About James Arnold Photography
Welcome to my website and thank you for taking the time to look at my images.
I was very lucky to have grown up in the beautiful Cheshire countryside on a farm, surrounded by animals and a tawny owl called Wol who lived in our kitchen for nearly 25 years.
After spending two years working in Australia, South Africa and New Zealand I then spent 15 years on the family farm with my father.
Unfortunately in my late 30’s I developed a chronic illness which forced me to give up work for four years. In my search for a new career I decided to pick up a camera again and after going to college for a year I spent the next 20 years as a wedding and portrait photographer.
In 2016 a chance encounter with a barn owl reignited my passion for wildlife and especially birds of prey. Watching this stunning bird quartering the field in beautiful light sparked something inside me and to this day I find there is nothing better than getting out before sunrise and sitting by a river or walking across fields watching and listening to all the wonderful wildlife that we have in the UK.
I especially like birds of prey and owls in particular and the majority of my photographs are taken in the north west of England, often within a few miles of our house. Over the last five years, I have met many lovely people especially whilst out photographing short-eared owls during the winter.
I have had images published in magazines, newspapers and on television and as I write this I have 3 images shortlisted for 2020 Bird Photographer of the Year out of over 22,000 entries worldwide, 3 images chosen for the Cheshire Wildlife Calendar and one image that won it’s category in the Songbird Survival photo competition . I also had 5 images over three years in the final 24 of the Quilter Cheviot sponsored Countryfile Live exhibition at Blenheim. The theme for all three years was ‘Capturing the moment’.
I hope you enjoy scrolling through the photos and can share in the pleasure I had taking them.