A cub outfoxed a professional photographer to take her own picture as he was snapping away at her, producing a series of remarkable shots. The inquisitive five month old vixen, named Jessie after the Toy Story film’s cowgirl, was so intrigued by the camera equipment she clambered right on top of it. And although she was supposed to be the subject of the shoot, she became the photographer when she stood on the shutter release button and took her own frames. Simon Czapp, 25, visited the New Forest Wildlife Park in Ashurst, Hants, to capture images of new arrival

She has been rehomed at the animal park, which is also home to wolves, wallabies, deer and otters in 25 acres of ancient woodland, after being abandoned by her mother. Jessie was offered a few scraps of ham to entice her into posing but she quickly became so fascinated by the cameras she put on a performance of her own making. Simon, from Eastleigh, Hants, said: “Jessie was very playful and inquisitive and not at all camera shy. Soon after I arrived she was chewing my shoes and everything seemed to be a game to her. Then she started exploring the camera I had set up on a tripod in her outdoor pen.

“She stood on her hind legs to peer into the lens and then used a tree stump to get a better look at the back of the camera. She balanced her front paws on it and at one point knocked it over.” Simon repositioned the camera on the tripod nearer the tree stump and Jessie soon hopped back up. At one point she had all four paws on the camera and was wobbling to keep her balance. Simon added: “She jumped up there several times and I realised it could make a good picture. As I was snapping away with the public’s viewing window behind me, I thought I heard the camera go off but didn’t think much of it.

“But when I checked the memory card afterwards, I was amazed to see Jessie had actually taken two frames of me photographing her. When she’d stood on the camera, one of her front paws was actually on the shutter release. I couldn’t believe I had been outfoxed by a fox. She got lucky because the camera was on auto settings and although I’m not in focus, her reflection in the mirrored viewing window was. She obviously decided she was more important to photograph than me. I just hope she doesn’t do me out of a job!”

Here’s a pretty nice solution for diffusing on (or off) camera strobes by dressing them with a small and light weight soft-box. Link

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With the Victoria And Albert Museum Patchwork Pattern Maker you will be able to upload any image and convert it instantly into your own, personalised quilt pattern.

“Browsing through the dealextreme website, I came across these LED car headlight rings and thought that they’d be ideal for making a Macro Lighting Ring so I placed my order and had a go.”

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Some wildlife photographers spend months immersed in muck to capture the perfect shot. The Burrard-Lucas brothers decided to let an RC car do the dirty work. Their BeetleCam came face-to-face with lions, elephants, and buffalo and captured these stunning shots.

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When photographers talk about the “depth of field” in an image, they’re referring to how much of the picture they choose to have in focus. You may think “but don’t I want all of my image to be in focus?” Frequently you do, but sometimes you can bring more attention to your subject by reducing the depth of field in a scene, making the background soft and blurry.

This image has very deep depth of field. Everything from the foreground to the horizon is in focus. You'll usually choose deep depth of field for landscape shots.

If you own a DSLR but aren’t experimenting with your aperture settings, you’re missing out on one of the most useful tools in a photographer’s arsenal. Here’s a primer to get you started.

How to use depth of field to take better pictures [Macworld]

Whether you’ve got a DSLR or you’ve turned your point-and-shoot into a super camera, those fancy features are useless if you don’t understand them. Want to capture a perfectly exposed picture? Learning to use your histogram is a good starting point. How To Read Your Camera’s Histogram And Take Perfectly Balanced Images

Robert Harrison launches weather balloons armed with a camera and a GPS locator and takes fantastic pictures of the earth from the upper atmosphere. The father of three was contacted by NASA after taking space pictures with his homemade device, which cost a small fraction of what the space agency pays to take similar photographs. Link

David Attenborough BBC documentary.

If you loved browsing the archives of National Geographic when they opened up their vaults last November and found yourself wanting to take your own impressive nature shots, you’ll definitely want to check out the BBC Photo Masterclasses.

Published in the pages of the BBC’s Wildlife magazine, the Photo Masterclasses are articles written by Wildlife photographers and specialists in their genre of nature photography. You’ll find articles on macro photography, landscape photography, and photographing different creatures under all sorts of different conditions. If you love learning a new photography trick or two you’ll definitely want to dive into the archives of the BBC.  BBC Wildlife Magazine Photo Masterclasses BBC via Nature Magnified

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