Hi my name is Mark Blake and I am a wildlife photographer.

I live in Nottingham, (Robin Hood's very own county).

In 2008 I found myself for the first time in many years to have these things called weekends to myself, due to a change in jobs, and now only working 5 days a week not 7.

At first I was like a fish out of water especially when my family would visit their local football team every other week. Left on my own because football was the last thing on my agenda, I started to look for a hobby. Remembering how much I used to enjoy photography from an early age, being encouraged by my uncle (who happened to work for a film processing company), I recalled I had previously done landscape and trick photography.

So this time I wanted a different style. I had as a boy always enjoyed wildlife, even had my own rescued pet Magpie for a short time. So the next obvious thing for me was wildlife photography.

I decided to implement some rules for myself from the get go; firstly everything had to be wild and free, this would mean that no wildlife centres or zoos would be allowed. This gave the hobby longevity because it would take a lot longer to hunt down my target species.

Secondly all wildlife would be British, this worked out great because travelling the UK was easier than travelling worldwide; it meant my wife and I could revisit places more often, creating more opportunities from the knowledge already gained from that location.

In 2012 I entered a picture in to the Countryfile Calendar competition for Children In Need and won the January slot with my image of a Weasel In The Snow.

What followed then was six years of being a longlisting judge for the calendar filming with the BBC, which was watched by 9 million viewers. This opened many doors for me and was my proudest moment.

Still carrying on working, my wife and I continued to travel over the years, using most weekends and all the available holidays doing what we both loved - wildlife photography. This website now showcases that time, plus now the addition of my new Youtube channel and my selection of photographic wildlife greeting cards for sale.

Please see an interview about myself: https://glaszart.com/getting-to-know-wildlife-photographer-mark-blake/

Hope you enjoy, thanks for visiting. 

Mark Blake