A visit to the Farne Islands was booked for the day with ‘Photographers on Safari’. I have used Pos before and found them to be very professional in planning events & catering for us photographers.

The day started at Seahouses in Northumberland at 09:30, we had a quick brief then launched on ‘Glad Tidings 2’ towards the islands. The journey took approx. 50 minutes and we took in the seabirds clinging to every nook & cranny on the cliff faces then around to see the Atlantic Grey Seals basking on the rocks. The journey was fairly flat (even for a land lover) however the swell when shooting the Seals made it difficult to compose and keep focus, it was a matter of 1 good shot & 19 bad ones.

Staple Island was the first island visited and shots of Puffins, Guillemots, Shags and Razorbills were fired off rapidly. The weather closed in and inevitably it rained! This kept the exposure range down but also the reduced light meant higher ISOs. I got the shots that I wanted, Puffins with beaks crammed with Sand Eels, perched on rocks and cliffs, etc…

Inner Farne was also visited in the afternoon session. The island has a good population of Kittiwakes, who were mainly with chicks, some only a day or so old.
But the highlight was ‘Running the Gauntlet’. There are numerous Arctic Terns in residence and they are very aggressive to anyone going near their nests, their nests are everywhere so it was almost a continuous aerial bombardment whilst in their vicinity. They don’t help by nesting on the boardwalks!
The light wasn’t helping with in ‘flight shots’ but I still got a good selection of mainly static shots and have added a good number to my portfolio.

A great day out – many thanks to John Wright for organising the workshop, I will certainly use him again.