A friend of mine suggested we each get a ticket for a wildlife photography workshop at Trimley Marshes.
Trimley Marshes Nature Reserve is a 85 hectares site managed by Suffolk Wildlife Trust and is a place I’d never been to before.
We parked up and had a 45 minute walk to the reserve.
As you approach the reserve, you realise this place is right next to Felixstowe docks, and the other side of the docks from one our annual visit locations of Landguard Point.
Once everyone had arrived, we had a briefing from the wildlife photographer and their assistant on what the workshop would involve.
There would be eight of us on the workshop and we would scout the reserve and/or hides looking to capture birds with ongoing advice by the pro photographer.
Below is a selection of the birds I captured.
Amongst the birds I captured are geese, godwits, starlings, wigeons, and cormorants.
There was a regular wave of oystercatchers with the best capture below.
We also spotted a Chinese water deer wandering across the reserve.
We enjoyed meeting other photographers and sharing knowledge, technique and experiences.
The workshop was coming to an end and we had plans to walk up the reserve to photograph some dead trees in the marshes at sunset.
This scene has been captured by a couple of local pro photographers and had inspired us to give it a try.
On our way, I grabbed a shot of the docks.
We arrived at the trees and had a scout around. The marsh was quite boggy in places so you needed to be careful.
We set up and started shooting.
The composition I wanted was very challenging to get, and I could feel myself getting annoyed as the sunset and dramatic clouds were now providing some very pleasing background. The only answer was to shift my carcass and try a different spot, and a different composition.
I found something a lot more appealing, and managed to grab it with a sunstar too.
The answer was to forget about trying to get all three trees in. That aim of getting all the trees was making me rush and panic a little as we knew sunset wouldn’t last too long.
I was very happy with this shot and decided to rotate to my left such that I could shoot the trees looking towards the docks.
I liked the scene but in post I’ve removed the two smaller trees on the right-hand side as they were intertwined and quite distracting. I’ve also made the image brighter and more of a pastel tone. Jeez, what a “late to the party” hipster I am! 😁
I had another pop at the previous scene repeating the acquisition of a sunstar but this time leaving more of the diagonal grass bank and editing for a more dramatic look.
A fellow photographer has suggested I look at mono edits of the tree shots (see below).
I really like these and it’s a reminder that I very rarely consider monochrome.
I had enough shots around the trees now and we were pretty much done, but I just decided to shoot across the low tide mud with tree docks providing a backdrop.
I had tried to get that line of mud on the left as something of a leading line but it doesn’t really work, but the scene is a pleasing record of an end of a really enjoyable day.
We packed up and made our way back.
I grabbed a couple of phone shots on the way back – the first of the orange and silver glow with a leading line across the marsh.
The last image was of the docks lit up and it was tempting to get the gear out of the bag but we were cream crackered and thought this is something we can save for another day.
The light was fading quickly but we had torches and it felt like a military walk back.
The walk back seemed to take ages and felt like quite the trek. My Garmin watch clocked a 3.12 mile walk at over an hour, and I clocked up 18,500 steps across the day.
Finally, back at the car, we had snacks with hot drink from our flasks while having a debrief and then made our way home.
We had been out for ten hours so had really made a day of it.
Onwards and upwards…