Behind The Photo
The client wanted a context view of their new extension to Barnstaple Museum. I decided to use my drone to get an aerial view and spent some time working through the risk assessments and accessing the FlySafe database to work out where I could safely fly.
I had noticed earlier in the day that there was a large bird population gathered on a spit in the centre of the river, so I set the drone along a path far and wide to avoid them.
The best-laid plans didn’t take into account a passing oystercatcher - on the right of the photograph - which nudged the underside of the drone and sent it toppling into a tree. To my relief, the bird was fine, and my due diligence had made sure that my flight path was people free.
I managed to contact a cherry-picker company who came around and removed the drone from the tree for an eye-watering fee.
There is an element of chance in photography that no amount of preparation can control. Henri Cartier-Bresson famously explored the idea of the decisive moment - that fleeting instant when things briefly come together. The expected photograph was suddenly interrupted by another world.
I love the confidence of the oystercatcher as it enters the frame. From my perspective, it seems almost indignant at the presence of this strange mechanical object within its airspace. The drone might have given me an elevated view over Barnstaple, but the bird reminds me that height does not automatically give us dominion.
For a fraction of a second, the photograph turns the normal hierarchy upside down. The buildings, bridge, roads and museum represent a world shaped almost entirely around human needs, yet the oystercatcher cuts effortlessly across it all. It seems completely at home.
The bird belongs to another geography altogether - one made up of river, mudflat, and air. And by chance, for a divine fraction of a second, our two worlds met inside this photograph.
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What stays with readers
That aura, those echoes - the muted light is transporting. What a space to feel rooted in history. I'd love to make that journey myself; you've stirred the opera lover and architectural dreamer in me.
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