Alan Mackenzie Photography

I felt like a fraud at first, but I returned to the deer meadow in 2021 by train and bike. Last year's prohibitions on the use of public transport for non-essential journeys meant completing the entire 52 mile round trip by bicycle. I can now step off the train and cycle to the nature reserve, but I still get 8 miles of cycling. I am drawn to the meadow in early June because an explosion of wildflowers attracts Roe deer from surrounding land to feed, raise young and establish territory for the rutting season.  I've struck lucky with a tolerant older buck this summer (see below). At first, I thought he was the same buck from 2019 and 2020, but they are probably just related. He was a little nervous on the first encounter. The buck got up, ate as many buttercups as he could and moved to a different spot nearby. It's almost as if was hedging his bets. My presence didn't frighten him, but the deer stocked up on energy in case I turned out to be one of the unfortunate recen...

Welcome to my starling murmuration essay for 2020/21. I had planned to photograph something else this winter, but I changed my mind on a whim, after going to Brighton Pier a few days after the second lockdown ended. By the forth visit, I had enough creative images to stop and publish the essay  — and the twenty images here are from a total of six trips to the pier . Some of my images are highly unusual, and left me wondering how I even managed to take them. Take the first picture  —  a night city motion blur shot of birds and light trails from evening traffic. Shots three and four give us an idea of what a starling murmuration would look like, if photographed from within the atmosphere of Jupiter. The monochromatic motion blur images (ten to eighteen) look like they've been sketched on art paper using a pencil. I captured the strangeness of the murmuration, as it compacted into an oval before unravelling like a rope in pouring rain well after sunset, as most other photogr...

Welcome to my summer butterfly project for 2020, which, like my Roe deer essay last month, was completed by travelling many miles on my bicycle from one end of Sussex to another. Locations include the Knepp Estate, Malling Down Nature Reserve, Castle Hill National Nature Reserve and Friston Forest. The summer butterfly season is always something I look forward to, despite the intensely farmed, vandalised UK only having 59 species, many of which are hard to find. I had booked leave for the Orange Tip and Pearl-bordered Fritillary this spring, but the UK was in lockdown and sadly I missed out. It was just as well I'd spent time on butterflies before my holiday. Although my first visit to Knepp took place in hot, sunny weather, conditions deteriorated a few days later, as gales swept across the country. The weather improved just as my time off ended, forcing me to use spare evenings and days off to complete the project. Big Butterfly Count. The Purple Emperor will be familiar ...