Why I photograph hares

How to start a blog? Does one just dive straight in with describing the activities of the last week, or does one introduce oneself? I’ll introduce myself, I think.

I very much enjoy doing wildlife photography; it is not my profession but a hobby at this stage. My main obsession is brown hares and I am fortunate enough to have a good spot nearby where I can see them relatively reliably.

Why hares? I’ll try to distil a succinct answer to that.  I have had pet rabbits all my life and obviously like them. So my wildlife photography started with trying to photograph wild rabbits.  I did not set out to become hare-obsessed, it slowly happened after I found where some lived when on a walk in the country.  I remember that first time: I was out just looking for wildlife in general and found an amazing woodland- the type that is real and natural with decades, if not centuries, of organic growth.  And a large hare bolted from behind a fallen tree; it was quite a spectacular sight and I was in awe.

I think one of the reasons I am particularly entranced by hares is that I did not encounter them when I was growing up; so for me they hold an almost mythical status.  I grew up in London, but that’s not to say I was deprived of access to the country, far from it. I have spent time/lived in rural settings, and doing long walks in the country was a very regular activity for me.  But walking was for exercise, not for going quietly and spotting wildlife, so in a way maybe it’s not surprising that I did not see many hares, but the fact is I did not see any. Barn owls, foxes, rabbits, deer, buzzards, kestrels, herons, all seen, but not hares. Otters are semi-mythical for me too.

Fast-forward to the present day (the first hare encounter was 3 years ago).  I have a location where I have seen hares a great deal.  My favourite hare memory happened at this place- and it is memories like these that are my lasting motivation. Whilst I was busy looking in front of me, a leveret approached from behind; I heard a pebble move and rather incuriously turned to look (really not expecting anything) and he/she was less than one metre away: if I had reached out my left hand I would have been able to touch the spot.  Now of course my camera was pointing in the other direction (and besides, the telephoto lens would fail to focus on such a close subject) so I knew the best thing to do was just enjoy the moment, which I did for probably 3 seconds before he/she ran away in that gangly way that leverets move. 

So that’s why I photograph hares. 

I hope to make writing blog posts a regular thing.  I hope that being able to write things without needing to do video/photo editing for YouTube will mean that I can share stories immediately (well maybe not immediately but promptly) and it should help me to share times when I do not have photos or footage to illustrate the narrative. There will be a lot of hare stories, but I will go in search of other animals too (I promise!).