Elmley Nature Reserve & The North Kent Marshes

I’m excited to announce this very special wildlife and landscape photography workshop on Elmley Nature Reserve and the adjacent North Kent Marshes. For more than 30 years, I have dedicated countless hours capturing the moods and wildlife of this internationally significant region and I am honoured to be the only photographer permitted to hold such courses on Elmley. Limited to just five attendees, this unique workshop promises to be an unforgettable experience. I hope you can join me!

Stretching almost 35 miles from Dartford to Whitstable, and comprising of grazing marsh, mudflats, estuary and reedbeds; Elmley and the North Kent Marshes play host to a vast number of migrant birds that call this place home. At dawn and at dusk and with each turn of the tide, brents, wigeon, plover, godwit and curlew seek new feeding grounds and head to roost and while staying on Elmley, we will endeavour to capture this incredible sight. Unless you’re staying on the reserve, access isn’t permitted until 9am, by which time birds have settled and are feeding on the marsh and the light is well past its best. But, during this workshop on at least one morning, pre-dawn, we will drive deeper into the reserve (we'll be the only ones permitted to do so) where with luck we will photograph flocks as they fly across a blue-pink sky. A truly evocative sight if ever there was one!

Based in a charming cottage located within Elmley (the only UK National Nature Reserve offering overnight accommodation), and with the reserve closed to the public from 4pm until 9am, we will have the unique opportunity of exploring this wild landscape when the light is at its best and when wildlife is most active. 

The North Kent Marshes (which Elmley falls within) are not just about the birds. For me and for most that visit the draw to return is as much for the landscape as it is for the wildlife where many areas, notably the Hoo Peninsula and Elmley, have changed little since Charles Dickens wrote Great Expectations. Enveloping soul-stirring skies sweeping across endless vistas with age-old barns punctuating the landscape and cattle fences jutting into ditches; there is sure to be more than enough subject matter to keep us entranced and fuel our creativity.

Highlights
Out-of-hours access to Elmley 
Guidance and tuition from a north Kent  'native' 
Full-board accommodation on Elmley Nature Reserve
Small group of just 5 photographers
Bird and landscape photography tuition
Night walks
Breathtaking marsh landscape
Premier location for raptors and migrating waterfowl
Access to restricted areas
Image critique and tutorials

The workshop begins at 3 on the 8th where after a little settling-in time we’ll walk the short distance (with cameras and telephoto lenses, of course!) to nearby Sharfleet Creek where we will photograph the waterfowl as they fly to their night-time roosts. This a very special time of the day when the sight and sounds of the birds fill the marsh. After a couple of hours, no doubt we'll be ready for something hot to drink and shortly after we will enjoy dinner, over which we will discuss the following days’ events and where I will give a laptop presentation of my own work captured on Elmley made over the last 30 years. Each day will start and conclude with a dawn and dusk shoot either on the reserve or elsewhere close by and in between a variety of locations on the Kent Marshes featuring weathered wrecks and jetties, groynes, marsh pools and, perhaps, wild horses. It's not unusual at this time of the year to experience frost and fog (occasionally combining to form rime frost) which will give a very special atmospheric dimension to our photography and then there's the opportunity to experiment with ICM, black and white and long exposures. The possibilities are endless!

Hares and Owls
Elmley is renowned for its brown hares, barn and short-eared owls, and while there are no guarantees in nature there is a very good chance that we will encounter both, and almost certainly hares as we drive slowly across the reserve. Short-eared owl numbers are dictated by prey availability and if voles are in abundance it's not unusual to have several owls present on the reserve flying in broad daylight close to our accommodation. Hares, on the other hand, are far more predictable and we are likely to have numerous encounters (perhaps, even witnessing boxing) as we drive across the reserve at first and last light when they are most active.