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…