And so it was on one fine summer morning that Kayla and I set out just after sunrise to walk along the Heritage Trail to Dep’s Beach and beyond. The sun was popping in and out of the morning cloud cover, the coastal wind was still light, and the Nankeen kestrels were keeping us company.
We past the spot of the swirling seas and we made it to the western end of Dep’s Beach without encountering any kangaroos, runners, photographers or trail bike riders.
I had a photoshoot planned of the rocks lying west of the beach–I envisioned a picture of the granite rocks with soft morning light playing across their surface with a bit of cloud above them.
It was all looking pretty good.
Then we came across a dead seal that had been washed up on the western end of beach, just past the little fresh water creek. That was the end of my planned photoshoot. I had my hands busy trying to stop Kayla from tearing chunks off the seal’s flesh, after she finished dancing in circles around the carcass.
Whilst fighting with Kayla I decided to take some photos of the carcass, since it was possible that the seal wouldn’t be lying on beach the following morning. I did not know whether there would be a high tide in the next 24 hours, nor did I know what the early morning light would be like the next day.
I had left photographing dead sea birds before, planning to come back with film cameras, only to discover the high tides had washed them back to the ocean. So I took advantage of the cloud cover to photograph the carcass until the cloud cover broke up. That happened in a matter of minutes.