Northern Gannet LOVERS (Morus Bassanus, Fou de Bassan, NOGA) Parc national de l'Île-Bonaventure-et-du-Rocher-Percé, Bonaventure Island, Quebec Image Copyright and courtesy ©Jacques-Andre Dupont All Rights Reserved. Canon EOS 7D mark II, 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 L IS II (@263mm). ISO 800, F5.6 @ 1/5,000s Manual mode.
I received a wonderful letter from J.A. (Jacques-Andre) Dupont; a wonderful person, and great photographer. As an educator and workshop/safari leader, I love sharing what I've learned during my workshops and it truly is wonderful to see a workshop participant improve their skills and learn how to reliably create awesome images filled with visual impact during a workshop/safari. Congratulations, J.A., much continued success. Many thanks for your wonderful letter. - Christopher Dodds.
Without further ado, here's J.A. Dupont:
This is a testament to my The butterfly photo effect or how my Chris Dodds workshops started things for me:
Dear Chris,
I wanted to write you a few words to tell you the story of how meeting you created a true butterfly effect for me.
I have been on two workshops so far with you. Last year we did the Atlantic Puffin on beautiful Mingan Islands. And this year we did the Northern Gannet on the world renowned Bonaventure Island.
Both workshops were outstanding in many ways. I learned quite a lot on a technical level. But I believe that your workshops helped me do much more… In a way, you helped me open my (photo) eyes. You have showed me how to look at the birds, understand their behaviour and in a way use my images to bring them to life. You have helped me understand light in a new way, so the animals are almost as beautiful as in real life. And you help me dig deeper within the tools that I brought with me; and of course I mean my Canon DSLR and my trusted L series lenses.
Both workshops were also amazing because you helped us discover amazing sights for wildlife photography and animals that are highly photogenic.
So in a nutshell, I believe I am a better photographer because of you.
And because of these two amazing photo trips and your guidance, I got to live quite a rushing experience in the last few weeks.
It all started after I put my gannet pictures on National Geographic web site.
Just a few days after I uploaded them online, things started to move in a new way for me.
👍🏻It started by two of my pictures making the cut by being selected in the Daily Dozen section of National Geographic web site.
http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/photos/6491757/
http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/photos/6516046/
Then it went on turbo gear. The next four things all happened within 48 hours
👍🏻I was contacted by a National Geograhic photo editor who offered to do a feature on my series of gannet photos as well as an interview with me. See the interview HERE.
👍🏻National Geographic Senior Photo Editor also contacted me because she wanted one of my photos to be Photo of the Day on National Geographic (as photo of the day you get to be published on all Nat Geo social media platforms and you are on the first page of the web site… I received 21 000 likes on facebook just from being on their Facebook page). See the National Geographic Photo of the Day HERE.
👍🏻A 500PX editor contacted me because a Spanish magazine wanted to licence one of the photos for a feature (yet to be published). See my 500px portfolio HERE.
👍🏻And finally Solent News, a UK News and Photo agency contacted me to represent me and sell my pictures. After we agreed, my gannet pictures were published within a few days in the London’s Daily Telegraph. See the Daily Telegraph image HERE.
👍🏻And in the paper version:
👍🏻This same agency is now selling other of my photos.
👍🏻And to top this tsunami of photography love, I was published last week in Canadian Geographic Special Collector Edition Best Wildlife Photography with a Cedar Waxwing photo.
👍🏻And then last week I received an email and learned that three of my Gannets Photos were selected by Canadian Geographic as finalists in this year Wildlife Photography of the Year Photo Competition!
So this long email, is just my way of saying thank you. I feel very lucky to have been taught by you and this will not be the last time!
Best,
Jacques-Andre Dupont Montreal Canada