January - a stormy month, some new tech and exciting news...

I can't believe January is nearly over already, how did that happen?!It's been probably the most extraordinary January I've ever had with some incredible opportunities presenting themselves which is going to mean I'm abroad for most of February but more of that later.I've had many property shoots for local estate agents and holiday properties to keep me busy this month, some portrait shoots, various press work and a very cool aerial shoot at Norwich Cathedral for well-known artist Brian Lewis.  I can't show any of the shots for a while as I need to make sure Brian has a chance to paint his commissioned pieces (for the Dean of Norwich, The Very Reverend Jane Hedges) before I publish any  of the photos (we don't want anyone else painting this unique view until Brian has got his done!)The year started with the (now) traditional New Year's Day Dip at Sheringham organised by good friend & fellow lifeboat crewmember Liam Cooper.  I always help out with the PR & some other bits & bobs but it's Liam's baby and he puts a huge amount of time and energy into organising this great event every year.   He started the dip three years ago and we had about 40 people, fast forward to 2019 and we had over 350 crazy dippers running into the icy waters and record amounts raised for Sheringham RNLI (£1,600 raised this year).  Well done Coops!Two local leg-ends - Coops (organiser of the Sheringham NYD Dip) and Clive Hedges (organiser of the Cromer Boxing Day Dip), between them they have been responsible for generating tens of thousands of pounds for many great local charities... Nice of Keith Richards to pop along!Thankfully the weather was calm for the dip but not long after we had the first storm of the year with strong Northerly winds whipping the North Sea into a frenzy.  Of course I couldn't resist heading down there to capture some of the exhilarating action... The day after the storm I headed to West Runton beach - I love a good beachcomb after a storm, you never know what you'll find washed up.  Sadly this time it was just an awful lot of plastic and polystyrene.  I posted a short video & some photos of the rubbish on the beach (while collecting as much as I could to take home & dispose of).  This was picked up by one of the local news reporters and ended up as an EDP news story!Mid January I purchased a new drone - the DJI Mavic 2 Pro - what a fantastic piece of kit - stunning image quality through the onboard Hassleblad Camera.  I thought I'd make the most of my CAA Night Flying Permissions and put the drone up on a clear night at Sheringham.  The results were quite amazing considering how long the exposure was.  The below shot was a 1 second exposure - I couldn't hand-hold a shot of that length and get a sharp image from it so how something flying 60m above the ground (sea actually!) could manage it is mind boggling! I was so impressed with the results I wanted to see how it would look doing a similar shot of Cromer Pier, again the results were amazing...The next day I took the Mavic 2 down to the lifeboat station and got some aerial shots of the chaps (and lady) doing some Sunday morning training... I had been asked to conduct a lower harbour survey at Blakeney Point for the Blakeney Harbour Association at the next low Spring tide so I took a walk out through the saltmarsh at Blakeney to get the shots they required.  Between getting the photos of the current positions of the buoyage and showing the shifting harbour entrance channel I grabbed some interesting shots of the scenery.  Below is a shot of some seals resting on the sand banks... Below is a plan view of the wreck of the SS Hjordis which sits by the entrance channel presenting a hazard to shipping... This last week the winds whipped up again once more and we were battered with 70mph gales and a 15ft swell.  I couldn't resist some shots of this intrepid local kite surfer, James, making the most of the conditions...As the storm raged on that night I spent an invigorating 2 hrs at Cromer Pier photographing the storm lashing the coast... I made a short video of the waves although it's not exactly broadcast quality!  With the winds blasting around and very little light it's a pretty wobbly & grainy video but hopefully it gives a sense of the energy out there that night. It's no wonder I had the pier to myself!Last year I was contacted by the production company that makes the Channel 5 TV show 'The Hotel Inspector, Checking In, Checking Out' (series 6, episode 4 if you are interested, 34 min in!) to see if I would be interested in being filmed photographing the rooms at The Swan, Harleston and discussing the importance of good photography with the host Alex Polizzi.   Apologies for the crumby screen grab below, it's the best resolution I could manage from their streaming version online...We had great fun at the filming, Alex was exactly as she comes across on screen - charming, in control and brilliantly honest!  The program was aired last night and the lovely Stacia Briggs was kind enough to write a piece for the EDP online yesterday to publicise it in advance......and finally in this update of what I've been up to... some very exciting news - in January I was invited to document an expedition to the Maasai Mara Reserve in Kenya for Biosphere Expeditions - two weeks filming and photographing the wildlife and the great work the volunteers carry out monitoring and protecting the many incredible species inhabiting the reserve.As you can imagine I am pretty excited about it and put a post on social media to outline my plans.  Shortly after the post went live I was contacted to ask if I was available the week beforehand to fly out to The Maldives for SwimQuest and document a trip they are organising for open water swimmers - swimming around the coral atolls, living aboard the 30m MV Emperor Voyager.  It's fair to say I didn't need long to think about it!  This is literally my absolute dream assignment, I have no idea where I can go from here but I am going to enjoy every single minute of it.  They arrange swims with manta rays, sharks, hopefully whale sharks too and who knows what other wonderful sealife.  I had to go out & buy a new underwater camera just to make sure I can do it justice!I will be posting the results of both trips on this blog once I return but if you are interested in following the photos as it happens I am hoping to keep my Instagram page regularly updated (wifi dependent) so please follow me here: @christaylorfotoSee you on the other side!