PROFESSIONAL photographer Nigel Hicks has captured spectacular scenes all over the world but nowhere has inspired him more than his local landscape.

Nigel has published a book celebrating south west England's most beautiful wild places and its magnificent plant and animal wildlife after taking photos of landscapes and wildlife in Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and Somerset.

A significant portion of his book Wild Southwest, The Landscapes and Wildlife of Southwest England, is devoted to the Jurassic Coast and Dorset's grasslands and heaths.

Nigel has captured views of cliffs, rock arches, stacks and pebbly beaches. The county's beauty is evident in Nigel's shots of chalk cliffs in the eastern half of the Jurassic Coast, the spectacular Fleet lagoon and the soft crumbling cliffs at Charmouth.

The Devon resident, who has photographed environments as diverse and far-flung as Kenya, Iceland, Patagonia, the Amazon and Alaska, says he was captivated by the Dorset coastline.

"If you look at the Jurassic Coast it's quite unique in many ways, it's not like the coastline in Cornwall or the Pacific coastline.

"It's right up there as one of the most historical stretches of coastline in the world.

"In terms of Highcliffe, the Fleet and Chesil Beach, they are such impressive stretches of coast.

"I generally find that when I get into position you get a view of the whole thing - you don't see that in many places in the world."

Nigel, who has been a photographer for more than 20 years, originally trained as a biologist.

He said: "I started taking photos before I became a professional biologist but photography was always in the background. I went down the biology route but photography seemed to be part of a continuum.

"I'd spend a lot of time looking at the minutiae of things as a biologist and when I made the change to be a photographer it was more a question of emphasis."

After a conversation at the National Geographic office in Washington DC, Nigel decided he needed to go out and create his own project and make it local.

This 18 month 'project' then took the shape of a book and Nigel published it through his own publishing house Aquaterra Publishing. He also wrote the editorial content for Wild Southwest.

An ability to get up very early in the morning was crucial for the book, Nigel says.

"The perfect shot is a hard thing to get. You have to be ready early in the morning and be ready at dawn, particularly in case there's any wildlife around. I would be starting on grasslands at 4 or 5 am looking for wildlife or wildflowers. It's also a case of getting the angle right as well."

A Dorset photo in the book that Nigel is particularly proud of is one he took from Chesil Beach.

"I took it in the early morning and it shows the whole of the Fleet looking along Portland Bill and the whole thing is a silhouette.

"I was also really proud of a backlit shot of Durdle Door with the sunset just behind. It's a problem to get an original photograph with something as well photographed as Durdle Door, but hopefully I managed it."

Another major part of Nigel's book is the section on Dorset's grasslands and heaths.

He showcases some of the species found on the heath, stumbling across wild flowers in Kingcombe Meadows Nature Reserve near Maiden Newton, including a large bird's-foot trefoil and greater knapweed. Other forays onto heathland led to common spotted orchid at Powerstock Common Nature Reserve and erica ciliaris in flower on the heath at Hartland Moor National Nature Reserve, near Wareham.

Nigel hopes that his book fills a gap in the market, as there isn't much of a record of wildlife in south west England.

"It's amazing that there isn't much on the wildlife of south west England. The main publishing houses don't want to do regional books.

"I hope the book attracts interest because in daily life you are so busy running around from place to place you never really look carefully at what's around you.

"If you go on holiday you make a point of going out and watching seals and whales and things.

"I hope that my book will show people that you don't have to go to the ends of the earth, there's a lot of good stuff in our own back yard and people need to appreciate it."

*Wild Southwest - The Landscapes and Wildlife of Southwest England by Nigel Hicks is published by Aquaterra Publishing and is available from Amazon or direct from Aquaterra at www.aquaterrapublishing.co.uk/ .