Oystercatchers on the Glamorgan Coast

Promising weather was forecast for Thursday, so I drove to the Glamorgan Heritage Coast in South Wales, just over an hour from home. It's a wonderful stretch of Jurassic coast backed by dramatic Blue Lias cliffs, with wide, clean, sandy beaches and dramatic headlands such as Nash Point.

A watery November sun shone low over the Bristol channel the whole day and although the tide was on the way up, it allowed me a few hours for some pleasurable beach photography. I had walked about three miles along the beach between Nash Point and Dunraven Bay before turning back along the beach towards my car. By this time the tide was pretty high, up to the boulder line under the cliffs, and dusk was coming on but I knew there was a ladder up the cliffs further along so stuck to the beach.

I'd spotted a few gulls and pairs of oystercatchers on the way out and snapped a couple of unsatisfactory distant shots of them with the 300mm + 1.4x converter set up I had with me, just for the practice. On the way back, with dusk fast approaching, I had given all thoughts of further photographs when I came across this flock of perhaps fifty birds settling down to roost amongst the rocks. They were right in my path and I had no choice but to disturb them but I managed to get the telephoto strapped to the camera before I slowly stalked up to them. They eventually flew off and I managed to grab a few flight shots, of which this is the best.

There is lovely soft evening light in the image and the birds are fortuitously turned with wings mostly on the downbeat to show off their striking black and white plumage but we can still see the red eyes, orange bills and just the odd pair of dolly pink legs. It's a habitat shot too, giving a feel for the wild coastline and the surf. But what makes it stand out from the others in the shoot, is the slight separation of birds in the middle that grabs the attention and saves the shot from being just a jumble of flying birds.

Forest Giants at Dawn

This image was captured at dawn from a lookout tower overlooking the primary rainforest of the Danum Valley in Malaysian Borneo.

On the previous day's trek, I had discussed with our guide Dennys the images I had in mind of forest trees emerging from morning mist. He said he knew a place where we might see just such a thing and that he could organise that but we would need to make an early start. And so it was that we were up at 4 am for the thirty kilometre drive from our hotel, the Borneo Rainforest Lodge, to the Danum Valley Research Station tower to catch the dawn. Indeed it was still a moonlit night as Dennys pulled up at the lookout in the lodge's white four wheel drive Toyota. 

Strangely, the tower's three stories were brightly lit by electric lanterns and there was a Toyota identical to ours parked outside. 'Is someone else here from the hotel?' I said to Dennys in surprise. 'Yes, that's the chef' he replied. He had secretly laid on a chef and waiter from the hotel just to cook breakfast for Jos and myself!

On the top floor of the lookout, a table had been set for two and the chef was already preparing to cook up a delicious meal. I set up my tripod and and we waited for the magic of the tropical dawn to unfold. 

We were not disappointed. As the sun crept above the horizon, the valley was flooded with soft golden light and trees and distant hills emerged and disappeared again in the shifting inversion clouds shrouding the forest.

I spent an enjoyable hour or so shooting with a telephoto lens to pick out sections of the constantly changing scene, my attention caught now and then by the waiter's 'would you prefer tea or coffee sir?' or 'would you prefer your eggs fried or scrambled madam?' and not until the sun was well above the horizon and rapidly burning off the mist did we sit down to one of the most unique and delicious breakfasts we have ever experienced.