Ok, these are the last of my photos.  I finally sat down last night and went through them all.

Day 1, ie the Saturday, this was our first photoshoot and we took the photographer, Rob McDougall, to Sandness beach.  The afternoon winter light was superb and the sea looked like mercury.

We found out what worked and what didn’t and quickly discovered our models’ motivation – a bucket of conditioning nuts that I am feeding to my Icelandic stallion.  They are nice and rattly as well as being invisible on the ground.  Fivla and Vitamin could not eat them fast enough.

There was also the bag-on-a-stick (an old tried and tested method) which we rustled and waved about when we wanted the girls to raise their heads and look interested.  Other methods used were yelling, whistling and playing mobile phone tunes.

Day 2, Sunday, we were up early and off to Lunga Water, just outside Sandness. The light was perfect.  Shetland at its very best.

To say it was freezing seems an understatement. We perfected our skills such as dressing and undressing Fivla and Vitamin.  All those buttons underneath their bellies and freezing cold fingers was not a good combination.

After Lunga Water, we drove about a bit trying to find good locations.  The mode of communication was if anyone saw a potential place, to flash their lights at the car in front to signal it to stop.  Mobile phones are sporadic with their signals up here.  An old boat was mentioned but it was quickly rejected.

So we drove up to The Black Ward (top of a hill with the old water works) and Rob decided he liked the view over Stennestwatt and beyond.

Lunch, defrosting and boats were mentioned again so back to Sandness and down to Bousta, which is a charming horse-shoe shaped inlet with views over Ronas Hill, the other side of the sea.  By this stage we had it all down to a fine art.  We knew what to do and when.  Each person had a specific role and we were an efficient team.  Surprisingly, for us, there was no shouting, no panic and we all got on very well, having a laugh as we went.

The light was now fading and Rob was hoping for a spectacular sunset so we headed down to Dale Beach.  This lovely quiet spot has Foula in the background.  Magical.  No sunset but there were some good photos taken.

With that, we packed up and went home, exhausted but happy with the knowledge of a job well done!

And I promise never to talk about this again.  Tomorrow it will be back to the usual Shetland pony and/or Icelandic horsery stuff interrupted by an occasional whinge!

I like to think my photos were not too bad either.