WATCH: Inverness man's award for Moray Firth dolphin snaps

The life's work of an Inverness photographer whose book tells the story of the Moray Firth's famous dolphins is being recognised across Scotland.

The Elgin-based publisher behind it, and the Highland capital man himself, have spoken to MFR News about being in the spotlight.

There's fierce competition across Scotland twice a year to win at the Scottish Nature Photography Awards, and it's in that very national spotlight that Charlie Phillips found himself in, after his book 'On A Rising Tide' took the Favourite Nature Book for 2016 title.

The book features Charlie's snaps of the Moray Firth's bottlenose dolphins which are a major tourist attraction in the North.

He told us: "Over the course of a day, maybe two or three-thousand-photographs get taken, but probably half of those can get binned. It's not all to do with skill and good camera gear, some of it is luck, some of it is just being in the right place at the right time."

"The Kessock channel, or Chanonry Point, or up towards Cromarty offer different backdrops for these pictures."

"Over the course of a day, maybe two or three-thousand-photographs get taken" CHARLIE PHILLIPS

It's the first book of its kind that Elgin-based Ness Publishing have got involved with, and owner Eithne Nutt believes with the help of Charlie's book the dolphins have drawn in more and more tourists to the area.

She told MFR News: "It's a real passion for Charlie. He's captured them in all aspects of their life - from eating, playing, leaping. He describes all their activities beautifully in his words throughout the book.

"People now come to the Moray Firth, they visit Charlie at his business in North Kessock, and even the car park at Chanonry Point has been re-developed to cope with the number of dolphin-spotters flocking to the area."

• Moray
• Dolphin