Beasts & Bugs

There is a world, not far away, that we can all find and spend time in and that can show us more beasts than even the most wildlife friendly park. The meadows are teaming with creatures that are often ignored but always incredible to watch and photograph and they are available to anyone of any ability.
Dragons, spiders, beetles, bugs, crickets and all manor of smaller creatures are ready for you.

Dolphins or Bust

If you are very lucky you can see Dolphins from the coast path on the Isle of Purbeck but you do have to be very lucky. Every now and again a pod will travel along the coast giving you a chance to watch them for a few minutes and of course take a few photographs, but they rarely hang around long enough. So, in order to try and take a few better photographs and to hopefully watch a little more behaviour than just ‘passing by’, we decided to go to where Dolphins are more regularly seen. This meant a round trip of some 1500 miles and more than 32 hours behind the wheel to the Moray Firth in the Highlands of Scotland. We had limited time and would need good weather to get the shots and although we didn’t have wall to wall sunshine, the rain that fell that day fell on other people and not us. Even though we could see heavy showers all around us we escaped the downpours and managed to see the Dolphins from the beach at Chanonry Point and from a high powered rib on the waters of Moray and Cromarty Firths.

Luck was certainly with us and it was incredible to be able to watch these animals not only as they travel but also as they hunt! Taking photographs though is a completely different matter and although these wonderful animals got quite close to shore, trying to predict where they will surface whilst looking through the lens and then focusing correctly is very tricky.

Inverness, from Chanonry Point