So June was a pretty good month.

(Actually, May wasn’t bad either, what with my orangutan pics hitting the newspapers. Jus’ saying.)

June was good partly because my book came out. I’ve contributed to photography books and websites for years, but The Pocket Guide to Digital Photography is ALL MINE, and the talented folk at Dennis have made it look stunning. I love the concept: a big, bold picture on one half of the page, then a detailed explanation on the other half describing how to create pictures like it yourself. All but about four of the images are my own, which is a pretty good feeling, and if there’s someone in your family who’s just bought a DSLR and could do with a nudge in the right direction, this is the book for them.

(For a sneak peak at one of my favourite pages, my Facebook page has the page on how to shoot animals through fences. Click here to have a gander.)

The other Interesting Thing that happened in June was that I heard back from the judges at the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year, otherwise known as the huge extravaganza of spectacular photography that occupies the Natural History Museum from October. Hearing back in June isn’t great news, as it means you haven’t won. Still, checking in with the website my image of a sitting tiger made it as far as the semi-finals, which is a very tidy result, particularly since getting a striking image of a tiger can be tricky (they’re photographed a lot). This was also my first year in the competition, so fingers crossed for at least as good a result next time around.

In celebration, I’ve knocked a fiver off the price of an A4 fine-art print of the image, and £30 off the price of a huge A3 print. Both images are signed and professionally produced on fine-art paper. For more, click here.

Other interesting stuff to click on

I’m lucky to follow a host of great photographers on Twitter, and I was by no means the only one of our little group to do well in WPOTY. Among the other finalists was Richard Peters, who landed four pics in the semi-finals, Amateur Photographer dep ed Mat Gallagher, who placed two in the semis, and David Lloyd, who had a spectacular year with nine semi finalists and three in the finals. Healthy competition doesn’t even begin to cover it…