The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men...

The plan was good.

The tiny slither of sunrise soon disappeared behind thick grey cloud. The morning sky promised nothing good for the blip I wanted and it wasn't far short of 11am when the day brightened enough to contemplate heading down to the fish farm. Too late.

The first rule is that dogs are welcome but keep them out of the ponds.
Yeah right! If you were a Cocker Spaniel and a whopping great trout stuck it's head out of the water to taunt you, would you stay on dry land? As soon as I raised the camera, Maera took her opportunity to launch and my first shot clearly displayed her tail!

Two dogs back in the car, one of which holds more water in her coat than the kitchen sink... this morning isn't going to plan!

I had a walk around with the farm manager to decide which would be the best pond to shoot. The brown trout jump best, but were still digesting their breakfast, and with the day about as light as night were loathe to display their agility.

Return to the car to get a tripod. Rule number two. Never leave two dogs in a car leaving the keys in the ignition lest there's a window open wide enough to get your arm in to remove them! Thirty five minutes and a fair number of expletives later, I finally managed to hook the keys on a stick and jiggle them enough to remove them from the ignition and avoid breaking the glass.

The day wasn't getting any better and the essentials for a good shot, light, patience and good humour, had all but vanished.

I did get a few shots of trout jumping but I either got blurred fish or an almost black image as, surprise, surprise, the batteries in the flash unit were flat.

The rest of the day wasn't much better... Fail!