Rescued Seal Pups

I visited the RSPCA Centre in East Winch, Norfolk, where there has been an influx of seal pups separated from their parents in the Northumbria floods. Expecting to take a cute picture of a group of baby seals together, I showed up and was changed into a white protective suit and boots- to protect myself from the seals biting me, and to protect my clothes from the intense smell of fish in the air.

Hopes of a picture showing numerous distressed but lovable young seals were quickly dashed, as the seals were in solitary confinement- and they also didn't look so young to me. I spent about half an hour taking pictures, trying to avoid being bitten, and attempting to ignore the smell. Pictures were published in The Daily Mail, The Metro and The Times.

Thanks to the lady from the RSPCA for this one.

A pup named 'Glaven Vet', roughly 5 weeks old, and (below) being fed.

Pygmy Hedgehogs

I received a call from the office "You're off to do some cute pictures of pygmy hedgehogs, they're like regular hedgehogs but much smaller and they range in colour from white to dark brown. So if you could do a picture with them all lined up from lightest to darkest, that'd be great."

Well, pygmy hedgehogs don't sit still for pictures- in fact they do the opposite and run amok. So I focused on portraying the diminutive size of the animal, rather than trying to organise a colour-based line up and hope they sit still and smile at the right moment!

The pictures were used well in nearly every British newspaper, as well as magazines and newspapers in Germany and Poland.

Having spent hours trying to get the hedgehogs to sit still enough for a photo, the owner's (a teenage girl) mother came home. The mother remarked on how "sexy" my name was, which would have been less awkward if she hadn't repeated it, and if her husband wasn't standing next to me. She loved my name and said that she'd name the hedgehog in the egg-cup Blake.

The next day I was watching BBC news, who ran a feature on the pygmy hedgehogs on the back of the massive coverage in the newspapers. I couldn't help but laugh when the presenter lifted her hand, with the pygmy hedgehog in it, and said something like "pygmy hedgehogs like Blake here are very much growing in popularity". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8300124.stm

Page 3 of Metro.

Tanvir the Tiger

Tanvir, a Bengal tiger at Noah's Ark Zoo in Bristol, climbed up his 5m activity tower and was too scared to come down. Tanvir tarnished the fearless reputation of the tiger by spending over 24 hours stuck at the top of the tower, before finally mustering the courage to come down for food.