I was lucky that my name was picked out of the hat to join nine other club members for the chance of a early morning boat trip at Blakeney alongside pro photographer Ruth Grindrod. With the day booked off, and some good advice to hand, I got my telephoto lens and kit at the ready, meet time was 07:30.
As I arrived, weather looked promising and although there was a chill in the air, it was milder than the forecast had stated.
We boarded the boat (Bean’s Boats are excellent by the way), and set off. I was glad the thermals were on but despite gloves my hands were freezing and I could see ice on the edge of the boat. Nevertheless, it was exhilarating being out on the boat as the sun came up.
We had amazing light as the skipper took us up to the (Blakeney) point. We saw some seals enjoying their lazy morning and the sea was surprisingly choppy at this location with the occasional steep tip of the boat. While I gripped the underside of the seat, the skipper didn’t flinch and to him this tipping was mild and completely nothing to be worried about. There were loads of oystercatchers on the point.
He took us back along the point and asked if we wanted to explore the point which we all wanted to do. I got a nice shot of the lifeboat house on the way there. Landing at the point, we hopped off to go exploring.
First scene as I walked along the shore was a seal pup so I got a couple of shots and was impressed to see a fellow member laying front down on the beach to get a lower shot.
I moved on through the dunes and up to the lifeboat house. I didn’t really find much else that motivated me and made my way back the boat. With hindsight, I should’ve put on my kit lens and made more of an effort.
The skipper took us for another circuit of the point where I got an OK shot of a pair of oystercatchers. Check out the ISO and the shutter speed settings to get this shot!
One thing I was pleased about was the advice to use auto-ISO which meant I could just shoot on the widest aperture available and just push shutter speed up as high as I felt I may need to catch flying birds. The ISO went up way beyond what I’d dare set manually but seemed to work well.
A few other shots I tried didn’t really amount to much, but I did get a good shot of a seal as it looked up to keep a watch on us as our boat passed by them.
We got back to the car park and there was a suggestion of a breakfast meet at the cafe at Burnham Deepdale. The lure of a fry up was too good to turn down so a drive further along the coast saw an order for a hearty breakfast and a coffee.
I then joined two other members agreeing to meet up at RSPB Titchwell. We wandered up the track from the car park chatting away and enjoying the glorious golden hour style sunshine.
Onto the beach, we walked up to the old tank ruin for a few shots.
We then walked right up to the end of that section of beach to find about six seals chilling in the water. We did quite a few shots here as the seals appeared to swim around and pose well for the photos.
We then wandered back as we’d reached that part of a trip out where you’ve just about done all the photo action you want.
I met my wife Kathryn as she had driven up to meet me, and after a welcome cuppa, we wandered from the main hide back down the track stopping to grab some shots of the redshanks scurrying around.
There was a fleeting thought about heading up to Burnham Overy Staithe for sunset but the light was rapidly dropping at this point so we had another cuppa back at the car and headed home.
I had a feeling of disappointment when I got back and looked over the photos and could not really understand why I was feeling this way. I have subsequently realised that recent trips out for sunrises have led to such epic shots that I think I’m now expecting this every time I go out!
On reflection, I had an amazing day out, awesome weather, great company and did get a couple of good shots. Time to be grateful and remind myself that these experiences are what I’ll remember in years to come when looking back at this blog and the pictures.
Onwards and upwards…