About Brian Pettit

Standing in my photographic “den” one day with the colleague who will no doubt ultimately inherit my photographic assets we found ourselves surrounded by several hard drives representing my “post digital enlightenment” period and some 150,000 slides from a previous metamorphosis. Those were the days when photography seemed to be mostly about taking photos and before the time when being a fully fledged and proficient digital technician became the order of the day. A fleeting and hitherto uncountenanced thought came to me that maybe I wouldn’t live for ever as I had always intended and he may, in fact, one day become the guardian of this slide mountain which represented so many hours of my life, so many hopes and aspirations and so much breath bated waiting for the latest batch of slides to come back from the developers. Slide was a relatively unforgiving medium in that, to all intents and purposes, a slide was a slide was a slide and if you got it wrong at point of shoot then there was little alternative but the bin. This, coupled with the myriad processing errors that could occur, led to sometimes unbearable periods of waiting culminating in feelings of complete euphoria or abject despair depending on the outcome. Would they get lost in the post? Would they be scratched and/or perforated? Would they have been dragged out of the spool by the scruff of their necks and damaged accordingly; and so it went. Despite all this I can remember, generally speaking, living a life full of enthusiastic and optimistic anticipation.

In those days there was not the bottomless pit of associated hardware and software to aspire to with its constant need of upgrading and the only real financial constraint, once you had your basic equipment, was how many rolls of film you could afford. At that time my only end product requirement was the slides themselves to be used as visual content of the very extensive range of talks and slideshows that I offered.

I was able to concentrate on subjects that interested me purely from a personal point of view devoid of any incentive for direct financial gain and, as a consequence, was able to study often quite mundane and often under recorded Wildlife groups to a very considerable degree.

The nostalgia of these reminiscences was compounded by the realisation that were he to inherit today then tomorrow, in practical terms, the whole lot would have to go to the tip! I know of no commercial application for these slides nor do I know of anyone with the patience or the incentive to plough through them and, in all honesty, I cannot think of any reason why someone should. However I do remember how, in my early days of Wildlife Photography, I would have appreciated access to a photographic reference to help identify subjects that I had already taken or hoped to take. I remember the hours spent poring through whatever guides were available at the time with varying degrees of success. The more obscure the subject the more difficult it is to find photographically, as opposed to pictorially, based reference works. To this day I have not come up with a decent book on the Orthoptera of Europe.

The result of this sobering trip down memory lane was the determination to set up a website covering those subjects that it pleased me to photograph, and continues so to do, in the hopes that it may be of help to some of those who may well share my areas of interest and are experiencing similar problems. Furthermore, from my side, it would give me a chance to utilise slides that, for any other purpose, are unlikely to ever again see the light of day.

Having decided, maybe somewhat naively in view of the degree of my computer illiteracy, to go ahead I must admit that the sheer volume of the work involved has, sometimes, almost daunted me. Whilst I am using digital images wherever possible nevertheless there are a huge number of slides to be gone through with the subsequent scanning of them not to mention the final enhancing. This latter, in view of the age and quality of some of the slides I am using in order to provide as comprehensive a cover as possible, is proving to tax my limited computer aptitude and ability to a serious degree. I find it hard to remember that I am trying to provide onscreen reference images and not trying to turn each one into an A3 wall hanging masterpiece. I therefore apologise for the quality of some of the subject matter and intend to replace it if the opportunity arises to retake some of the images in the future.

Other than the giving of Talks and Slideshows my commercial outlet at the moment is the supplying of mounted or framed prints and, to this effect, I have included a “shop” section. In addition to the images listed there and to obviate the cost of having to buy a number of prints, even small ones, for those whose requirement is for a reference guide only then I am working on offering some of the collections in the form of CD’s though this will take some time and details will be incorporated into the “Shop” as and when time permits.

Obviously I have checked the content of other websites and read many claims as to the quality of the images contained therein. “Pin sharpness” seems to rank high on the list but I would warn you that whereas I also aspire to these lofty claims - and, indeed, would take issue with anyone claiming that any of my recent digital images do not fall under that heading - nevertheless even I could not claim that distinction for some of the slide scans I have used! I would ask you, therefore, to bear with me and accept that I have done the best I can in the circumstances. Many of the colour variations and even main subjects covered I have not even seen for many years let alone photographed with the benefit of the knowledge and vastly improved equipment I have acquired over the years.

A recent development of the website programme has been my investment in software that should enable me to offer instant download facilities of virtually all the images contained therein. The only exceptions to this are those images contained in the specific “shop section” and to obtain one of these I am afraid you will have to pay me to print and send it to you. Of course you are assured of my utmost care and consideration in this process for these are my “babies” over whom I exercise quite strict parental care and controls.

Images are offered in a variety of sizes up to which I feel they can provide a reasonable print. All are offered in small sizes since, obviously, downloads purely for reference purposes do not demand the same detail as do those for printing. Images offered in larger sizes are done so as I feel they will easily stand that size of print. Should this not be so then please feel free to take issue with me. Indeed feel free to take issue on any aspect of the site as, between us; we may be able to effect improvements. The exception to this, of course, are the “babies” mentioned above. If you wish to take issue over any of these then please remember that you are lighting a blue touch paper and your issue is best conducted at email or other suitable distance!

I do not pretend any great expertise nor even comprehensive cover of any of the subjects here listed. I just hope some of my past efforts may prove to be useful to others. As far as possible and to the best of my ability I have attempted to name each species depicted. My nomenclature, nevertheless, could be way off base in some instances. Where I cannot determine a name but still want to include the image it will be listed as “unnamed”. Where I am not sure the name will be followed by a ?. Where I feel that I am certain - but may still be wrong - then I will show English and Latin names both where possible. I would ask anyone out there who can plug any gaps or correct any errors to please do so and let me know. Please don’t leave me to bumble on like some kind of “wally” for the entire world to see!

Enjoy