Join Nikon School for a 3-Day Wildlife Photography Experience in Yorkshire
Immerse yourself in the beauty of British wildlife on this exciting 3-day workshop with Nikon School. Weather permitting, you’ll witness the breathtaking spectacle of diving gannets—an unforgettable sight (and sound) — as well as havingthe opportunity to photograph a variety of seabirds and other wildlife at some of Yorkshire’s finest nature reserves.
This experience takes place both on land and at sea (conditions allowing), offering diverse settings to practice and enhance your photography skills. Throughout the workshop, we’ll cover key aspects of wildlife photography, from composition and camera settings to field techniques and photographing from hides.
Whether you're a passionate enthusiast or looking to take your wildlife photography to the next level, you'll come away with stunning images and a deeper understanding of how to capture nature at its best.
Explore, Learn, and Create in Scotland’s Most Scenic Glen
4-Night Workshop | Limited to 6 Places
Welcome to Glencoe – The Heart of the Highlands
Often referred to as the gateway to the Scottish Highlands, Glencoe is arguably Scotland’s most dramatic and photogenic glen. With its towering peaks, sweeping moorlands, and historic glacial valleys, Glencoe is a landscape photographer’s paradise. From the wild expanse of Rannoch Moor to the cinematic beauty of Glen Etive – famously featured in the James Bond film Skyfall – and on through to the tranquil village of Glencoe itself, this region offers stunning photographic opportunities at every twist and turn.
About the Workshop
This 4-night photography workshop is crafted specifically for beginner to intermediate landscape photographers looking to deepen their understanding of field techniques in landscape photography and how to use post-processing to finish your images. Whether you're new to the genre or looking to refine your approach, this trip provides a practical and supportive environment to help you build confidence, creativity, and control over your landscape photography.
What You’ll Learn
While enjoying the awe-inspiring Scottish landscapes, you’ll develop a wide range of skills, including:
Ideally, participants should have a basic understanding of the exposure triangle, but no advanced experience is required.
Why Join Us?
Are you a passionate photographer looking for a creative escape that blends adventure, learning, and inspiration?
Our Glencoe photography workshop is designed to offer:
Small Group, Big Benefits
To ensure personalised support and 1-to-1 attention, we limit this workshop to just 6 participants. This small group dynamic means:
Ready to Join Us in Glencoe?
Pack your gear, bring your curiosity, and immerse yourself in the stunning Highland scenery. Whether you’re aiming to improve your technical skills or simply want to be inspired, this workshop offers a perfect balance of learning and exploration.
An outline itinerary is as follows, but please note this is very weather dependent. We may need to change the arrangements and locations at the last minute as the weather can be very unpredictable in the Scottish Highlands in February.
Monday 29th June 2026
Weather permitting, we will meet early in the morning at Bridlington Harbour for introductions and a briefing. We'll cover what to expect during the workshop, including recommended camera settings, lens choices, and tips for photographing from a boat.
From there, we will set sail on our exclusive boat charter into Bridlington Bay. As we navigate the waters, we’ll keep an eye out for dolphins, as well as seabirds returning to their nests with fish and sand eels.
Continuing past the stunning coastal geology, we will round Flamborough Head, taking in views of its iconic lighthouse, seal colonies, and the unique rock formation known as the ‘Drinking Dinosaur’.
Our sea journey culminates at the Staple Newk rock arch, offering fantastic opportunities to photograph seabirds including puffins, guillemots, and razorbills and the vast seabird colonies from a dramatic ocean perspective. Next, we head out to the gannet feeding grounds—a highlight of the day. Here, we will witness and photograph hundreds of gannets diving at over 50 mph, creating breathtaking scenes as they plunge into the sea, surface with fish and compete for their catch.
After this exhilarating session, we’ll return to shore and travel to RSPB Bempton Cliffs for lunch and refreshments at the café.
Depending on the light and weather in the afternoon, we’ll either conduct a photo editing session, reviewing images and techniques or head out onto the cliffside paths to photograph the seabirds and local wildlife in natural light.
Bempton Cliffs offers a unique experience as the seabirds will often be flying below or parallel with you given the height of the sea cliffs. Bird species might include Gannets, Puffins, Guillemots, Fulmars and Razorbills to name a few, but this is entirely dependent on the time of year and weather. We will be exploring the reserve for the best light to work with, so be prepared for a little bit of walking to ensure you can get good images.
Alongside the seabirds you may also have the chance to photograph swallows, swifts, kestrels, brown hares, wildflowers, meadows, and farmland birds, including one of the UK’s few remaining tree sparrow populations.
We’ll return to the RSPB café for late-afternoon refreshments and a wrap-up Q&A session, reviewing the day's highlights and answering any questions.
The next couple of hours are yours to relax, return to your hotel to upload your images, or continue exploring the area.
Weather permitting, we’ll regroup later for an optional sunset shoot at Bempton. This is a fantastic chance to capture golden hour shots of the cliffs and seabirds and possibly photograph the elusive barn owls in the fading light
As night moves in we will conclude the first day of the workshop and return to our hotels, to recharge batteries, backup memory cards ready for our next days adventure.
Tuesday 30th June 2026
Weather permitting, we’ll begin the day with an optional sunrise shoot from the cliff tops at Bempton. This location offers stunning views and incredible early-morning light, perfect for capturing seabirds and the dramatic coastline. After the shoot, we’ll return to our hotels for breakfast. Once we’ve regrouped, we’ll head out to explore a couple of carefully selected nearby wildlife hotspots, chosen specifically for their excellent wildlife photography opportunities. This day is all about following the light — adjusting our locations and timing to make the most of conditions and give you the best chance to capture compelling images.
These locations offer the chance to photograph a wide variety of wildlife, including: Wading birds, Wild kingfishers, Brown hares, Marsh frogs, Woodpeckers, Hawks and falcons and a range of woodland birds.
Depending on the day’s plan, we’ll either stop at a local café or pick up supplies from a supermarket in the morning to enjoy a lunch on location. This gives us flexibility and ensures we don’t miss key wildlife activity during peak shooting hours.
If the evening light looks promising, we’ll return to Bempton for an optional sunset session. This is a fantastic opportunity to photograph the seabirds in golden light, and again we may even get a chance to see and photograph Barn owls.
Wednesday 1st July 2026
It's our final day and as always, we’ll keep a close eye on the weather and are happy to head out for an optional early morning pre-breakfast sunrise shoot if conditions – and your energy levels – allow!
The morning offers another exciting opportunity to photograph diving gannets at sea. The first boat trip can be an overwhelming (and thrilling!) experience, so this second exclusive charter gives you the chance to refine your techniques, experiment with composition, and capture even more dramatic action shots. As before, we’ll head out to the gannet feeding grounds by boat, with the added bonus of possibly encountering dolphins and a variety of other seabirds.
Once we return to the harbour, we’ll break for lunch. In the afternoon, depending on light conditions, we’ll either return to the Bempton cliff tops or visit another carefully chosen local wildlife spot to make the most of our final photography session.
We’ll conclude the workshop with a relaxed Q&A session to review your experiences, answer any remaining questions, and offer final tips for your continued photography journey. Then it’s time to say our farewells before everyone departs for home.
More Information:
Diving Gannets / Boat Trip
Subject to the weather and sea conditions we expect to spend a 3 to 4 hours out on the sea. We will sail with the tides which can mean a very early start at 5, 6 or 7am, however sometimes we will go with the afternoon tides around 1 or 2pm. Exact timings will be provided in the joining instructions a few days before the course. We would normally finish the workshop on the cliffs at Bempton around 3pm - 4pm depending on the activity levels of the birds with the option of returning in the late evening for a sunset shoot.
Please note that we sail on a medium sized deep sea fishing boat, which can roll around in the North sea swell, this course is not recommended for anyone who suffers from motion or sea sickness.
Kit:
A DSLR or Mirrorless camera plus second camera body if you have one
Batteries (and spares)
Memory cards (and spares)
Waterproof cover for camera and lenses
Lenses:
From the boat, lenses such as 70-200mm, 180-600mm or 100-400mm would be ideal. Sometimes the Gannets can get really close, so 24-120mm or 24-70mm or similar can also work. At the RSPB reserve on the cliffs, Focal lengths of 400, 500 and 600mm are recommended as well as binoculars for spotting the birds. In some instances a 70-200mm can be used. In the wild meadows, there are also sometimes opportunities for macro photography of flowers and butterflies. For the locations with hides, lenses with focal lengths between 500mm and 800mm are best.
Clothing:
Please bring appropriate clothing with you such as a windproof and waterproof jacket and trousers. A layered approach to clothing i.e base layer, mid layer / fleece then over jacket is the best approach as it can often get chilly out at sea even on a bright sunny day. Appropriate walking boots or wellies are also recommended.
Food:
When we are at Bempton Cliffs, we suggest you have lunch at the cafe at RSPB Visitor centre. However, feel free to bring your snacks and refreshments to have on the boat or while out on the cliffs. When we are out exploring the other locations we will endeavour to stop at a local supermarket for supplies or find a cafe / restaurant for lunch. Food / refreshments are not included in the price of the workshop.
Adverse Weather:
The boat sailing aspect of the workshop is dependent on favorable weather conditions. You will be notified by e-mail or text the evening before the workshop to confirm if we will be sailing. The skippers decision is final on this. If the trip is cancelled due to rough seas or other unforeseen circumstances then you will be offered an alternate workshop date. Please note that the sailing aspect of the workshop may be postponed / cancelled right up to the moment we plan to sail due to the weather conditions.
Wildlife Encounters:
This workshop focuses on photographing wildlife in their natural habitats. As such, we cannot guarantee sightings or opportunities to photograph specific species. However, based on our extensive experience and local knowledge, we will guide you to locations where we have personally and consistently photographed a variety of wild birds and animals. That said, wildlife can be unpredictable and at times elusive — part of the beauty and challenge of working in nature.
Other:
Parking and entrance to Bempton Cliffs for RSPB members is free, for non members you will have to pay (currently £6.50). If we visit any nature reserves they may also have small entrance fees for non members.
You will also need to pay for parking at the Bridlington Harbour car park and any food or refreshments at the RSPB cafe.
There are toilet facilities at RSPB Bempton Cliffs and Bridlington Harbour and at most of the other locations we may visit. There are no toilet facilities on the boat.
Bean bags that allow photography from cars or hides are could also be useful.
If you would like to borrow any cameras and lenses for this course please get in contact with us at [email protected] with your request and we will do our best to bring it along. We usually need around 2 weeks notice to arrange any loan requests if the stock is available.
This is a Photographic workshop and will we prioritise the opportunity for you to shoot great images above everything. We will plan each day around the weather and light, which means that meal times may be at non standard times and we may start the the day very early and be out until late in the evening if the light and weather permits. Depending on the weather and light we aim to visit several locations that have been specifically chosen for spectacular photography. Please note that in the event of severe weather the locations may have to be altered at last minute.
Fitness:
Most of the locations will involve walking on paths and heather covered moors. Some of the locations may require a walk along uneven and steep mountain tracks. At Bempton Cliffs expect to walk around 5 - 8 miles depending on how much of the reserve you want to cover. Because of this, a moderate to high level of fitness will be required on this course
Accommodation:
Is not included in this workshop. The workshop will start and finish each day at the Kinghouse Hotel in Glencoe.
Transport:
Please make your own way to Glencoe. During the workshop we would encourage travelling in shared vehicles to each location wherever possible.
Joining Instructions:
We will provide further information about course times in the joining instructions closer to the workshop starting when we have better understanding of the weather conditions. We will also host a Zoom pre-briefing session a few months before the course to answer any questions.
If you have any questions about this workshop, feel free to get in touch at [email protected]
Hot sun and light breezes made a perfect backdrop to photographing seabirds from a boat. Gannets dived, razorbills carried small fish homewards and Neil offered helpful guidance and advice, loan lenses and compositional tips. On the cliff tops, the birds jostled, took off and landed in their thousands, as bright sunlight and dark shadow presented challenges. Rachel supplemented Neil’s tuition with her own experience and insights. I took a lot of photos, some pleasing. It was a memorable day.
Matthew T.
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