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Profile: Iain Toombs
Iain Toombs - Wildlife Photographer
Deeping landscaper Iain Toombs has made quite a name for himself over the years as an avid wildlife photographer. His increasingly popular Deeping Nature Watch Facebook group reveals the varied scope of his work, from capturing images of Kingfishers feeding, Common Lizards basking in the sun, to Bank Voles swimming and a family of Badgers foraging for food.
Bank Vole with reflection
Raised in a fishing, hunting and hiking family, Iain spent a great deal of his childhood outdoors which proved hugely impactful upon his life. Kingfisher juggling pike
‘I was never at home as a teenager, preferring to spend whole weekends camping out in local woods or sat by a lake, angling. That’s where my love of wildlife grew. I very quickly learned that all manner of animals appear out of nowhere when you’re quiet and still. In turn I learned that being patient brings its rewards; most of the time!’
‘I’ve always had an interest in photography, eventually studying it at college in the hope of becoming a photojournalist. Luckily, I landed a position on Angling Times in Peterborough which saw me accompany the stories I wrote with photographs; a great deal of which were taken in studio conditions.
‘That had me thinking: I wonder if I could apply the same “studio-style” technique to create outdoor scenes and tempt wildlife into them to obtain decent images. And not being one to turn down a challenge I set to work on the project and have never looked back since.
‘I owe a great deal to local landowners who have kindly allowed me to build temporary hides on their land where I’ve noticed animal tracks or seen activity through binoculars. It’s lovely that the owners are genuinely interested in seeing the enormous amount of wildlife that frequents their land. They often don’t have the time to sit for hours on end, often well into the night, to see what’s living there.
‘Currently I have five hides in operation, each purposely built for specific times of day, times of the year and differing species. As an example, one hide is half below ground so I can sit with my eye and camera at ground level to watch a family of Badgers. That really is an incredible experience especially when they come to feed an arm’s length away.
‘My other hides are designed for Otters, Ducks, general farmland birds/ mammals and the final one has a raised shallow pool where I can photograph birds drinking and capture their reflection while doing so.
‘I do like to try to include water in some form in my images. I find it gives the photos extra impact, especially if the animal isn’t normally associated with water. In fact, one shot I captured of a Moorhen diving for food was entered in to this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. I’ve never been one for competitions but was persuaded to enter with that image. It made it through to the final stage, meaning it had reached the top-100 list – not bad considering there were over 58,000 entries.
‘In all honesty, though, the ultimate reward is the peace, tranquillity, the opportunity to switch off and constantly to learn. I can happily sit for hours on end just waiting, watching and listening as you never know what may turn up, especially if I’ve been tempting animals into the hide with seed, fruit, dog biscuits, leftover chicken carcass or even fresh roadkill on a couple of occasions. Nothing is ever wasted in the animal world, so a pigeon killed by a car can be the next meal for a scavenging mammal or raptor. In fact, a roadside pigeon accounted for my favourite image of a Sparrow hawk which found it too tempting to refuse.
‘It is an amazing hobby that can be so incredibly relaxing. But the downside is the time involved, and thankfully I have an incredibly understanding and patient wife. One photo captured in the blink of an eye can take weeks of planning and research, weeks of feeding followed by countless hours waiting for the right moment to squeeze the button and fire a flash.’
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