A Place To Pause

With the New Year celebrations finished I felt the need to head out onto the Somerset Levels to explore with the camera.

I decided to head back to the RSPB Nature Reserve at Ham Wall not too far from Glastonbury.
I came here a few weeks ago (see Mist By The Marsh blog post) when the area was shrouded in beautiful mist but didn’t have time to explore all the reserve.

I arrived around 20 minutes before sunrise and caught the flight of just a few of the 10,000 Starlings that nest in the reeds here and that people travel far and wide to view.
It was a cold and cloudless morning and the sunrise was intense although personally I’d had preferred a few clouds if I’m being really picky and honest.

I had no real plans or expectations to what I was going to shoot in fact I decided to just carry my camera with single lens, extra batteries and my tripod to keep things simple.
During my wanderings I exchanged a few pleasantries with a few bird watchers, walkers and stopped to talk shop with another photographer called David Shaw (view his Instagram  images) who shared some great locations for me to explore.

As I continued exploring and occasionally stopping to take a few images I came across this remembrance bench with an amazing view of Glastonbury Tor from over the reeds and marsh and stopped to read the plaque.
I do find these benches quite touching and always stop to read them.
This moment was especially poignant as I had sadly just heard of the passing of someone I knew and was very fond of only hours before.

This felt like the image I was meant to capture this morning and I spent a good 30 minutes enjoying the tranquility of the location and taking some time to simply be in the moment and to capture the scene I experienced.

As I continued my route I stopped one last time to capture one more image.
While deep into finding my composition for the shot I noticed something move out the corner of my eye to find this nosy little bugger watching me.

It’s not the first time I’ve been followed by a Red Robin while out shooting and admit they are my favourite bird but I’ve never ever experienced one so happy for me to get almost within touching distance of it.
I must have shot around 3-4 different angles of the bird and even changed camera settings expecting to spook it and have it fly off but needless to say it just sat there quite happily working it for the camera !.

Eventually I decided enough was enough and decided to head back to the car for my morning coffee.

 

 

Dedicated To Ian.