The Fog Descends On Deal

With a disappointing weekend of weather (and an enforced stay indoors due to a new sofa being delivered…which I can’t complain too much about given the state of the old one…) and a half-term off with the kids to look forward to (no sarcasm!), I fully anticipated a quiet week ahead with very few opportunities for photography. How wrong I was! After eagerly watching the weather forecast, hoping for some late morning fog, it looked promising for Tuesday morning. The forecast was for a pretty much widespread fog, covering the whole of the south east. The only question now: can I get up and get the children ready and out the door in time to catch the fog in Deal?

I’ve had my eye on Deal in the fog for sometime now. I’ve been intrigued by the possibilities around the pier, with the fog enveloping it and giving it that air of a concrete road to nowhere. In recent years, I’ve appreciated just how rare it is for this kind of occurence. Either I’ve just been unlucky in recent years, or the fog has always been something that occurs a handful of times a year and, even then, trying to predict when and where is a fool’s errand. So not only have I been keeping my fingers crossed for fog, I’ve been keeping my fingers crossed for fog in Deal. Given it’s a 40 minute drive from our house, there is always the risk of getting in the car, driving through the fog and finding…nothing on my arrival at this little seaside town. Fortunately, this was not one of those occasions…

After driving through thick fog on the A2 (and counting the number of cars without lights on, despite the visibility being down to a few metres), we arrived in Deal and were presented with the kind of foggy conditions I had hoped for. Armed with only my XT-3, no tripod, no zoom lenses, just a 23mm and 33mm prime, I set off to see what I could capture. With my children in tow too of course.

After belatedly realising I had knocked the focus mode switch on the front of the camera (thank god I noticed that before too long), I started wondering around the beach to see what I could capture. This was one of my first shots:

23mm, f5.6, 1/250, ISO160

Of course, the obvious shots were the first shots I took, but this is the kind of shot I had envisioned when I imagined the fog descending onto Deal. In terms of the post-processing, I like my fog images to be tinted slightly green as I think it gives it more of a mysterious vibe to the image, like it’s something out of a horror movie. Otherwise, I keep the editing fairly light and just accentute the softness (so low contrast, minus clarity and very slightly minus on the dehaze).

After pottering around under the pier for a bit, I headed up (with the children, honestly, I didn’t forget them!) onto the pier itself and took a walk along to the pier head. At thist time of the morning, there were a few people milling around, but not so many it was crowded. This really helped in terms of picking out individuals or couples walking along the pier, and of course the fog helped to simplify the background and obscure any others that were in shot.

23mm, f8, 1/500, ISO500

23mm, f8, 1/500, ISO160

23mm, f8, 1/500, ISO400

As I got to the end of the pier walking back, the fog started to lift and we took a walk along the beach towards the fishing boats moored near the road. I kinda figured that was it for the foggy conditions and that the sun was going to start breaking through and it’ll be a typical bright sunny day.

However, just when I figured the day was done and we’d wonder off and grab some snacks and disappear, the fog came in again, much to the annoyance of the kids who I think, by this stage, were heartily sick of me continuing to drag them back to the pier to get yet more shots of it obscured by the fog. Nevertheless, I persisted. Of course, I wasn’t the only one…

33mm, f8, 1/500, ISO160

33mm, f8, 1/500, ISO160

Much as I enjoyed hanging around the pier, the kids were obviously getting bored so we took a walk along the promenade, and I’m glad we did as I think some of the best shots of the day were taken as we walked away from the pier and looked back on the people walking through the fog. With the sun behind them (albeit also obscured by the fog) the people suddenly became nothing but a series of silhouettes, ambling towards us. Like something out of a horror movie, these shadowy forms ambled towards us, through the fog, making for some really interesting opportunities. Whilst I was happy with the shots I got on the pier, the shots along the promenade were, I think, better and really had a lot of atmosphere to them. Given the silhouette effects and the nature of the light, many of them I switched up into black and white, there was little in the way of colour anyway, so it seemed like a natural switch.

33mm, f8, 1/500, ISO160

33mm, f8, 1/500, ISO160

33mm, f8, 1/500, ISO160

After our walk along the promenade, we headed into the town centre to have a browse around. By this stage the fog was starting to lift and the sun was now shining through, leaving a beautiful morning, but taking all that lovely fog away. Regardless, it was a pretty spectacular morning on the seafront, with plenty of compositions to work with (I think I took around 370 photos in the end!). The scenary that morning certainly made up for a disappointing weekend and that half-term week of entertaining the children did present some photography opportunities after all. So everyone was happy…well, maybe not the kids. I think they’ve forgiven me now…but we’ve still got a few days of school holidays left yet, so jury is out I guess…

A few more photos from the day are in the gallery below, I’ve managed to cull my shots in Lightroom down to around 190, but I still need some work to do to cut that down a bit. I’ve tried to limit the gallery below to the best bits. Let me know what you think!

ian

Seascape and Street Photography in Deal

Deal. It’s one of those places I keep going back to. I’m not sure if it’s because of the easy parking near to a very obvious subject, or whether it’s the hope of a free cuppa from my niece when I’m in the neighbourhood (wishful thinking most of the year when I’m there for sunrise!). Or maybe it’s because it gives me the opportunity to shoot both landscape and street photography in one go. Like Folkestone, it offers a good opportunity to go beyond the usual landscape shots, switch up my Nikon D7200 for the Fuji XT-3, and try to capture more of the town and its people.

As is so often the case, I got myself prepared the night before, charged my batteries, packed my camera gear and tried to make it as easy as possible to get up, grab my stuff and go. Unfortunately, things never quite work out to plan. My alarm goes off. I decide to snooze a bit longer. Get up, eat my breakfast and, fatally, start watching TikTok videos. I should have learnt by now…DO NOT WATCH TIKTOK VIDEOS IN THE MORNING BEFORE YOU NEED TO GO OUT.

Anyway, I eventually picked myself up and dragged myself to Deal. On the drive there I could already see the colours and I feared I was going to miss the best of it. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case. The rush did, however, mean I didn’t have much time to think about compositions, so I went for some fairly standard compositions I’ve got before. Nonetheless, it was a good morning, with great colours in the sky and whilst the compositions weren’t unique, I at least got something…so I can’t complain. And on top of all that, I got to meet another Instagram photographer. So all in all, I was glad to get out and about and get that sea air. As you can see below, the colours were pretty fantastic, and made a nice change from the usual stormy and overcast shots I often like and prefer on the coast.

10mm, f8, 0.4secs, ISO100

As I was in such a rush, I didn’t have time to work my L-bracket so that I had enough space to squeeze in the remote trigger, so I tried to predict the waves crashing using a two second timer - no easy feat. Nonetheless, I got some nice colour from the sky and in the water…it’s just, not the most exciting and innovative composition. But, well, I blame the TikTok Scroll for that.

As is typical when I get in the mode, I fired off countless shots without moving from that spot. Lightroom is just a seemingly endless stream of identical compositions, with just slightly different waves and slightly different colours in the sky. Trying to pick one favourite out of so many near identical images is a near impossible task. I’ll settle for the one above because I do like the way the water rushes out between the pebbles on the shore.

Eventually I did shift to a slightly different composition. This time, I kept it extra wide, but went for a landscape orientation and a smaller f-stop to get that sun star effect.

10mm, f13, 1/40, ISO100

Of course, the wide angle distorts the pier quite significantly, and the pierhead looks a bit weird as a result. But I quite like the sun shining through and catching the water droplets (reminiscent of another picture I’ve taken in Deal). Plus I like the way the light catches the legs of the pier on the right-hand side but, again, it’s not the most ambitious or unique photo I’ve taken.

After a few more shots in this position, I decided to move around and try at least one composition that was a bit different. This time I decided to try shooting as low as I could go. I always have mixed feelings about doing this on the coast. Sometimes it just doesn’t feel like it works for me, largely because it shrinks the amount of sea that’s visible, and it doesn’t seem much of a seascape without the sea. But sometimes it works, like the shots I got in The Warren last week. Once more, the shots I got were nothing special, but they are handy for me to refer to in future to try and see if I can make them work.

10mm, f13, 1/10, ISO100

After a few more shots here, the sun started to dip behind the clouds and that was pretty much it for those sunrise colours. At this point, I decided to put the D7200 away, grab the XT-3 and take a wander around Deal. As with the seascape shots, I wasn’t really doing well in terms of getting something original, but I tried to look out for details as I wondered around, textures and colours that could make for interesting abstracts, like this cracking paint on a shop sign…

33mm, f5.6, 1/500secs, ISO2500

And of course I couldn’t resist the classic shot looking up Farrier Street to the shelter on the promenade, probably one of the more obvious street photography compositions on Deal seafront but still, it’s difficult to resist.

33mm, f5.6, 1/1000secs, ISO160

And then I spotted this weird, big old yellow bus parked on the seafront. So I decided to go take a look and take a few shots. I was glad the owner didn’t spot me or walk past at any point, because I spent so long trying to find interesting compositions, I’m sure I looked extremely dodgy. I’m still not totally happy with the shots I took (try and guess which one I was least content with…). But at least it made for an interesting subject, even if I didn’t make the most of it.

After about an hour wandering around, I headed back home to Canterbury for a cup of tea and a (very nice) rhubarb and custard pastry at the excellent Fringe + Ginge, which seemed the perfect way to round off the trip and get back to the normal weekend routine (in this case, getting new school shoes for the youngest!).

I’ve put a gallery of some of my photos from the trip below. Will be interested to hear what you think. Does this really capture Deal? Do they feel reminiscent for people who know the town? Or do they give you a sense of what the town might actually be like for those who don’t? Would love to hear what you think.

ian

A weekend at the coast

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…