Niall Benvie. Paul Harcourt Davies. Andrew Parkinson.

All photos in this post © Lars Andreas Dybvik

A few years ago, when I spoke to the Naturfoto group in Trondheim, I met a young photographer called Lars Andreas Dybvik. Since then I’ve been intrigued by his novel take on familiar Scandinavian topics (see below) and was rather flattered when he began to run with the white background technique after I showed him it in 2007.

Indeed, I am aware of a number of other photographers including Clay Bolt in the US and Denis Palanque in France (and some more who have contacted me and to whom I’ve sent Perspex!) who are beginning to explore this field – or who have done so before me. If you have tried it but were disappointed with the results, did you put a light behind the background Perspex? This is really what makes things glow and the pictures can look flat without it. I’d love to see your work too if you are using this technique. There is a whole chapter in my new book, Outdoor Photography Masterclass, devoted to it. It will be published in late May 2010.

After Andy’s recent post here about reworking other people’s ideas, you’d have to wonder if there is any point in establishing a bait site to photograph small birds. Surely there’s nothing new to say. Well, perhaps there is – as Andreas’s picture here hints at. Coincidentally, my own main winter project is to photograph small birds in flight – predictably enough – against a brilliant backlit white background. Success is far from guaranteed, even with a camera trap…