On a hot summers day in July I had a shoot with Rachelle Summers at St Cyrus, with Covid still a major factor I chose a location that was near Rachelle’s route through Scotland. Although it was a four hour shoot I chose to spend all day at St Cyrus shooting wildlife in the morning as it is a RSPB sight of interest. It was a stiflingly hot morning, albeit cloudy and misty, not only that all the wildlife had obviously decided to hunker down and hide. To get to the beach at St Cyrus there is a very steep cliff path downwards from the car park, it is not something to climb back up to at a whim with a heavy camera and a big wildlife lens.

When noon came I trudged up the path to the car park to get ready for the shoot with Rachelle, it’s a killer climb up on a hot day. Lens changed, snacks consumed, camera set for model work…and much water drunk! Not long after Rachelle and Mr Summers arrived and the skies opened up and the sun came out. And once more down the steep path we went, the beach that was empty in the misty morning was now fairly busy with tourists and holiday makers, however we managed to work our way round it….by hiding in the cave….

As the tide was going it very fast we used it to get to some more remote places…

For a change of pace we moved to the beach for a while…..and a change of scene….

We had a quick scout about the rocks to see if we could reach the waterfall to the north, the route was still blocked off by the tide, however we spotted a very small Rachelle sized hollow in the cliff…

While we waited for access to the waterfall we headed back to the main cave, the water had almost gone….the tide was moving fast.

By this time there was a small route to the waterfall, leaving Mr Summers behind to guard some props and clothes, we picked our way over wet rocks to the waterfall.

Time was marching on, as it does with it’s clumpy tactless boots, and we managed to get a few more images on the way back to the steep path….

I suspect this last image was in full view of the car park on the cliff top but Rachelle insisted on doing it, and who am I to let a lady down.

And so the shoot ended with more than a few laughs, rock scrambling, jellyfish, squidgy green things, much sogginess, towel wearing…….and of course all the wildlife came out when I left the big lens in the car!….It was all good though, and another grand adventure was bagged. It was good to see Mr Summers again too.