David Tipling
Encyclopedia
David Tipling is a professional wildlife photographer with an international reputation. His highly distinctive images have earned him many awards and accolades. Sir David Bellamy
described Tipling's photographs in The National Parks and other Wild Places of Britain and Ireland as "windows of wonder".
He has won the documentary award for the European Nature Photographer of the Year for his work on Emperor Penguins. He is the author or commissioned photographer for more than 30 books that include Collins Top Birding Spots in Britain & Ireland, The National Parks and Other Wild Places of Britain & Ireland, Attracting Wildlife to your Garden, and most recently The RSPB Guide to Digital Wildlife Photography.
Sussex, David Tipling was educated at the Wildernesse School
in Sevenoaks. A keen birdwatcher from an early age, his parents bought him his first camera in his teens. Tipling was soon recording the birds in his local area.
A largely self-taught wildlife photographer, Tipling came under the watchful eye of Roy Coles, the then warden of nearby Bough Beech
Reservoir
, a nature reserve
in Kent
. Tipling learned his craft largely by 'trial and error' and by training his eye, studying the work of various artist's who gave him his distinctive 'artistic' sense of composition.
Between 1983 and 1994 he travelled throughout Britain following birdwatchers to photograph the rarities they were travelling to see. This gave him a good grounding in fieldcraft
and ornithology
. A taste for the rare and unseen, with an artist's sense of composition, was the result. Tipling's work was soon widely published in magazines such as British Birds (magazine)
, Birds Illustrated, Birdwatch, Dutch Birding
and Birding World
; as well as being used in national newspapers.
is usually difficult to find, troublesome to approach and often impossible to capture, thus a knowledge of animal behaviour is a necessary skill in all great wildlife photography
. The animal photographer needs above all to be able to predict actions. An ability to stalk animals is often a requirement.
What makes Tipling's photographic work distinctive is his artistic sense of composition. His work is influenced by the Swedish painter Bruno Liljefors
whose often brooding depictions of predator-prey action - the hunts engaged between sea eagle and eider, goshawk and black grouse - help to create their darkly primitive atmosphere. and by Robert Gillmor
's strong graphic,. Tipling cites some of the great Eastern painters who practised Oriental ink painting which has its roots in calligraphy
, as influential. Much of his work resonates with that sense of proportion achieved in the light, striking shapes of Xu Wei
's work.
A keen conservationist
, Tipling is perhaps closer than others to witnessing the dangers birds in the wild face. In 1994 his article in the New Scientist
alerted its readers to the declining state of the Barn Owl
:
and naturalist
Mark Cocker
and natural history
researcher Jonathan Elphick
, is Birds and People
. Birds and People
is a ten-year long collaboration between the publishers Random House
and BirdLife International
, to survey and document worldwide, the cultural significance of birds,
Tipling's role within the Birds and People project, as the commissioned photographer and picture editor, is both to photograph and find images that illustrate the connection between man and bird as depicted in the stories recorded and covered by the project.
Images will range from depictions of the birds themselves to pieces of art, objects such as ceramics, architecture and of course people. The Birds and People project involves an open internet forum
, for individuals worldwide to document their reflections, experiences and stories about birds.
, and due to be published later this year, is GREAT BIRDS: 200 Star Species of Britain.
Tipling is a photographic consultant for British Birds (magazine)
. From 1994 to 2003 he had a monthly quizbird column in Bird Watching Magazine. Picture credits include over 500 book covers for example Pecked to Death by Ducks by Tim Cahill
, various Lonely Planet
guides including Antarctica and the Secret Life of Birds by Dominic Couzens
.
Books completely illustrated by Tipling include Collins Gem Guide to Garden Birds, Understanding Bird Behaviour by Stephen Moss
, Bird Identification and Fieldcraft by Mark Ward. Tipling has also undertaken major advertising work for clients including Pedigree Chum and Fuji Film (who ran an advertising campaign using his Emperor Penguins from 2001-2003. Tipling's Emperor Penguins were also used in the Walmart ad campaign in the United States
in 2002.
David Bellamy
David James Bellamy OBE is a British author, broadcaster, environmental campaigner and botanist. He has lived in County Durham since 1960.-Career:...
described Tipling's photographs in The National Parks and other Wild Places of Britain and Ireland as "windows of wonder".
He has won the documentary award for the European Nature Photographer of the Year for his work on Emperor Penguins. He is the author or commissioned photographer for more than 30 books that include Collins Top Birding Spots in Britain & Ireland, The National Parks and Other Wild Places of Britain & Ireland, Attracting Wildlife to your Garden, and most recently The RSPB Guide to Digital Wildlife Photography.
Background and education
Born in HoveHove
Hove is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton, with which it forms the unitary authority Brighton and Hove. It forms a single conurbation together with Brighton and some smaller towns and villages running along the coast...
Sussex, David Tipling was educated at the Wildernesse School
Wildernesse School
The Wildernesse School in Sevenoaks, Kent, England was a 11 to 19 single sex High School for boys. It had Specialist School status for Mathematics and Computing...
in Sevenoaks. A keen birdwatcher from an early age, his parents bought him his first camera in his teens. Tipling was soon recording the birds in his local area.
A largely self-taught wildlife photographer, Tipling came under the watchful eye of Roy Coles, the then warden of nearby Bough Beech
Bough Beech
Bough Beech is the location in the county of Kent, England, of Bough Beech Reservoir. It is located approximately three miles east of Edenbridge and five miles south west of Sevenoaks...
Reservoir
Reservoir
A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...
, a nature reserve
Nature reserve
A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. Tipling learned his craft largely by 'trial and error' and by training his eye, studying the work of various artist's who gave him his distinctive 'artistic' sense of composition.
Between 1983 and 1994 he travelled throughout Britain following birdwatchers to photograph the rarities they were travelling to see. This gave him a good grounding in fieldcraft
Fieldcraft
Fieldcraft is a term used especially in American, Canadian and British military circles to describe the basic military skills required to operate stealthily and the methods used to do so, which can differ during day or night and due to weather or terrain...
and ornithology
Ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
. A taste for the rare and unseen, with an artist's sense of composition, was the result. Tipling's work was soon widely published in magazines such as British Birds (magazine)
British Birds (magazine)
British Birds is a monthly ornithology magazine that was established in 1907. It is now published by BB 2000 Ltd, which is wholly owned by The British Birds Charitable Trust , established for the benefit of British ornithology...
, Birds Illustrated, Birdwatch, Dutch Birding
Dutch Birding
Dutch Birding is an ornithological magazine published by the Dutch Birding Association. Its editor is Arnoud van den Berg. It was first published in 1979....
and Birding World
Birding World
Birding World is a monthly birding magazine published in the United Kingdom. It is the magazine of the Bird Information Service, based at Cley next the Sea, Norfolk....
; as well as being used in national newspapers.
Themes and interests
WildlifeWildlife
Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....
is usually difficult to find, troublesome to approach and often impossible to capture, thus a knowledge of animal behaviour is a necessary skill in all great wildlife photography
Wildlife photography
Wildlife photography is the act of taking photographs of wildlife.Wildlife photography is regarded as one of the more challenging forms of photography. As well as needing sound technical skills, such as being able to expose correctly, wildlife photographers generally need good field craft skills...
. The animal photographer needs above all to be able to predict actions. An ability to stalk animals is often a requirement.
Bruno Liljefors
Bruno Andreas Liljefors was a Swedish artist, the most important and probably the most influential wildlife painter of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century...
whose often brooding depictions of predator-prey action - the hunts engaged between sea eagle and eider, goshawk and black grouse - help to create their darkly primitive atmosphere. and by Robert Gillmor
Robert Gillmor
Robert Gillmor is an ornithologist, artist, illustrator, author and editor, from England. He is a founder member of the Society of Wildlife Artists and has been its Secretary, Chairman and President...
's strong graphic,. Tipling cites some of the great Eastern painters who practised Oriental ink painting which has its roots in calligraphy
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
, as influential. Much of his work resonates with that sense of proportion achieved in the light, striking shapes of Xu Wei
Xu Wei
Xu Wei was a Ming Chinese painter, poet and dramatist famed for his artistic expressiveness. Revolutionary for its time, his painting style influenced and inspired countless subsequent painters, such as Bada Shanren, the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou, and the modern masters Wu Changshuo and Qi...
's work.
A keen conservationist
Conservationist
Conservationists are proponents or advocates of conservation. They advocate for the protection of all the species in an ecosystem with a strong focus on the natural environment...
, Tipling is perhaps closer than others to witnessing the dangers birds in the wild face. In 1994 his article in the New Scientist
New Scientist
New Scientist is a weekly non-peer-reviewed English-language international science magazine, which since 1996 has also run a website, covering recent developments in science and technology for a general audience. Founded in 1956, it is published by Reed Business Information Ltd, a subsidiary of...
alerted its readers to the declining state of the Barn Owl
Barn Owl
The Barn Owl is the most widely distributed species of owl, and one of the most widespread of all birds. It is also referred to as Common Barn Owl, to distinguish it from other species in the barn-owl family Tytonidae. These form one of two main lineages of living owls, the other being the typical...
:
Birds and People
Tipling's latest project with authorAuthor
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and naturalist
Naturalist
Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...
Mark Cocker
Mark Cocker
Mark Cocker is a British author and naturalist. He lives and works deep in the Norfolk countryside with his wife Mary Muir and two daughters in claxton...
and natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
researcher Jonathan Elphick
Jonathan Elphick
Jonathan Elphick is a natural history author, editor and consultant. He is an eminent ornithologist, a qualified zoologist; Fellow of the Zoological Society of London and a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London...
, is Birds and People
Birds and People
Birds and People is a ten-year long, groundbreaking collaboration between the publishers Random House and BirdLife International, to survey and document worldwide, the cultural significance of birds.. The Birds and People project involves an open internet forum, for individuals worldwide to...
. Birds and People
Birds and People
Birds and People is a ten-year long, groundbreaking collaboration between the publishers Random House and BirdLife International, to survey and document worldwide, the cultural significance of birds.. The Birds and People project involves an open internet forum, for individuals worldwide to...
is a ten-year long collaboration between the publishers Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
and BirdLife International
BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources...
, to survey and document worldwide, the cultural significance of birds,
Tipling's role within the Birds and People project, as the commissioned photographer and picture editor, is both to photograph and find images that illustrate the connection between man and bird as depicted in the stories recorded and covered by the project.
Images will range from depictions of the birds themselves to pieces of art, objects such as ceramics, architecture and of course people. The Birds and People project involves an open internet forum
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
, for individuals worldwide to document their reflections, experiences and stories about birds.
Additional information
Tipling's latest work, undertaken with the ornithologist Jonathan ElphickJonathan Elphick
Jonathan Elphick is a natural history author, editor and consultant. He is an eminent ornithologist, a qualified zoologist; Fellow of the Zoological Society of London and a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London...
, and due to be published later this year, is GREAT BIRDS: 200 Star Species of Britain.
Tipling is a photographic consultant for British Birds (magazine)
British Birds (magazine)
British Birds is a monthly ornithology magazine that was established in 1907. It is now published by BB 2000 Ltd, which is wholly owned by The British Birds Charitable Trust , established for the benefit of British ornithology...
. From 1994 to 2003 he had a monthly quizbird column in Bird Watching Magazine. Picture credits include over 500 book covers for example Pecked to Death by Ducks by Tim Cahill
Tim Cahill
Timothy Filiga "Tim" Cahill is an football player of Australian nationality who plays for Everton and the Australian national football team...
, various Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet is the largest travel guide book and digital media publisher in the world. The company is owned by BBC Worldwide, which bought a 75% share from the founders Maureen and Tony Wheeler in 2007 and the final 25% in February 2011...
guides including Antarctica and the Secret Life of Birds by Dominic Couzens
Dominic Couzens
Dominic Couzens is a British birder, author and journalist specialising in avian and natural history subjects.He contributes regularly to Bird Watching and BBC Wildlife magazines; and is also a professional field trip guide...
.
Books completely illustrated by Tipling include Collins Gem Guide to Garden Birds, Understanding Bird Behaviour by Stephen Moss
Stephen Moss
Stephen Moss is a British natural historian, birder, author and television producer. He is married, with five children , and lives in Somerset, having moved there from West London....
, Bird Identification and Fieldcraft by Mark Ward. Tipling has also undertaken major advertising work for clients including Pedigree Chum and Fuji Film (who ran an advertising campaign using his Emperor Penguins from 2001-2003. Tipling's Emperor Penguins were also used in the Walmart ad campaign in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 2002.