How it all Started.
I started Local Life in 2006 as a place to put some photographs and some basic audio recorded while out and about in my home town.
Since then the idea has grown and Local Life and Little Histories has become the home to photographs of wildlife and places around the United Kingdom as well as home to on location 30 to 40 minute audio programmes recorded on location in towns and places around the country as well as nature audios recorded at nature reserves and the like including wildlife walks and specialist areas such as bat detecting.
About the Author.-
I am not a specialist in the fields of nature or history but have a love of both and the recordings and photography are my own journey into these worlds and are presented more from the approach of the ordinary man discovering than the specialist imparting knowledge.
I trained as a musician, fine artist and studio photographer and went on to work for many years as a Graphic Designer and Artist for Advertising agencies and in the world of publishing.
After nearly 22 years in publishing I have now taken the leap to train as an Environmental Conservationist. My interests being woodland management and the associated fauna and flora. I also carry out surveys for the Bat Conservation Trust and British Trust for Ornithology. I also now work as a Ranger.
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Contact Information.
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If you have any comments or suggestions then please feel free to contact me at: feedback@littlehistories.co.uk. Your suggestions and comments are always appreciated.
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If you have any feedback or comments with specific reference to the audio output of Shiretalk and Local Life & Little Histories please contact us at feedback@shiretalk.co.uk
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Local Life / Little Histories also has a sister site A Doodle A Day which is my site dedicated to sketching for fun.
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You can see the listings for just the Local Life & Little Histories audio output with brief descriptions at Shiretalk
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The Technical Stuff
For those interested the photographs on Local life & Little Histories are taken with the following equipment:
- Nikon D80 with either a Tamron 70-300mm Zoom, Sigma 50-500mm Zoom lense or lately a Nikon 80-400mm Zoom Lense.
- Fuji Finepix S7000 (mainly for macro and panoramic photographs).
The Audio is captured with the following
- Edirol R-09HR using the built in microphones.
- Fostex FR-2LE Field Recorder with a Rode NT4 stereo condenser microphone or Beyerdynamic Shotgun microphone.
- Any studio and not location based recordings are made with a Rode NT1a large diaphragm condenser microphone, Audio Technica 2020 microphones with a PreSonus tube preamp and PreSonus Comp16 compressor, Tascam DP-02CF recorder and Alesis Multimix 12FXD mixer.
I do from time to time get emails about the site and this is a selection of a few of the nice ones.
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'Most podcasts I listen to once and delete them. Yours get saved. They're like a verbal massage. Listening to them actually feels to me as though I am taking a walk through the park, like a park that I have frequently visited and yet there are still pockets of it new to me and unexplored. It is so completely unscripted and improvisational that I always feel I am walking alongside you'.
Steven L
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'As an expatriate the opportunity to reminisce about the country I left behind 8 years ago is a most wonderful experience. Please keep up this excellent initiative'.
Matthew T
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'I spend some time looking for sites like yours.
I'd just like to say what a wonderful site it is. The best I've seen for an awful long time'.
D.
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'Great podcast, keep em coming.
i'm a fan'.
Dean W
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'what a wonderful site- I found the link from the wild about Britain website forum discussing online vs independent photo kit shops.
I have just moved to the midlands and I am trilled by the number of local places i can visit- your site is sooooo useful.'
Shelagh
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'I spotted the plug for your site on the BBC Countryfile Forum. I love the approach you've taken with the podcasts (and plan to working my way through some of them over the coming weeks)...All the best with the site -nicely done Sir '
