This last weekend was one of those classic ones where you hope for fog, head out to a location you had in mind for some foggy shots, only to find that you arrive and the fog actually ended up further west along the north Kent coast. Ah well. Once you’ve arrived, you might as well make the most of it. No point burning petrol for nothing.
So, Margate it was. I don’t tend to head here very often during the winter months, it’s more of a summer shooting destination for me during the day (I do like it in the evenings, but quite often I’m too tired for the hour plus round trip in the evening). As it turned out, whilst there was no fog, there were some pretty good conditions, with some nice light to work with. Of course it was cold, but my investment in fingerless gloves has really paid off, so no problem on that front.
This time I decided to talk a decent walk through to Cliftonville (I used to work there back in 2001-2) and whilst it has undoubtedly become somewhat more gentrified than when I worked there, there remains the old Cliftonville (it was one of the poorest parts of not just Kent, but the UK when I worked there). I did get into one dicey situation where someone somewhat aggressively shouted at me for taking photos (“you can’t take photos along this road before midday!!!”), but I just responded with an “oh, alright” and carried on. I don’t tend to get too many problems when I’m out taking photos, not in this country at least (I have had issues in Spain a couple of times). Generally I’ve found not being confrontational does the trick, and largely people leave me alone. Although, I should add the caveat that I’m a 6’2” man, so that probably gives me some licence to go about things without any trouble.
I tried to get some different compositions to the usual ones I get in Margate (it’s very easy to fallback on the old reliables), and found a couple of shots that were different to what I’d taken prior in the town. I feel at the moment, each time I go out I’m trying to push myself to try something new. If nothing else, you kinda have to one when you are wandering around the same small towns. I guess it’s one of the benefits of sticking to the same areas, you have to keep working at it. Finding new things. Otherwise you’d get bored and give up. Sometimes it is hard. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort not to either sack it off or just do the same shots, but it can be rewarding when you don’t.
Anyway, you be the judge of whether it was worth the effort…