file no larger than 2Mb please) to us via email at info@wildarena.com.

Competition Rules

  • Open to all residents of the UK except Wild Arena employees.
  • By entering the competition, the participants agree that their name and nearest town of residence may be released if they win.
  • All entries must be the original work of the entrant and must not contravene the rights of third parties.
  • All images must be taken during the month of April 2022 in the UK. We may not be able to verify everyone’s images, so we are expecting you to be honest.
  • Technical spec: images must be entered as .jpg files no larger than 2Mb.
  • Entrants grant Wild Arena the right to place their entry onto the Wild Arena website in relation to the competition.
  • Entries must be submitted by 6th May 2022.
  • The winning entrants, will be the ones that in the judge’s opinion are the best.
  • Once photos are submitted, they cannot be changed.
  • The judges’ decisions are final.

 

Forsinard, Sutherland, Scotland

We are very excited to announce the beginning of a whole new chapter in the wild Arena story! Last month we completed the purchase of an amazing property in northern Scotland, ‘Forsinard Lodge’, which will become our new headquarters in the coming months and a base for some amazing new experiences. Over the past 15 years we have spent a lot of time in Scotland, both personally and working with other photographers, such as Neil McIntyre. As a business we feel this is a great development to our offering, and as we are relocating to beautiful Scotland, this will add a new dimension of wilderness experience to what we can offer.

So why Forsinard?

Many of you may not have heard of the area, but this undiscovered gem is a photographer’s paradise. The property, where we will be able to offer accommodation, is sat right next to ‘Forsinard Flows’. an area of outstanding natural beauty, and the home to one of the largest RSPB reserves in the country.  There will be plenty of wildlife, which perhaps you have come to know us for, but this is also a dark sky, northern light area and has breath-taking landscapes. Forsinard lies more to the east than west, but still has majestic mountains nearby, and is close enough to the north coast to be able to easily escape the land for boat adventures, with some amazing coastal nature. As this area is still very much undiscovered, and being off the popular ‘NC500’ route, anytime spent here, will truly be away from the crowds where you can immerse yourself and your photography in a truly wild landscape.

We will be spending the next few months coming up with some great itineraries for weekend and week-long breaks & expeditions, with photography, nature and learning being equally important. Our trips to Scotland have offered many of you the chance to get some great pictures, but also spend time with like-minded photographers, whilst concentrating on nothing else for the duration of a relaxing break. Our guests have always fed back how useful this has been for moving their photography forward, and this really is our hope with this new venture. A great way to learn, in a supportive environment, that will offer some truly fantastic picture opportunities

This is obviously a big change for us, as we have had the privilege of being based within Knowsley Safari Park for the past 10 years. In terms of the business and the activities we offer, this will inevitably evolve, but it is our intention to continue the majority of Wild Arena’s favourite events as outlined below.

Knowsley Safari Park sessions: 

This will continue as normal until the end of May, and then we are planning to refresh these events with some small changes.

Macro Studio (Knowsley):

This will continue as normal until the end of May, and then we are planning to replace these activities with alternative close-up photography sessions at a venue close by.

Woburn Safari Park sessions:

This will remain unchanged until the end of May, but should then continue for the rest of 2022 with potentially some minor changes.

To allay any fears, any dates we have already booked or are advertising for any events will, needless to say, be delivered with our usual care and attention!

Of course, beyond our regular events, we will be launching a range of very exciting trips and activities – perfect for us and our customers!

New Year savings with 10% off!

We hope everyone had a lovely Christmas break and managed to stay safe. To celebrate the New Year we’re offering 10% off all our Bite Size and Workshop events. This discount is available on all bookings until the end of January, on the events listed below

Architecture in the Landscape, Elan Valley
Normally £129 (members price £103.20)
Special price £116.10 (Members price £92.88)

Macro Workshop, Knowsley
Normally £179 (members price £143.20)
Special price £161.10 (Members price £128.88)

Bite Size Frog Photography
Normally £49 (members price £39.20)
Special price £44.10 (Members price £35.28)

Bite Size Harvest Mouse Photography
Normally £49 (members price £39.20)
Special price £44.10 (Members price £35.28)

These great value prices are available on-line (just follow the links), but please feel free to e-mail us at info@wildarena.com or call on 0151 528 6607 if you have any difficulties or special requirements!

Please note this offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers.

Bite Size Frog Photography

We love frogs here at Wild Arena and are really pleased to add two more species to our small animal team, Cinnamon Tree Frog and Spiny Bottom Frog. These guys have been settling in over the last few weeks, but they’re now joining the rest of the team and this makes it the perfect time to launch a Bite Size Frog Photography session. 

A whole session devoted to just Frogs and how colourful, diverse and awesome they really are. For more information on our Bite Size Frog Sessions please click here

New On-Line ‘Zoom’ Presentations!

We are absolutely delighted to launch a program of amazing on-line presentations from the Wild Arena team and our professional photography & wildlife friends. During February and early March, we have scheduled 9 different talks covering a wide variety of subjects and techniques.

During these troubled times of Covid restrictions and recurring lock downs, it has been very difficult for some in the photographic and wildlife communities to operate in anything like a normal fashion.  In some small part, we hope these talks will help this, with proceeds going to some highly skilled professional photographers and small wildlife charity.

The 1.5 hour ‘Zoom’ based presentation will be running during the evening from 7.00pm to 8.30pm and with relatively small group sizes, there should be ample time to ask any individual questions you might have.

Check out the full list here: https://www.wildarena.com/on-line-talks/

We also have a superb ‘6 X On-Line Talks – 20% discount with Multi Buy Bonanza’ here:

We hope these talks will not only educate and amuse you, but proceeds from them, will help all of the speakers in these very difficult times.

We sincerely hope that you can find something that appeals to you, buy a ticket and support this project!

Wild Arena Membership

As we continue through lockdown 2.0, we’ve had plenty of time to think about new and exciting workshops for 2021, along with overhauling our membership to keep up with our current workshop program. All of our existing Memberships have been extended until the end of 2021 and any new memberships purchased before the end of the year will also run until the end of 2021, so there’s never been a better time to buy membership!

Listed below are the 4 new and updated versions of our super membership program.

Annual Membership £19

By becoming a member of Wild Arena, you not only get a number of great benefits but also become part of a like-minded community of nature photographers. Beyond super product discounts, our membership offers access to information and more importantly the Wild Arena community through our members Facebook page.
Membership provides you with a discount of 20% on all our one-day workshops, £50 off every tour booking, a quarterly newsletter, priority notice on all new events and special offers on late availability! All the memberships prices are listed next to the standard price on all products on the website. You can join our Facebook membership community simply by giving your membership number.

Annual Membership Benefits: ​

  • 20% discount on all one-day events
  • £50 discount on every tour booking
  • Priority notice of discounted late space availability and new events
  • Quarterly Newsletter
  • Access to the members Facebook page

Gift Membership £29

All the benefits of Annual Membership as well as a gift item so you can give this package as a present. You can choose from either a Wild Arena mug or t-shirt.

Membership Extra £75

All the benefits of Annual Membership along with a free bitesize session, please pick from the list below.

  • Wolf Pack Photography Workshop, Knowsley
  • Harvest Mouse Photography Workshop, Knowsley
  • Bitesize One to One Photography Training Online
  • Bitesize One to One Safari Photography Workshop, Knowsley
  • Bitesize One to One Macro Photography Workshop, Knowsley
  • Portfolio Review Online
  • Adhoc ‘Extra’ events

Membership Plus £149

All the benefits of Annual Membership along with a free session, please pick from the list below.

  • Half Day One to One Macro Photography Workshop, Knowsley
  • Half Day One to One Safari Photography Workshop, Knowsley
  • Big Cat Photography Workshop, Woburn or Knowsley
  • Safari Photograph Workshop, Woburn or Knowsley
  • Owls by Moonlight, Knowsley (coming soon)
  • Macro Workshop, Knowsley
  • Adhoc ‘Plus’ events

Don’t forget to watch this space for details of all the new workshops coming shortly.

12 Module, 2 week online course

Want to take your photography to the next level? Can’t progress from fully automatic, or are you simply not getting the best out of your camera?

If like us you’re locked down for the next 4 weeks, then this is the perfect time to take our intensive 12 module, 2 week online course!

This fully online course is presented via ‘zoom’ with a tutor taking you through the technical and creative aspects of photography. It’s just like a classroom based course but from the comfort of your own home.

For full details and to book please click here

Wolf Pack Photography Workshops

Many of you have been asking us for more dates for the Wolf Cubs sessions, I think technically these guys are still cubs but it is getting difficult to tell them apart from the parents. However we feel this is still a really great time to come and photograph them. With 7 wolves in the pack (5 youngsters and Mum and Dad) it really is a wonderful sight, the youngsters are still playful and interacting lots with the parents, but are now confident enough to venture out on their own. So we have added lots of new dates for September and October still with a very small group size of only 2, please click here to see the dates and book your place.

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