A weekend at the coast

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Did you know 2023 is the Year of the Coast? Well…apparently so. If you’re into all that touristy marketing stuff, then this year is the turn of The Coast. Lucky for me, there’s plenty of nice coastline that’s relatively accessible from my little corner of Kent. From the old church ruins on the coast at Reculver to the White Cliffs to the otherworldly vibe of Dungeness and the old fishing boats (albeit rapidly disappearing it seems), there’s plenty to shoot and enjoy.

Recently I’ve been re-discovering an old part of the coast that I remember visiting as a kid, but not much in the last few <coughs> decades. Shakespeare beach is pretty iconic. The towering Shakespeare cliff dominates the view down the coast towards Samphire Hoe and on to Folkestone. I’ve been back a couple of times in recent weeks, trying to find some new compositions. It’s one of those places where there is one very obvious subject, but a limited number of options in terms of composition. That hasn’t stopped me from trying though, and I’ve enjoyed pottering around and trying to come up with something other than just plonking my tripod down and taking a quick shot. It’s a location too that seems to enjoy some of the biggest waves on the East Kent coast, even with only a moderate wind.

38mm ƒ/8.0 1/6 ISO100

Last time I visited, I noted there were some opportunities that, for whatever reason, I didn’t take advantage of (probably too distracted by the cliffs). Nothing particularly exciting, but the rocks and the sea made for some potential I didn’t really explore. This time howevever, with only a short amount of time available to me, I made my way further up the beach and tried out a couple of alternative shots, including of some old groynes (which seemed to be a theme of my weekend) that I hadn’t spotted on my last visit. I’ll be back there for more in the near future no doubt.

17mm ƒ/8.0 30secs ISO250

17mm ƒ/5.6 6secs ISO400

It’s this looking for details that I decided to focus on the following morning on a trip to The Warren near Folkestone. Thanks to a lift from the yellow jacket wearing Aga McPherson due to issues with my car (more on this another time), we spent a pretty cool (and overcast) morning wandering around the beach capturing the groynes and making the most of the perfect conditions for long exposure photography. Largely having the beach to ourselves, we set to work on capturing the classic East Kent location.

15mm ƒ/5.6 0.8secs ISO100

17mm ƒ/8.0 1/4 ISO100

I’ve been to The Warren a fair few times in the past, and I always go for the same shots. Decaying groynes, water lapping or crashing around them, getting those textures in the water and on the groynes themselves. This time, however, I tried to look for some details on the beach. There’s always plenty of interest dotted around (it’s always been known as a good spot for fossil hunting - something that was an interest of mine as a child), and so I decided to see if I could get some more abstract shots on the beach, looking our for interesting details. This isn’t normally my style. I prefer the bigger, classic landscape views, but it was good to change things up and look for details…this is something that I’ve certainly found has improved as I’ve gone out and done more street photography.

I think perhaps my favourite of these that morning was this shot of an interesting rock (words I never thought I’d type on a blog post…). The mixture of orange and black, alongside the textures and shapes that have been formed by years of erosion made it more interesting than the average rock (again…words I never thought I’d type…). It was tricky to get the shot right, I’m not one for this kind of photography and rather than have the patience to focus stack it, I just tried to get it in one shot. Think I did ok.

70mm ƒ/8.0 3secs ISO100

It’s this sort of thing I think I need to do more of out in the landscape. Look for finer details. Try to look beyond the obvious shots. Nothing wrong with obvious shots, of course. Just, well, they are obvious. As I said before, I think my street photography helps here. I’m getting used to looking for little details here and there, pockets of light, interesting colours, shapes and textures. Bringing that kind of mentality to my landscape photography might help give a new dimension to my photography. Who knows, it may result in me investing in a macro lens and really going for those finer details. Ahhh, GAS. I wondered how long it would be before you would tap me on the shoulder and throw a new temptation in my face…

Right, off to check the tide times to work out where to head this weekend…hmm…

A trip to Aylesford

As you know, I currently shoot with an Nikon D7200 and Fuji XT3. The latter I prefer for my street photography, particularly given its size and quality, the former for my landscapes and seascapes. Sometimes I like to take both out with me, particulary in locations that are close to town centres, as it means I can get a bit of street photography and a bit of landscape all in one trip (lord knows time is so precious these days). The two types are shooting are very different, of course, and it takes a while to switch mindsets, but I do also find that one can feed into the other, particularly when I think about my compositions.

One thing I’d like to do more of over the coming year, is try to do more to capture the overall essence of a place. Rather than just capturing the coast, for example, or just capturing the town, try to build an overall picture of the place, build a story about it. Try to recreate the overall feeling and visuals of visiting a place. Bring together a more rounded picture I guess of the place I am visiting.

I tried to do this over the weekend, when I took a trip to Aylesford. Believe it or not, despite living in Kent the majority of my life, I’d never been to Aylesford before. I’ve seen loads of pictures of the bridge over the years, but never captured it myself. Feeling in a bit of a slump, I decided to go there and see somewhere different. But, conscious of the fact that it’s really just a bridge from a photography perspective, decided I should try to capture some street photography too and provide more of a rounded via of Aylesford, to get that kind of sense of a place.

Admittedly, it was quite tricky. Aylesford is a small place, it doesn’t have the range of compositions than the towns have across the county. As a result, it was difficult to find many interesting and unique shots to get a flavour of the town, the buildings and the people. Nonetheless, I gave it a go and came away with one or two shots that I was quite pleased with, to complement the standard shot of the bridge.

As I said, this is something I want to try to do more of…capture some shots of the local landscape or coastline, then complement it with some street photography to “complete the picture”. There are a few places I can think of where this will work really well in the county (eg Deal, Margate, Folkestone). Maybe Aylesford wasn’t the best place to do this, but maybe you find you look at these pictures and it does give you a sense of the place and the experience of walking around it. I’d be interested to hear what you think. Do you flit between genres? Try to use more than one genre of photography in one trip? Have you tried doing landscape and street photography in one trip? How do you try to capture the overall sense of a place? Do let me know in the comments.

Another roll of HP5 with the Olympus Mju ii

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After discovering that yes, my old Olympus Mju II does indeed work, I put another roll of Ilford HP5 through its paces to see what I could come up with on my commute. Again, it’s another mixed bag of images, which I guess I need to learn is par for the course with film photography. But the key for me is to keep taking it out, keep trying shots and keep trying out new approaches. I’m never going to take 36 bangers, I just need to accept that there will just be a handful that come off, whilst the majority…don’t. I mean, it’s quite a pricey endeavour when you look at it like that, but sooner or later its bound to pay off, right? RIGHT?

This time I tried a different lab for processing: AG Photographic in Birmingham. Coming to a grand total of £24.43, the processing included a high resolution 8bit JPEG scan (with no adjustments), negatives sleeved in Kenro translucent paper ring binder sleeving, and scans delivered via email. Fairly pricey, I guess. But the service was excellent. I sent the film for processing on Wednesday 11th January. They received them on the 12th and by the 13th I was able to download the films on my iPad, transfer to Lightroom and make some light edits. Less than 48hrs between posting them and receiving them. Now that’s pretty impressive! Maybe I caught them on a quiet week and turnaround was quicker than is typical, but less than 48hrs was pretty impressive and helped soothe the pain of the bill (again, something I’d probably need to get used to anyway with film photography).

So, that’s the processing, what about the images…ok…let’s dive into them…

As per the previous batch, there were a number of photos where the focus just wasn’t quite on it:

I’m still yet to figure out why I’ve not quite nailed the focus in these shots. I tried to focus on a particular spot using the crosshair, moved the camera and fired the shot but something is obviously not quite right. The one above was shot in daylight (albeit around sunrise) and the person was walking through the shot, not running. Maybe it’s down to the camera (an easy excuse which I have no shame in employing when it suits!), or maybe I just screwed up the shot. I dunno.

That said, some other shots that missed focus seemed less of a problem to me, for example, the two shots below taken in the rain:

Even though in both of those I missed focus, I kinda don’t mind and I’m not particularly unhappy with them. They could be better, but I’ll take them given I was shooting quickly and in the rain. The top one I thought I was much closer when I took the shot than it turns out. I guess I’m still judging the focal length.

Others came out pretty sharp which I was pleased with, even if the compositions could have been better.

And there were a couple of experiments that didn’t quite come off (but I’m cool with that, I’d rather try things out and see what happens).

And then there was the odd shot that I was just really pleased with…

So in short, still got a lot to learn. I’ve got a third film on the go now, so we’ll see what comes of that.

I’ve put together a selection of images in the gallery below, would be interested to hear which you like (if any!) or any other constructive comments you may have.

Christmas in Seville

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As we do every year, we spent the post-Christmas/New Year period in Spain staying with my in-laws. Whenever we come, I try to make space for a bit of street photography, but it really depends on a number of factors, the prime factor being whether the car is available for me to use to drive into the city. If it is, and the conditions look right, then I’ll try to squeeze in a bit of time in the city with my camera. Sometimes I end up trying to do a bit of street photography when I’m out with the family, but it’s not always easy, I find I work best on my own as I’m able to concentrate more on my photography and not get distracted.

This time, however, I was only really able to squeeze in a few hours in the city centre to take pictures. To be honest though, it wasn’t a big problem. In the run-up to the New Year, the city centre is ridiculously busy. For the Spanish, the main celebrations are New Year and Twelfth Night, somewhat less so Christmas Day. And unlike the summer, where Sevillianos escape the heat and head off to cooler areas, everyone very much stays local. Which means the city centre can get incredibly busy (it’s one of the largest cities in Spain after all) and the roads can be a complete nightmare. Consequently, I find it quite difficult for photography as it’s really difficult to work a scene or concentrate on particular compositions with all the noise and bustle all around. Nonetheless, whilst I didn’t get anything I was particularly proud of, I did manage to get a few shots in the short amount of time I was able to spend in the city.

Every now and then I wandered down a side street and found some space from all the noise and had some opportunities to do a bit of fishing - waiting for someone to walk into the scene. Like this shot through the window of a bar/restaurant that was closed:

Or this shot looking through an empty commercial building:

And there were the odd street corners to make use of:

And, of course, just some standard street photography shots that really aren’t anything special…just fairly obvious opportunities that presented themselves to me as I was walking around.

I also managed to get some shots at nightfall, which is somewhat of an obsession with me at the moment. Of course, I had to be careful taking photos at night in a vibrant part of the city (we spent the evening around Alameda - a part of the city that is the go to area for nightlife) and opportunities were few and far between as it was more of a social thing. Nonetheless, I managed to get a handful of shots I was pleased with (if not my strongest photos of 2022).

This one would have been nice if someone popped up in the window. Sadly no-one inside came over to look outside…probably because they saw someone loitering in the street with a camera…

Still, someone walked past at least…

Of course, it wasn’t all photography, we had plenty of family, festive fun too…eating and drinking way too much, as is standard practice this time of year. I’ll spare you the family photos, but here’s a few shots taken during the festivities…

It had been a few years since I last ate migas, and was pleased to be able to experience it once more. A hefty dish, it is primarily made of breadcrumbs with a variety of meats (ribs, pork belly and streaks in this case) and peppers and garlic. One thing I’ve learnt over the years is not to overdo it on the tapas before the migas comes out…you’ve got no chance finishing it off if you do!

So that was Christmas/New Year. But how did I get on with the Peak Design backpack I purchased before we went away? Well, it worked out really well. I had dithered over which size to get, but the 20l option was perfect for taking my XT-3, three lenses, my laptop, my iPad, accessories and a couple of books. Looks like I’ve finally found the perfect bag for travelling to and from Spain. So that was a bit of a result too. Should also work quite nicely for day trips out, so overall it seems to have been a pretty good investment. Hopefully, no more camera bags!

Six things from 2022

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Well, here we are again. Rapidly heading towards the end of the year. Which can mean only one thing…a few reflections on the year just gone. So, with no further delay, six things I’m taking from the last year.

Street Photography

I really feel like my street photography has improved a lot this past year, to the extent that, towards the end of the year, I started to feel it’s becoming my main type of photography. However, I think that’s largely down to the time of year and the type of street photography I’ve enjoyed. As the nights have drawn in, I’ve really enjoyed shooting on the streets in the evenings. I tend to find so many more opportunities than during the daytime to create interesting photos. I think this particularly comes down to a combination of the vibe at night, but also that there are great opportunities for more interesting and abstract photography than during the day. For example, in winter the cold evenings and warm interiors often leads to condensation on bar/restaurant/cafe windows which, for me, makes for some interesting abstract photos. Of course, some times evening shoots can leave you going home empty-handed. The reliance on light and, from my point of view, striking a balance between too many people and too few, can make some evening photowalks a bit of a drag. But when they pay off, they seem to really pay off.

I’m also finding with my night street photography that I am a bit more adventurous with my edits. Pushing it a little outside the realms of what it looked like in the moment. I’ve been pretty chuffed to have a few people make reference to “blade runner” in relation to my night photography, which is a huge compliment to me as it’s one of my favourite films. Obviously, the streets of East Kent bear no relation to the street scenes in Ridley Scott’s masterpiece, but pushing those edits so they resemble that kind of imagery does, I think, give that extra atmosphere that my daytime street photography often lacks.

Autumn Photography

It’s become somewhat of a ritual now…as we enter October and peak autumnal colours, every single weekend is spent at the local woods, looking for compositions and hoping to capture those beautiful, vivid autumn colours. It’s fairly typical for me to spend about 3-4 hours in the woods every Sunday at this time of year. Far more time than I would ordinarily spend and, to be fair, pretty much at the limits of what I can get away with without creating an issue at home. There’s no better place to be, in my mind, if you want to be out taking photos in the autumn, than the woods. And if you get some fog or mist thrown into the mix too…even better!

This year, I have really felt that my woodland photography has improved a lot. Every year I feel I am making progress, but this year in particular I came home with a host of autumn woodland photographs that I was really proud of. I think part of this comes down to better editing, but I also think my composition has improved and the technical aspects have improved too. Of course, we’re all on a journey of improvement so I suspect I will feel that next year’s are better than this year’s but nonetheless, I am certainly happy with what I’ve taken in 2022.

Film Photography

This year I’ve also rediscovered film photography. Ok, it’s with a point and shoot camera, but it’s been interesting using the Mju II again after 20 years. There’s been a lot to [re]learn about shooting with film, not least the “decisive moment”, but it has been an enjoyable experience so far. For now, the Mju II is purely a carry-around camera when I’m travelling to and from work. Picking up on opportunities as and when I stumble upon them. I try not to be trigger happy (it’s too expensive to be firing away left, right and centre after all), and really try to pick my moments. It’s been a challenge learning not to shoot too early, and not to shoot too late. But it has been fun and I have been pleased with some of the results whilst I figure it all out. A second film has just been completed and is due to be sent for processing…let’s see how that turns out.

Fuji 33mm f1.4

This is, without doubt, the most expensive lens I have ever bought, and it’s been worth every penny. Having started getting into some low light street photography, I began to feel like a 1.4 lens would be a good move. I took a look at a few options, including the classic Fuji 35mm 1.4, but in the end I decided to go for the brand new 33mm. I don’t regret it for an instant. It’s been a fantastic lens so far, at a focal length I really enjoy working with (not least because it means I can take a few steps back from my subject). Since buying it, my other Fuji lenses (the 23mm f2 and 35mm f2) have barely got a look in. In fact, I’m already mulling over the 16mm 1.4 or 18mm 1.4 to compliment it when I’m out on the streets. I won’t get either any time soon, but either one of those are definitely on my wishlist.

As for the 33mm, it’s incredibly sharp and although it’s a fair bit bigger than the f2s, it’s not a chore to carry around. I’ve happily shot with it all day long and not had a problem. I’m not one for fixating on gear, but it’s certainly one of those lenses where you just want to get out and use it. When a piece of kit makes you want to go out and take photos, you know it’s a winner.

Getting back into blogging

I’ve been blogging in various guises now for just short of twenty years. But I’ve really dropped the habit in recent years. Time was I used to almost blog daily. Surprisingly, kids coming along kinda had an impact on that, and as they grew older, I spent less and less time sitting down at a computer for an hour or two and writing whatever I wanted to write. With the advent of opening an online store, I realise now that it might be helpful to start blogging more regularly, not just to share my photography and my thoughts on photography, but also to help promote this website, draw in traffic and all that yucky marketing stuff which comes with selling products. And so here I am, blogging more regularly. I’m aiming to make 8pm on a Wednesday my standard blog post publishing time, and will promote these posts on all the usual social media platforms. Any shares, likes or subscriptions to my blog would be welcome of course!

Online Store

Of course the biggest deal for me this year was opening a store selling prints. It’s not something I want to get too hung up about, it’s just there to highlight what I consider my “best” work and make it easier for people who would like to purchase a print. Ultimately, I don’t want to pressure myself into making it a big deal, so it’s there, people can buy prints, I’ll promote it periodically, but I won’t stress if I don’t sell [m]any. Let’s see if I sell any from the store in 2023!

And with that…onward to 2023. Hope you all have a great new year and the very best wishes for 2023.

Winter came...

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After a hot summer and a pretty mild autumn, it came as quite a shock when winter hit last week. Of course, we didn’t get snow in this part of the country, but we did have freezing conditions, fog and some good hard frost across the county. Fortunately for me, this cold snap hit on a week where I had a weekday off work - huzzah! A rarity for the conditions to suit my diary, so of course I grasped the opportunity with both hands.

Between Thursday and Sunday I managed to squeeze in four locations and a couple of evening street photography walks too. All in all, a pretty great week. And it all started, where else, but in Fairfield.

Fairfield

Now, I’ve not been to Fairfield since that epic day earlier in the year that had me giddy as a school child. It’s one of those locations that is easily overdone, and so I like to space out my visits (helped somewhat by the long drive to get there from our neck of the woods). Taking the opportunity of a weekday off, I checked the weather forecast, got excited about the potential for thick frost, packed my camera bag and prepared myself for an epic trip.

After a swift detour to pick up Aga McPherson (the famous girl in a yellow jacket), we headed down to Fairfield, wrapped up warm and eager to capture the wintery scene we had pictured in our minds the night before. And we weren’t disappointed. Sheep roamed the fields, the water was frozen, the grass thick with frost…you couldn’t ask for better conditions (well, I guess you could ask for fog…but then, you know, there’s always something isn’t there?). I tried to get a few different compositions, some worked, some didn’t. But then there’s no point driving all that way only to get the exact same composition as before, right?

Of course, the photo above isn’t really a new composition, but there are a few in the gallery below. Just in case you doubted me!

Fairfield was great, it was freezing cold (as you’d expect in a relatively remote location this time of year), but it was fantastic. Sheep roamed around the church (which resulted in some very careful tripod placement!), and we were the only two photographers to enjoy the scene as the moon went down, the sun came up and the light caught the frozen grass. All in all, well worth the trip. And a brief nap awaited me on my return home before setting out into Canterbury and onwards to Folkestone for some street photography. Then it was all about planning for the weekend and considering where would be best to make the most of the freezing conditions.

Hothfield Common

On Saturday I had planned to go to Wye. But the roads were all closed, it looked like a horrorshow to get to the top of the Downs, and so I changed my plans and instead headed towards Hothfield Common. It’s only relatively recently I’ve “discovered” Hothfield. I had never been before last year, but there’s something about the place that’s quite captivating. Whether it’s the Highland Cows, the Konik ponies, the heather or just the unusual nature of the landscape, there’s something about it that makes you feel you are not in Kent at all, that you’ve been transported to another place altogether (at least until the dog walkers arrive and you hear the familiar East Kent accent).

Anyway, I’d not yet been in the winter time, and I’d had a few shots in mind if there was ever the opportunity to go in ice cold condtions. And…well, I wasn’t disappointed.

This was pretty much the compostion I had in mind. I’ve been returning to this tree a few times ever since my first trip to Hothfield, and been fascinated by the potential given it was surrounded by ferns and heather. As always, I had hoped for something slightly different. I felt like a bit of fog in the background would have helped simplify the scene, and it would have been nice for none of the branches to overlap with the background (I could get no lower than this) but nonetheless, I was pleased with this shot. I felt like it really captured the conditions that morning. And, fortunately for me, it was a scene that I had pretty much to myself.

Seasalter and Whitstable

Finally, Sunday saw a trip to Seasalter and Whitstable. The conditions once more were epic, with the added bonus of some fog (finally!) thrown into the mix. Although this time the problem was too much the other way…perhaps a little too much fog! Yes, I’m never satisfied. Seasalter was particularly pleasing though. The long grasses were frozen solid, the water in front of the beach huts was a sheet of ice, robins danced in amongst the grasses around me…you couldn’t really ask for more.

Not quite satisfied with my lot, I decided to head down the road to Whitstable and see what was on offer there. I’ve been wanting to capture a foggy view of the harbour for some time, and this seemed a good opportunity. And so it turned out. Thick fog enveloped the harbour. To the extent that, once more, you wished it was just a little less thick. But, again, one could hardly complain. These conditions don’t come along very often and expecting perfection is asking a bit too much. You just have to seize the opportunity and get what you can get.

And so that was a pretty hectic week. Freezing cold, but wonderful epic conditions the likes of which we rarely get the opportunity to shoot. And even now, a week later, it’s not quite done yet. Milder conditions are not forecast to hit for another 24-48hrs, so there might still be some time left to grab some epic wintery conditions before we head into Christmas. Fingers crossed there’s more to come, and maybe some snow at some point…just not around Christmas itself (we’re flying to Spain). If it can just time itself as well as the conditions did this time, I’ll be happy.