News & Events

Photography Exhibition

I shall be displaying a range of photographic images at The Allen Gallery, Alton, Hampshire. The free exhibition is entitled, "Wildlife and Wild Places'.

Dr Mike Maloney OBE, Britain's most decorated press photographer, will be officially opening the exhibition at 7:00pm on Friday 6th August 2010 (by invitation only).

"The Allen Gallery serves the local community and promotes different skills locally. As a local photographer, I was extremely happy to be asked to display my pictures for the month of August. I decided to call the exhibition ‘Wildlife and Wild Places' because my photography has grown from purely wildlife to everything that surrounds it. Of the places I have visited (Africa, India, the Camargue in France and parts of the American dessert), one must take into account the locations, people and their environment. All these elements, together, make the final picture," explains Michael.

On display will be images, canvas prints and cards of locations, wildlife and customs of Africa, India and the US. The exhibition will also include images of ‘Marwari' horses in India and of the American Mustang horses of New Mexico.

‘Wildlife and Wild Places' is on at The Allen Gallery, Church Street, Alton, Hampshire, GU34 2BW Tel 0845 603 5635, from 10:00am Tuesday 03 Aug 2010 to 5:00pm Saturday 28 Aug 2010. Admission is free.

I shall be displaying a selction of the images that will on be display at the exhibition in the next few weeks. So, keep in touch, or contact me for further information.

Bristol International Salon of Photography

I submitted a number of images for the 64th Bristol International Salon of Photography 2010 competition and had five images accepted including an Honourable Mention (HM). The HM image was of an Osprey appraoching a tree as shown.

Front Cover – Endurance GB Magazine

What a lovely surprise to see one of my images on the front cover of Endurance GB magazine January/February 2010 issue. Lesley-Ann Parker, one of the Bronze medal GB Team winners, has written an article for the magazine and with my images.

Endurance GB is the governing body for the sport of Endurance (Competitive Long Distance) Riding Great Britain, formulating the rules and organising rides to cater for all levels of ability, whether you simply want to compete occasionally at local events or aim eventually for top class and international competition. We provide and manage well over 100 events a year for members of the Association riding registered horses and ponies as well as many social and pleasure rides, to encourage non-members.

Cover shot reproduced by permission of Endurance GB magazine.

More images of Rajasthan can be seen in the Gallery section on this site. Also, read my 'Blog'at www.michaelhuggan.blogspot.com

Street Life - Rajasthan

The gallery name ‘Street Life’ includes a selection of images taken during my travels through the cities and countryside of Rajasthan by road. Some of the images were taken from a moving vehicle and may not represent the best composed shot. However, the images show people going about their daily activities that take you back in time, so the images are worth displaying to show a snapshot into another culture. I could spend all day and many days just travelling and taking pictures.

Ranthambore, Rajasthan - India

During my travels through Rajasthan I spent a couple of days at Ranthambore in the hope to see tigers, or a tiger. With only a few days allocated to exploring Ranthambore, I knew this was not enough time to get those special pictures. However, with a bit of luck and a good guide, I was hopeful. Ranthambore is an amazing place and discounting the tigers for one second; is a photographers paradise.

Access to Ranthambore is tightly controlled. The number of vehicles that can enter the reserve is restricted. Also, each vehicle is allocated a zone of operation. This ensures all the vehicles are not huddled together in one spot when a tiger is sighted. At the entrance to the reserve you are allocated a zone, and you are required to display the zone on the vehicle. You may be allocated to a zone that has not had any tiger sightings for that day. However, there are plenty of other subjects to photograph in the park.

I have included a few pictures in the gallery section marked 'Ranthambore'.

Rajasthan - 81 km Endurance Horse Show Championship

December 2009 was the month I went to India, Rajasthan to be precise. I wanted to photograph the International 81 km Endurance National Indigenous Horse Show Championship. WOW! What a trip. Rajasthan has to be the friendliest place I have been. The people were happy to have their photograph taken and often wanted you in their family pictures. My wife must be in more Indian family albums that I care to count. It may be she is better looking than me.

I arranged my trip through Royal Expeditions in India and they have got to be the best travel company I have used. Perfect in all dealings and arrangements. My adviser who helped me with the trip is Caroline Moorey, a seasoned traveler to Rajasthan and a member of the GB team competing in the 81 km endurance event. The GB team came third and won a Bronze medal, beating all but the Indian Army teams.

My primary aim was to photograph the horse show which included an 81 km endurance race, Dancing Horses and a display of Tent Pegging. I will be including other activities from the show as well. Other galleries will include photographs from New Delhi, Taj Mahal, Agra, Jaipur, Bharatpur and Ranthambore.

All the images and can be seen in several of the the gallery pages.

New images of Heavy Horses posted in the Equestrian Gallery

I have now added a number of Heavy Horses and ploughing images into the Equestrian gallery. The image shown here are of two magnificent Percherons belonging to a member of the Southern Counties Heavy Horse Association. Other images, plus those of ploughing activities show these beautiful horses at their best. I will be adding more images on a regular basis, so watch this page for more images of Heavy Horses.

Photography Exhibition

I am please to announce I shall be having a exhibition of my pictures from 12.00 to 18.00 hours on the 23 October 2009. The event will be at The Blue Bell Inn, Dockenfield near Farnham in Surrey. The 2010 African Wildlife Calendar will be on sale along with a range of Framed and Mounted Prints, Canvas prints, Note Cards, Christmas cards and other items. Pictures and note cards will range from Wildlife, Landscapes, People and Places, Birds and a few non nature subjects.

Amanda Thorp will also be showing pictures and note cards from local scenes around Dockenfield.

I look forward to seeing as many of you that can come along.

Bronze Medal Award

Michael has been awarded a Bronze medal in the prestigious Nature Wildlife 2009 photographic competition organised by the Photographic Society of America (PSA). The competition is open to all photographers world wide and is run every year.

Michael submitted images in other categories including, Travel, Photojournalism, Monochrome and Colour Projected Image. Michael had seven acceptances plus the bronze medal.

Florida - Avian and Alligators

I recently traveled to Florida with the objective of photographing a selection of wildlife. To be precise, I attended a workshop with Jim Neiger who specializes in photographing Ospreys. However, this sounds simple but, the photography is from his pontoon boat using a 500 f4 lens handheld and with manual exposure. Start time each day was 5.30 am with a break for lunch and finish at dusk. Challenging: that’s an understatement.

From the workshop base at Lake Blue Cypress I then traveled onto Naples on the South West coast and back to ‘Gatorland’, Kissimmee near Orlando.

See the Gallery for a selection of pictures from the trip.