Lands Meets Sea - MY final major project at Falmouth University
The lizard peninsula, a rugged and hilly coastline in the South West of Cornwall, it is the most southerly point of the UK. This could easily lead you to think it is a barren wasteland, smashed by the full might of the Atlantic and devoid of life. Thankfully, as I am going to reveal in this article, the Lizard peninsula is in fact a haven for wildlife.
My name is Nick, and since this is my first post on Substack, I thought I would introduce myself.
“Nick is a wildlife photographer and short film content creator aiming to engage people with wildlife across the planet. Based out of Devon and Cornwall in the UK, Nick is showcasing the incredible diversity that can be found all around us, including urban areas where people may not look initially. With numerous setbacks from a diagnosed chronic fatigue issue, Nick is attempting to prove that wildlife photography and storytelling can be accessed with a hinderance and is a case study of how perseverance, passion and a desire to conserve the animals of our world can overcome fatigue issues.”
This is a version of my recent artist statement and is true up until this point in my career. The nature of artist statements is change and this is an exciting concept because it is showing growth along a timeline.
The mention of chronic fatigue issues is vitally important to why I am doing any form of work at the Lizard Peninsula. I have long since wanted to work in Africa, from a child, I was obsessed. A sequence of events led me to the incredible opportunity of hosting my very own wildlife photography tour in Uganda, a dream come true!
During this time, I foolishly bit off far more than I could chew as I intended to film a documentary along the way - “How ecotourism is replacing poaching in Uganda.” A film idea I was very proud of and with the help of my local Ugandan Guide, Phenny Mbabazi (the most incredible, cooperative man I have ever met!) I was able to make this dream come to life.
This all sounds exciting and when I look back on this summer, I have fantastic memories but another problem born from my impatience and maybe even greed to some degree had developed. Because of my determination to be known, I was reaching out to lots of people and thankfully I was gifted a chance to rumble in the jungles of the Amazon rainforest again, in Suriname. Dick Lock, co owner of Unlock nature tours invited me to film promotional videos for his company and I was elated, the only problem was my upcoming Uganda trip and only having three months of summer in between university terms. One had to give surely? No one in their right mind would go to South America, let alone the harsh environment of the rainforest for 8 weeks before changing timezones by 7 hours and travelling in an equally harsh continent to lead their first photo tour and direct a film? Well, I clearly thought I had it in me, because this is exactly what I did…
The overall trips were an overwhelming success and I cannot be more pleased that I did them but my time at university over the following months would be the ying to my yang. Essentially, off the back of this absolute chaos of a summer, I returned to university the day after I landed and momentum/adrenaline fuelled me for the first few weeks before I had the almighty mother of all crash and burns.
My chronic fatigue issues had arisen several years before this trip after four lung collapses led to me having lung surgery. Putting me out of action for nearly a year once I caught Covid in my “recovery” phase from post surgery.
So for some reason, I thought I was invincible over summer and could do anything, my body thought otherwise..
Anyway, I had several choices to make with this information, do I continue to make the film in Uganda and risk non recoverable burn out? Or do I pivot slightly in order to create a realistic chance of finishing my course and enjoying my photography.
I chose the latter and after dabbling with various personal films on chronic fatigue I landed back on birds, long lens storytelling bird photos. This is what got me into wildlife photography in the first place and it was nice to return back to the enjoyment I had once had for the simpler wildlife shots on offer in the south west of England.
This project has been a revelation for me, spending countless hours hunkered on the cliff edges, hoping for a chough or fulmar to gracefully enter my frame. During the course of this project I have spent many hours on the lizard point, the most southerly place in the UK. Over this time I photographed 20+ species of bird including but not limited to -
Birds of prey - Kestrel, buzzard and the highlight species - Merlin
Song birds - Skylark, linnet, blackbird and black redstart
Corvids - Raven, magpie, crows, rooks and the famous Cornish Chough
Sea birds - Gannets, oystercatcher, fulmar
Other land dwelling birds - Stonechat, Wheatear, meadow pipit
There are more but these are certainly the highlights and it has been great fun braving the harsh easterly winds, lapping up the rare bouts of sunshine and struggling to follow the birds as they give me the run around. These challenges all add to the reward of such a photographic project, without these difficulties, I truly believe a good project would not exist.
My project focuses heavily on the relationship between predator and prey and how birds are doing everything they can to survive in a harsh environment. The importance of both the land and sea as separate entities is vital to this project. Although they are vastly different ecosystems they still allow for an overlap with species such as the Fulmar and Osyercatcher’s which utilise both elements to equal effect. My work has been heavily inspired by the likes of Kevin Morgans and Craig Jones who spend a lot of time on the cliffs of the UK photographing Puffins, Gannets and other Auk species. Kevin in particular has an incredible way of photographing these species in such a unique way that it always blows my mind. This may sound harsh but I feel the majority of Puffin photos are very standard and boring, but Kevin utilises his knowledge of light and extensive species research to conjure up opportunities for some truly breathtaking results. I have tried my best to take this inspiration into my own work where I have challenged myself to only include unique behaviours and actions such as the Magpie with a Slow Worm and the Meadow Pipits chasing each other.
To conclude, this project has helped me revitalise my enthusiasm for bird photography and challenged me to get out into nature during all manners of weather from extremely cold Easterly Winds to harsh, warm sunlight. I have loved the feeling of pushing myself with a goal in mind but also I allowed my expressive freedom to take control and returning to my roots has been nothing short of spectacular. I feel like I can take this into the future and use this momentum to create work I am proud of but also work that is meaningful and creates a connection between the reader and the animals I love to photograph.
Having fun, expressing myself and creating deep, meaningful work is at the core of what I want to achieve over the next several years and this project was the heart and soul of this philosophy.