Using Instagram to Inspire your Photography.
Scrolling through Instagram can be both inspirational and demoralising. There I was scrolling through looking at all the wonderful images of wildlife. In my case I was inspired after seeing one magnificent shot of a sandelring (wading sea bird often found at the beach). The photo was taken by an award wining photographer who is based in the UK. I looked at the location of where the photo was taken and to my surprise it was a location not too far from where I live... Bognor Regis.
My first thought was 'no It's too far and I couldn't get a shot like that anyway' however, after a short while I was like 'what the heck lets do it!' and so with that thought I put it into my sat-nav saw the 1 hour 15 min drive and planned to start my journey the very next evening.
This was my first mistake. I should have spent much longer planning the trip to co-ordinate my arrival and the sunset with the correct tide. Sanderlings will feed from the exposed seabed when the tide is out or on its way back in and so when I arrived and noticed the tide was in I immediately regretted my hasty trip. I was there now anyway so I thought I might as well have a look for the birds and hope the tide goes out by sunset.
To my surprise the tide did indeed go out before it went dark however, the sanderlings were nowhere to be seen. I walked up and down the beach for a good hour before coming across a bird which at first when I spotted it I thought was a sanderling. I was hyped! the little birds were hopping around the rocks feeding on small crustaceans within the cracks. This allowed me to get some really interesting and close up images of such a small bird.
Getting these photos was not easy however, as I did get covered in sand and sea water from head to toe, at one point I was even laying in the sea trying to get a nice shot of a seagull... luckily I had brought a spare pair of clothes and a towel.
By the end of the trip I was feeling satisfied I had captured what I came out to photograph. However, when I got home and begun my research on the bird I noticed it was a very different bird. The bird I was photographing was called a turnstone.
I began this adventure while scrolling through instagram sat at home, like many of us do. I then took this inspiration went out and created my own photos to post on instagram. However, the experience itself of going on adventures and not knowing what will happen is always way more exciting than scrolling or posting on instagram.
let us know if you have ever been inspired and what have you done with this insperation? If you like our blogs and want to read more please subscribe to us as we post wildlife related blogs on a regular basis.
Thanks for reading!
The photos in this blog were taken during my time at the beach I have also created a vlog of the experience which can be watched at the top of this blog.