An incredible wildlife photographer from Cornwall is training the next generation of photographers - by teaching his kids how to get amazing shots of animals. Few photographers are as committed as 41-year-old Martin Yelland as he'll go to almost any length to get the perfect picture.
Over the years he's swam with seals, disguised himself as a puffin, and waited for hours and hours to capture rare moments between illusive critters - including the dance between courting kingfishers. Martin said he still gets the same buzz out of wildlife photography that he did when he began eight years ago - and now he wants to pass that on to the next generation.
Martin, a postie from St Erth, has been training his two sons, Ruan, five, and Noah, seven, by teaching them about birdwatching and how to operate a camera. Now, Martin's son, who is just five, has had his first picture published in a magazine.
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Martin said: "I think this is the eighth year I’ve been into wildlife photography. I still get the same buzz as when I started. I used to bodyboard loads and still get in the sea occasionally.
"My boys are keen bird watchers and recently my five-year-old got his first picture of a woodpecker in a magazine which is pretty exciting."
In May last year, Martin disguised himself as a puffin to take stunning photos of the birds in their natural habitat, wearing a decoy puffin on his head. Then in September, he donned his scuba suit to pap a pod of seals playing beneath the waves.
In 2021, he had a once-in-a-lifetime experience when an inquisitive blue shark decided to swim close to him for more than an hour during a snorkelling trip off Penzance.
In March this year he snapped amazing pictures of two kingfishers in an intimate courtship moment. But this summer it was forest animals that caught his eye.
He said: "The badger and fox were on my friend's land, on a woodland trail. I used a digital camera with a motion sensor and a low powered flash, and it's amazing what we capture.
"The two otters are my highlight! We don't feed the wildlife, they are 100 per cent natural images. Sometimes you go months without capturing much at all, and other nights you get otters, badgers and foxes all within minutes of one another.
"It is such a rewarding feeling when you get some good images, just showing wildlife acting naturally, and the variety still amazes me. You just don't know what might show up.
"The puffins were from a recent trip to Skomer island in west Wales which is an absolutely stunning place."
More of Martin's incredible photographs can be seen on his Instagram account or on Chough.rock.
