More Seeing is Believing - Introduction

ISBN 0 9530734 1 6

© Derek Belsey 1998

Because my first book, Seeing is Believing, was quite successful I have been urged by friends and other people, some of whom I have never met, to produce another, As anyone who read the first book will have realised, putting pen to paper and producing a professional manuscript is not something that comes particularly easy to me so being urged to produce a second book, while no doubt very flattering, also presented me with something of a problem. Nevertheless, I decided to try again. There were several reasons for being persistent, not least of which was the satisfaction of breaking even with my first foray into the complex world of self publishing a measure of success and acceptance which had b~ beyond my wildest dreams. More importantly and even more rewarding was the ~ volume of favourable comment and friendly correspondence which reached me from all parts of Britain.

One such letter came from a reader called Brian Singleton, of whom I had never heard but who turned out to live quite near. With his permission I should like to share with readers his views on Seeing is Believing which gave me the courage to pick up the pen once again? He wrote: "Just a note of sincere thanks and appreciation for your wonderful little book Seeing is Believing. I spotted it in Squire's Garden Centre at Shepperton and promptly bought two copies, one for a friend and one for my own library of bird books. I know photography can be a rather an expensive pastime so I hope you get lots of customers because I am very much looking forward to future publications and we, your readers, should do all we can to encourage you to continue.

I notice that you have published the book yourself and I salute you for your courage and enterprise in doing so and making such a nice job of it too.

I particularly admire your comments on what used to be called 'fieldcraft' painstaking observation and understanding of your subjects above all, your appreciation of the imperative need to put the welfare of the birds above everything else.

Unfortunately, not every so called bird photographer these days shares your understanding of that need and the problem is undoubtedly worse than ever before now that superb photographic equipment and marvellous fast colour film are quite easily obtained.

This has put temptation in the hands of many people who are more interested in winning 'wildlife photography' competitions or in selling bird pictures to agencies than in the welfare of the birds themselves.

You have obviously got all the qualities of a great naturalist and have completely mastered photo technique in your chosen field.

I am sure any further books you produce will be a great success.

Thanks again for an inspiring and beautiful book".

On reading Brian's letter I felt that I had reached my goal and even if I never sold another copy of Seeing is Believing, all the heartaches, the hours of laborious writing and correcting, the inevitable trail of rejection slips and, in the end, the sheer hard slog of "going it alone" were all worthwhile! Just as important too is the realisation that my "message" is getting through: get out and look around for yourselves at the wildlife we in Britain have been blessed with do it now, please, before the ravages of pollution, climate change and habitat devastation destroy it all.

But this is a time, not for pessimism, rather for optimism that there are so many people in this country who do care deeply about our wild treasures.

My hope is that this further little volume of my experiences with birds and other wildlife (more often than not in the company of Cliff Reddick, my good friend and fellow naturalist - photographer, whom many of you may remember from my earlier book). Will stir more readers to discover for themselves the marvels all around us.

Derek Belsey, Shepperton.

 

The following picture sequence is only a sample of the many exquisite photographs within this book, the website does not reproduce the quality of Derek's work, so you are advised to purchase any of his books and savour the images and enjoy his personal stories in the text within.

 

CLICK here to see a sequence of pictures from this Book