Coming Out of the Dark

The story behind this image:

This is my favourite picture - it means so much to me for so many reasons.

It’s the culmination of a lot of years honing my craft, months and months of returning to the same spot every chance I could in the hope that one day I my persistence would be rewarded and from a much more personal perspective, my own resilience in the face of serious life changing illness.

For three years I tried to capture the perfect dive shot and failed. One day after several weeks of not even seeing a kingfisher I decided to take a break and meet a friend for coffee. He didn’t know the river so I brought him down for a walk. I don’t mix humans with my camera - it’s one or the other or both suffer so this day I left the camera behind. After all there had been no sightings for weeks so I figured what are the chances.

I should have known better…

On that day conditions were absolutely perfect - still water, no wind, lots of light and yes a kingfisher. Not only a kingfisher but one preening and diving up and down and up and down more times in 10 minutes than I’d seen in the previous 6 months.

‘Oh that’s such a pretty bird’ remarked my friend. ‘Yes’ I calmly replied (on the outside). On the inside I was screaming at him how he had ruined my day and my life and that if he’d never been born then I would have been at the river with my camera instead of standing there with him and no camera, missing the opportunity of a lifetime.

But then I calmed down and got philosophical about it and decided since there was nothing I could do about that, that I may as well just enjoy the moment for a change.

It was then I realised that after he dives in he has to come back out again. Up to that point I had always stopped shooting after he dived in. I decided in that moment to try a new approach, to try to capture him coming out of the water instead. That change in approach had an immediate impact and upped my game to a new level.

Don’t get me wrong though - for every shot I’m happy with there are still a few hundred in the bin and many long days sitting just waiting with nothing to show at the end of the day other than a nice relaxing day out down by the riverside. It’s like fishing - you go expecting nothing then you’ll never be disappointed if you come home with no photos.

I really love this shot - it’s featured in my personal project The Heart of the Mater which recounts in images my experience of critical illness and recovery.

It also reached the final of the Canon Red Line Challenge, a competition run across 91 countries last summer. It’s an achievement I’m very proud of - it validates all the long hours waiting for something to happen, all the different techniques and experiments and different settings I’ve tested out in pursuit of the perfect shot.

I have a copy of this on my own wall to remind me every day that life is worth the effort. If you have a loved one facing a challenge in their own life I can think of no more fitting gift than a copy of this print.