I have recently started to watch some wildlife photography videos on You-Tube. I have dabbled with it in the past mainly when looking for tips on camera settings but never for any length of time.
However with some spare time over Christmas, I had a look at a few posts from Andy Rouse. I first saw him at an event in Hull around 15 years ago and have been inspired by him ever since.
I love his enthusiasm and relaxed approach and his desire to share the joy of wildlife photography. I took particular notice of one point he made and that was to put your own stamp on your photography-try to do something different to all of the rest. I particularly liked his focus on being out before first light and capturing the drama just before and just after the first rays of sun broke through in the morings.
Regular readers of this blog will know thatI am a huge fan of early morning photography.
Anyway my thoughts went to a particularly memorable weekend at Kilnsea last summer.
It had a bit of a perfect storm theme going on. The sea had been calm for weeks and was crystal clear right at the edge (this is unusual for the Holderness coast as the constant erosion of the cliffs usually means the water has a chocolate brown hue to it. High tide was in the early morning and the first fledgeling little terns were just starting to fly and hunt for themselves. The sunrise on both Saturday and Sunday was spectacular. The sea must have been teeming with small fish as the terns were getting one nearly every time they dived.
I pitched up on the beach about an hour before sunrise and the terns were already active-how they saw those tiny fish in that light I will never know. The reason that it was important for the water to be clear was that the fish were clearly hugging the shoreline, which meant that the terns were sometimes diving right in front of me only 10 yards away.
The light was changing almost every minute and I took nearly 2000 photos.
The sun was out, there were birds all over the place, the sea was full of fish and for a short time all was good in the world.
I have tried to pick my favourites, but could easily have picked another hundred from the collection.
Roll on summer!
