Wildlife photography can be demanding enough at the best of times but doing it with flash is a task that is not for the faint hearted. Wendy Ball, a local photographer from Steyning Camera Club explained its fascination and the journey she took to master its techniques and trials. She began a few years ago with no experience and little understanding and sought assistance from others to begin to learn the requirements and techniques. Dave Plummer at Knepp, John Gooday and Tom Robinson were her first mentors and she showed us a tawny owl, otters, kingfishers and herons from her early work with fixed flash set ups. At times she floundered and was bewildered as well as poorer as she was buying new equipment to further her craft. Camera trapping and trail cameras were soon added to the list and she prepared a set up in her own garden describing the trials of setting up multiple flash guns, triggers and cameras all of which needed protection from the elements and rigorous testing as they inevitably remained outside overnight. Foxes and hedgehogs as well as birds illustrated her progress. As her confidence grew and she mastered the technicalities she was able to experiment with different lighting effects. A commission to print a heron image on metal 2 metres wide testified to her success. Restrictions on making adjustments to wildlife photographs meant that getting it right in camera was especially important. Badgers, swallows and puffins at different sites resulted in stunning images after intense preparation. Kingfishers in flight are now well within her competence in this challenging genre of photography.