It’s a public holiday here so our breakfast discussion went like this…..“What are we going to do today”, I said. “Let’s go out somewhere really special”, he said. So, we ended up at Gweek – yes, there really is a village in Cornwall called Gweek – but that’s not by any means the most bizarre name here. Anyway, Gweek was our destination because our national seal sanctuary is there, partly I suspect because we have more coastline than land relative to other parts of the UK. Anyway, we certainly have seals in these parts.

I was a bit nervous about taking my 200mm lens because even though it was quite a bright day, I was concerned I’d not get fast enough shutter speeds to avoid camera shake. In the circumstances, I reckon I’ve got some nice shots – sharp and intimate so I’m glad I made that choice. I’ve posted a little gallery of some of the other shots I took. So, after it being my potd choice of lens on only a handful of occasions, it’s made the cut today. Not only that, but it’s the fourth day in a row that animals have been my subjects – I wonder if there is a theme coming on here.

Strangely, this wouldn’t have been top of my list of shots to post as my potd but DM liked it and he’s posting a seal so I thought I’d go for his suggestion.

We have the seal sanctuary here, as well as a couple of owl sanctuaries and a monkey sanctuary too. There is a strange history to monkeys in the UK – in Hartlepool, a French ship was wrecked during the Napoleonic wars and the residents of the town hanged the ship’s monkey, the only survivor of the wreck believing it to be a French spy. A lack of education mixed with fear to make the locals believe the monkey was a human from another country. The Cornish coast is littered with similar stories and of course we are much closer to France – there is a village here called Catchfrench and we suspect that its name has a similar origin…..and the monkey sanctuary is nearby!!!

So, we’ve had a cool day and we’ve seen some fantastic critters being helped back to good health by the sanctuary. What more could we want?

Last year, back at home and in our studio, I shot leftovers from Christmas.....soon we will have a studio again!