In February me and my good friend Nathan took a trip up to the Scottish Highlands to do some winter wildlife photography with Karen Miller.
When I booked this trip I was really hoping some snowy weather, but we actually quite a lot of wind and a fair amount of rain. It doesn't matter though, the Scottish Highlands is a beautiful place; with or without snow, and the wildlife is incredible.
We live in the south of England, so the trip up was very long; at least by British standards. Around the time you're getting fed up with driving; your back aches and your arms are stiff, you come round a corner and suddenly, you get your first glimpse of the highland mountains; capped in snow.
I don't remember ever seeing a red squirrel before this trip, they were all but gone from the south of England but I was still quite young. But I had seen many videos and photos of them and became enamored with their fun personalities. They are amazing joyful creatures to watch.
The night before we saw the Red Squirrels was very windy so unfortunately they were reluctant to come out, so we only saw one Squirrel. But he was a great model and posed many times for us sat on the logs while cracking open the hazelnuts.
Crested Tits are beautiful and unique little birds, and made for some great photos. We were photographing them in very photogenic woodland which made for some amazing backgrounds, which make these photos some of my favourites of the trip.
An interesting experience, we photographed the Grouse from the car as they are very weary of people but not so bothered by passing cars. They can be very difficult to spot amongst the heather, but we were getting quite proficient at it by the end. It was very amusing to see their heads pop out of the heather for a quick check and duck down again, and the sunlight hitting the light rain made for some effective photos.
These Red Deer were being fed by the estate they live on, so although they are technically wild deer they were really not very shy which gave us plenty of opportunity to photograph them. I like my deer photos to be a bit moody, but unfortunately the sun came out for most of this session. Nevertheless I got some great photos and even caught some rutting practice.
Photographing the mountain hares was a special experience. The weather was rough and my trousers and boots got soaked through pretty quickly which meant I was shivering by the end. But it was definitely worth it.
We slowly approached the hare; waiting 15-20 minutes in between and making sure the hare is comfortable with our presence. By the end we were laying in the heather about 5m away which was perfect. The hare was very accommodating and gave us some nice shots as she shook off the rain. Beautiful creatures with loads of character.
