The pictures I didn’t take.

Do you know this feeling?

1. You know you have a once in a lifetime moment and you don’t have a camera with you to capture that moment.
2. You are in the middle of that wonderful moment and you forget to take a picture.

I get this a lot. Actually, writing this blog just shows me how many moments I don’t have a picture of. How am I going to show you that what I’m writing actually happened? You just have to take my word for it. 

If I think back on all the pictures I have missed, this would be my top 5…

1. The moment a dolphin jumped out of the water right next to my boat. There were 4 dolphins swimming around the boat that day. We were in shallow water and they were darting under the boats surfacing next to the boat and swimming off with their fins above the water. But they weren’t hunting, just doing a bit of a social swim with 2 kayakers. We were having the camera out and making some video as you can see. But on the moment the dolphin jumped out of the water right next to my boat we were looking in the wrong direction. The dolphin jumped in a split second, too late to point the camera in the right direction. It was awesome, you have to take my word for it.

2. The moment a sea eagle was hovering just 2 meters above Alexanders head. This moment just left me speechless for the rest of the day. You can read the whole story by clicking here. But, I haven’t got a picture to prove this actually happened…

3. The moment I smelled the very special scent of the breath of a whale because I was so close to the animal. It was on Trottenish point on Skye, we just came down from the Shiant Islands. This point is very well known for whale-spotting. At the high tide, the whales come to feed on the plankton in the currents. We noticed a whale feeding and paddled just a bit closer to see how close we could get. The whale surfaced just 5 meters from us, had a breath out and in and went under again. It left us in a cloud of perfumed air, well if you like the smell of overcooked cauliflower with a hint of fish. The trill of the moment made me forget to take a picture. A smell lingers longer in my memory, every time I smell cooked cauliflower it takes me back to that moment with the whale.

4. A picture of Tom Lepard because that would have been very inappropriate. You can read the full story of Tom by clicking here. It also explains also why I didn’t take pictures of Tom. Even if I wanted to take a picture now, it is not possible anymore. Tom is not with us anymore. 

5. A drunken piping band getting on the ferry in Tarbert because it was too dark. We were waiting with our kayaks on a trolly to take the 23.00-hour ferry from Tarbert to Uig on a Saturday evening. And there must have been an event because there were a lot of cars and people waiting for the same ferry. The boat already arrived 2 hours ago and it was time for the foot-passengers to go on the ferry. A bus stopped at the building and two pipping bands came out in full gear and instruments. One band was seeing off the other band. The home-staying band was piping a tune as a farewell. And the band that left wanted to pipe a tune back while walking on the walkway up the ferry. In itself a very nice gesture. But both piping bands seemed a bit unorganised. They were piping through each other’s tunes. The tunes were a bit untuned. The Drum Major looked a bit unsteady on his legs. And the whole piping band followed the unsteady leader up the walkway.  Not once but three times up and down. Both piping bands were absolutely sloshed propper. The Drum Majors gestures became bigger and bigger and the music became a variety of offtune tunes. The fake leopard skins of the drummers flying in all different directions. This went on for a while and foot-passengers were dodging passed the drummers and pipers to get on board of the ferry. But it was way too dark to make a good picture and we didn’t have a videocamera back then. You just have to believe it was hilarious to watch these two drunken piping bands. Onboard of the ferry the piping band sat in the bar of the ship. In various states of drunkenness. Still playing a tune or vast asleep on a chair. Not as much fun to take a picture now.

Yes, I know, it is terrible that I don’t have pictures. Perhaps you have imagination enough to make an image in your head of what all these events may have looked like. I’m sure I’m not the only one with a lively imagination!

Charlotte Gannet.