While photography will be a major focus (sorry!) of this holiday, we are anxious that nobody should feel left out and want to encourage photographers of all levels of experience, whatever their camera equipment. While a zoom or telephoto lens would be useful for most wildlife subjects, there are plenty of landscape and flower photography opportunities that don’t require heavy equipment. Kit snobbery is most definitely frowned upon, and laptops are banned from the dinner table! And if you just want to enjoy the wildlife without taking pictures, that’s perfectly alright.

Photographing Yellow Flag

Seabird colonies are an obvious attraction for us, and of course we’ll try to get you close to puffins (which don’t demand a long telephoto lens). Fresh fish permitting, we hope to “chum” for gannets, and if successful they can be diving so close to the boat they splash your camera. Other likely subjects include fulmar, great skua, black guillemot, arctic tern, grey seal and common seal. Otters are not easy or suitable subjects for a group activity, but we should be in some good places for them and Chris will give guidance on fieldcraft and stalking methods so you can try your luck in ones and twos. We will want to take advantage of the long day length of midsummer and try to exploit the sweet light of early morning and evening on the finer days.

Please recognise that there will be periods whilst sailing between islands when photography opportunities are somewhat limited. Be patient, and remember that marine mammals can pop up at almost any time, usually when you least expect it. If we want to find whales and dolphins, it is important to put in a certain amount of sea time, and these journeys can also turn up some of the more unusual seabirds such as storm-petrels. At all times we’ll have our lines of communication open waiting for any news of orcas in the area – in which case, we’ll be well placed to respond.

There will be no structured teaching sessions as such, but Chris will offer constructive advice throughout and is always available for answering your questions. The emphasis will be on fieldwork rather than theory. We will have a digital projector on board (or a HDTV screen) and there will be a couple of digital slide presentations by Chris during the week. Guests are also invited to bring along some of their own work to share with the group, or in private consultation if they prefer.

Black Guillemot

Make sure you bring all of the memory cards, storage media, films, spare batteries and battery chargers you will need for the duration of the trip – there will be nowhere to purchase any of these once we have sailed from Lerwick. The power points in your cabin are suitable for recharging camera batteries and laptops, any time the ship isunder way or the generator is on – normally during the hours 07.00 to 20.00, or thereabouts.

Tripods may be necessary for photography ashore (and these will be stored in a locker on the foredeck when not in use), but monopods are more useful on board ship when we’re under way – say if you need to support a heavy lens. It’s a good idea to protect your gear from salt water spray, and waterproof bags such as those manufactured by Ortlieb are ideal for this purpose, but a plastic bin bag or carrier bag is a good substitute.