What do you give your Dad who has everything he needs, including the recent acquisition of a digital SLR? The answer was simple, a trip to Skomer Island with Andy. This was a great excuse for a boy’s day out and adventure. We are enthusiastic but strictly amateur photographers and we were slightly worried we might lack the finer camera skills. This was something we should not have worried about Andy is an excellent teacher with the patience of a saint! I don’t know how many times he reminded me how to hold the camera!

We covered setting up the cameras quickly and easily despite our basic knowledge, it was then straight into taking photographs and how best to compose them. The puffins played their part well adding to a great experience. Andy’s knowledge does not stop with photography, being able to tell us all about the island and the wildlife including its geology!

Reviewing our first attempts at lunch gave us further pointers and the afternoon taking landscapes gave us further skills.

I can highly recommend the day and would love to go again in the near future as I am sure we only scrapped the surface of Andy’s knowledge and skills.

Keith Westlake