**Noss Head Lighthouse. A HDR image taken on a whistle stop trip to drop my daughter off at an archaeological dig.**

This is just a very quick update on what is happening at Scott Tilley photography at the minute. Coincidentally this summer has turned out to be one of my busiest and most difficult! The number of workshops and one to ones I do has increased greatly which is absolutely fantastic. My daughter is working on her dissertation and as she doesn’t drive and sampling needs to be done in the North of Scotland it is a fantastic opportunity to mix in some photography. She also needs transport to a dig near Wick in the far north east, again all good as far as photography is concerned. I was also training for a full Ironman triathlon at the end of July so as you can imagine spare time was at a premium.

**A hastily taken image of a Common Blue butterfly taken during a quiet moment on one of my Macro Photography Workshops.**

**An image taken well over a year ago but never processed. This is certainly one of my favourite images and it would have stayed hidden on my hard drive if I wasn’t laid up after surgery!**

So, busy as you can see but not impossible especially when your doing the things you love. I was all on course in April and had just started to up my training from around seven hours a week to the required eleven to fifteen. It was at this point I somehow developed a hernia and everything was put in jeopardy. Being a triathlete teaches you one thing if nothing else and thats organisation. At first I tried to train with it on the advice of my GP. I did wonder why she was smiling when I asked if I could train with it! After a couple of weeks I knew it wasn’t going to be possible, and not having a date to be operated on I decided my only course of action was to pull out of my event.

After a couple of months I finally got a date for surgery (8th August) That really helped as it enabled me to reschedule a few things get my macro workshops done early and make the landscape ones later when I should be fully fit again. I also had to reschedule a couple of one to ones but both clients where very understanding.

I’m currently writing this a few days after the surgery and doing as I’m told so that my recovery is fast and without complications. Over the next few months you should get some images from the far north of Scotland appearing on the site and perhaps a wild camp in the Lake District?

Dates for 1-2-1 photography days are still available and you can book a date of your choosing directly on this website, just follow the links. I will then contact you for some further information on your camera setup as well as organising a suitable location to meet up. I tend to chose this nearer the day depending on weather, light and also your location.

I have to say a big thanks to all the staff at Kings Mill Hospital for looking after me. In the end I had an injection in the back so was awake throughout the operation. Unfortunately for me this numbed my legs but with twenty minutes to go I could feel pretty much everything!. I only have myself to blame for this really. Being a triathlete, pain pretty much comes as part of the training and racing deal, and not having had surgery before I wasn’t sure if this was normal, I just locked my jaw and took the pain until the last stitch when the surgeon noticed the grimace! I advised him I could feel everything and they hastily gave me some more local anaesthetic! As I say I really should have opened my mouth, it was certainly an experience. The images in this update blog are a selection of the images i have managed to take either before surgery or as I now recover at home.

Keep an eye out on the website for more updates and if your interested take a look at my courses and workshops page. This list is not exhaustive however and I am always happy for clients to come to me with the own ideas for a day out with the camera, just contact me in all the usual ways.