At the beach

Today was one of those times where the tide, times, day and weather combined to make it an ideal time to photograph shore birds at a location easily accessible in using the dreaded public transport, so, not for the first time during my time off work, I was up at the crack of dawn.  By the time I got to my spot at the coast, the sun was shining (a rarity this summer!) and little stirred when it came to people about.  So it was with optimism that I positioned myself a distance from the incoming tidal line and waited.  By doing this the various waders will feed at the tidal line as it slowly moves up the beach closer to me by which time the birds have also excepted me as no threat and being pre-occupied with feeding. Keeping a low profile and waiting patiently for twenty minutes, the first bird, a Curlew, got close enough to reasonably fill the frame and I managed to get some frames off when the inevitable happened – a dog came bounding up the beach chasing the birds and off they went.  The spot I chose was not only because it’s ideal to photograph shore birds but it is a dead end at this time of the tide – there is nowhere to go, nothing to see, with miles of beach elsewhere there was no reason for these two people with there dog to deliberately walk right in front of me only to stop and have to go back again.  Looking at the smirks on their faces I guessed their reasons where some sort of self satisfaction.  Once they had gone I settled down to wait and hope the birds would return.  Twenty minutes again and slowly they did return and just as they were getting close enough along came another dog owner, chucking a ball right in front of me for his dog to chase after though it seemed more interested in sniffing around me and inside my camera bag then shaking itself of all its sand.  Once he left I settled down once again and waited for the waders to return.  After half an hour it was clear they weren’t coming back.  Ironically, no dog owners came by either! Most definitely I’m hitting one of those low points in my photography where I am having little success, at least with the wildlife side.  Perhaps I need to keep the long lens at home and concentrate for a while on photographing landscapes – at least if any dogs get in the way I can Photoshop them out!