The Best Roll Yet?

March 15, 2023

As regular readers will know, I rediscovered my Olympus Mju II a few months back and I’ve been periodically buying a roll of film, working my way through it then getting the film developed and scanned. So far, the experience has been ok, but I’ve been frustrated by the lack of really good shots and rolls full of either average shots or out of focus ones. Now I’ve received my third roll of film back, I’m pleased to find some improvement and some decent shots (in amongst all the standard average ones).

My favourite shot of all the ones I have taken so far, from that first roll a few months ago was the kind of shot I like to get when I’m on the streets using my Fuji. And, surprisingly, it’s the first ever shot I’ve managed to get of this sort, looking directly into a bus. I had been hoping for such an opportunity for some time (I walk on a bus route to work) and on this occasion I got the look I was hoping for and a bus stopping in a convenient location. Happy days!

Person sitting on a bus behind a misty and rain covered window.

I was fortunate too, with this roll of film, to have it during a period of typical winter weather, with fog and rain thrown into the mix. This led to plenty of opportunities, particularly on one foggy morning in the city that presented the kind of conditions I’d dreamt of catching on my commute in the winter.

people walking across a bridge in the fog

two people walking in the fog with buildings obscured in the background

People walking in the street with fog obscuring the backgroun

There was also plenty of rain which was good for reflections, although it was tricky to get some decent compositions with the time I had and a lack of cloths to clean the lens. I just had to make do with what I could get.

person carrying an umbrella walking towards the camera in the rain.

person walking across a bridge in the rain carrying umbrellas.

Nothing too exciting there really. I need to work on this more with the time I have (around 40mins before work). It’s also difficult when there are so many other people around, but I’m sure there are shots to be had around that area on the way to work.

I said at the top that the bus shot was my favourite. There was another that is up there as a shot I’m pretty happy with all things considered, looking through a phonebox to a distant figure in the fog:

I’ve put all the hits and misses in the gallery below, will be interested to hear what you think as always!

How I Edit My Night Street Photos

March 9, 2023

I figured, as I’ve been posting a lot of night street photos lately, maybe I should put together a quick post on how I edit my photos. I’ve had a few comments in recent months about the look of my photos, so now seems a good time to run through how I take my photos from this…

The back of someone with a ponytail against a window, an neon sign that says open is above their head.

to this…

In Camera Settings

Before getting into the edits, a bit about the settings I use when shooting with my XT3. I generally stick to as wide open as possible, and so I tend to exclusively use my 33mm f1.4 lens. In terms of shutter speed, I hover around 1/125 and 1/250 depending on whether the subject is stationary. I leave the ISO on automatic (with an upper limit of ISO3200) and exposure compensation around -1 to -2 to protect the highlights. I also always shoot in RAW.

I should also add that all my edits are done on an iPad Air. I tend to find with street photography I don’t need to do heavy edits, use layers and layer masks and whatever. Photoshop isn’t something I find myself needing. What I want is a convenient way of editing that enables quick edits on the fly. Lightroom and the iPad do this perfectly for my needs.

Light

As you can see, I push the exposure up quite a fair amount when editing. This is largely due to the exposure compensation I apply in-camera. It doesn’t impact upon the image quality and, crucially, it ensures I protect the highlights. The highlights too are dropped right down, although in some scenes I might lift them up, depending on how I want to work the light in the scene. Mostly though, I drop it down. I also drop the contrast to soften the image so it’s not too crunchy, I prefer a softening effect in my images where possible (although, again, I may do otherwise depending on what I want to achieve with the image). I also drop the whites, drop the blacks a tiny amount and lift the shadows a small amount (in this case to show more detail from the person’s clothing).

In terms of the tone curve, I tend to lift the blacks a little to give it that filmic quality and very slightly drop the whites. Again, I may lift the blacks on the tone curve or drop them down depending on the image itself.

Colour

With Colour, I drop the temperature right down. Typically my night shots are taken during the winter, and so I find they work best if they are cooled down a bit to around 3200k, adding in more blue tones. I then tint towards the purple and add some saturation and vibrance to the image.

Where I really start to get the colours I want is in the HSL area and the Colour Grading (more on that below). I particularly like my blues to be pushed towards the green/blue and quite desaturated, making for a softer blue that I find more appealing. I also push the yellows more towards the orange and also desaturate slightly. The combination of the two together helps to get the colour palette in the kind of place I would like to be before I move on to Colour Grading.

Colour Grading

This is where I think I have the biggest impact on the look of my images. As you can see, I tend to grade the image with blues in the shadows, oranges in the highlights and, most importantly, I add green to the midtones. I think this is the single most important element in terms of getting the tones I like across the whole of the image. By pushing in those greens it gives the image much more of the kind of atmospheric (futuristic?) look that I like in my night photos. It just seems to really work to lift the images above being a straightforward, “as it looked to my eye at the time” type edit. I think that in combination with pushing the blues towards the green-blue and pushing the white balance to the colder end of the scale really seems to work for me. Of course, I may take a different view in years to come, but for now it gives the night photos a look that I really like.

Effects

When it comes to the effects, in most cases I tend towards negative clarity (-10 to -20 typically) and negative dehaze (-5 to -10). This is largely because I want to soften the image rather than give it harsh, hard edges. In this case, I’ve slightly nudged up both just to add some detail to the hair in the ponytail. Again, it’s about the specific image and what I want to achieve with it. Either way, I tend to be fairly cautious with both clarity and dehaze as pushing them too far either way can lead to some odd looking images. Texture I always increase to add a bit of fine detail to the images.

I also always add a vignette, and quite a heavy one on night photography by my usual standards (around -15 tends to be my default). I sometimes also add a radial vignette over the subject and invert it to darken around the subject and draw more attention to it. Finally, I add a bit of grain just to add to the atmosphere of the image and help to push it towards that more filmic look.

Anyway, that’s pretty much how I edit my night photos. As I’ve kept saying above, some of the specifics are very much dependent on the image itself. Generally speaking I apply a preset then adjust according the image itself (I always see a preset as a starting point rather than a one-click solution to an image), but these are broadly the kinds of settings I go for. The things that never really change are the white balance and the colour grading, other than that, I shift things around to suit the image.

And that’s my photo editing of night street photos regime! Hope you found that useful/interesting!

ian

**Soho and Chinatown**

25th February 2023

Street Photography In Soho And Chinatown

March 1, 2023

Ever since my last trip to London at the tail end of last year, I’ve been desperate to go back up and do some nighttime street shooting. I’ve been finding myself drawn more and more to this type of photography, but so often I am out and about wandering around the same few streets, shooting in roughly the same places time and time again. It’s fine doing that, there’s always a new composition that draws the eye, or a change in an old one, but after a while you do long for something…different. And so a trip to London on a February evening was the change I needed. It was also an opportunity to give my new Peak Design backpack a proper test run. Since I bought it, it has certainly ticked one box (being convenient for packing camera gear for our flight to Spain), but I’d not really tested it out properly for a whole day out. And with future overseas trips currently being mulled over (although I am still 50/50 on one plan I’ve been mulling), I wanted to put it through its paces.

So I made a plan a few weeks ago to head up on the 25th February. No particular reason (other than it being after payday), but I did want to get up there before the nights got shorter and the days longer. Nightfall at around 5/6pm seems perfect for a quick trip up and getting home at a reasonable hour. I also knew exactly where to head…Soho and Chinatown - with neon lights and interesting windows aplenty.

I planned the day carefully, with the first priority being to catch a train with 12 coaches rather than 6 (six gets way too crowded and I’m still conscious of distancing). Luckily, the first 12 coach train got me to London at a decent time ahead of sunset. Unfortunately, I also discovered that the service was finishing earlier than normal that evening, meaning I had to catch a 2207 train home. Worse still, the train got me to London the same time as the West Ham game ended (I made a schoolboy error forgetting to check the fixtures), leading to a fair amoung of (ergh) West Ham fans heading to the tube station at the exact time I arrived. Ah well, so much for careful planning. At least I wasn’t wearing anything indicating I am a Spurs fan…

Upon arrival at Stratford I headed to the tube stations and jumped on the Elizabeth Line to Tottenham Court Road and made my way along Shaftesbury Avenue towards Wardour Street, a place I’ve been to before (I was originally heading here alone so wanted to make sure I stayed in an area I was familiar with) and knew of a few decent opportunities to capture some interesting shots of the city at night. Of course, it being a Saturday, it was absolutely rammed, which made it quite difficult to isolate people and (as London often can be) it was a bit overwhelming at first. However, once I started to slow down and look around me, opportunities started to present themselves. One of the first places that really stood out was an amazing cake shop called L’ETO that seemed designed for passing photographers with it’s big windows and fantastic, very tempting display of cakes. Needless to say, I spent quite a long time there shooting people mulling over the cakes (although sadly I did not buy any cakes).

Up until this point, however, I hadn’t really spotted many of the shots that I like to go for in the evening. I’m always drawn to the more abstract shots, silhouettes, condensation, anything that lends itself to photos that aren’t just standard captures of people on the streets. I wasn’t having much luck on Wardour Street at this time (it was around 6:30pm at this stage, so still quite early). So after a bit more of a scout around Wardour Street, I headed back down to meet a friend and on into Chinatown to see what I could find.

Needless to say, Chinatown was heaving. So, again, it was quite tricky to find interesting shots with simple or interesting compositions. Gradually, as the evening wore on, those opportunities did start to present themselves and I was able to take advantage of the condensation building up on the windows as the temperature outside dropped and the temperature inside rose. It was still tricky to find shots that I was really pleased with, but I at least came away with one or two shots that were something close to what I was hoping to capture.

It wasn’t just finding the compositions I was having difficulty with though. It was also proving difficult to handle some of the lights in the windows. I seemed to frequently get the problem of strobing across the image with certain lights in bar/restaurant/shop windows. Often times fiddling around with the shutter speed seems to do the job (I normally shoot at f1.4, 1/250 or 1/125 with around -1 to -2 expo comp), but I don’t often like to touch that as below a certain level I run the risk of not capturing sharp images due to the movement of the subjects. Nonetheless, it is a bit of a drag when I think I’ve got a shot only to find black bars running across the image.

Whilst I am drawn to photos of people behind windows covered in condensation or silhouettes, this also presents its own problems. It’s not always easy to nail focus, particularly shooting at f1.4. The autofocus doesn’t really get on well because it’ll try to focus on the window and the condensation itself, which I don’t always want. Sometimes it’s perfect because I’m not fussed about the people behind the glass being in focus, it’s that which can make the shot. But sometimes I do want to get the figure behind the glass in focus, it all really depends on the subject. And I guess that’s the thing, if I often don’t know which I want to focus on, how on earth would the autofocus? So those times where I do want to focus on the figures behind the glass, I have to switch to manually focusing on the subject. Which then takes time and I can sometimes lose the shot whilst I’m fiddling with the focus ring. But still, you have to accept not every photo will come out perfect and you just need to “focus” on the ones that were successful and try to learn from them.

After a good walk around Chinatown and some very tasty bao at Bun House, we headed back towards Wardour Street for one last look before making our way back to St Pancras via a couple of bars en route. At this point I hadn’t felt I’d really got much I was truly happy with. I put that largely down to the crowds. Of course, in such a busy area of the city on a Saturday evening, there is always going to be a lot of people around and it can be difficult to spot opportunities amongst the noise and the hustle and bustle. I’ve gotten used to shooting at night in Canterbury where, even on a busy night, you have some time and space to look for shots. Nevertheless, it’s all about the challenge and the change in scenery and overall I was feeling that it was a good opportunity to challenge myself a bit and try to get some shots.

Just as I was mulling over my evening as I headed back to St Pancras, I looked across the road and saw one of those opportunities I’m so often drawn to. A pub, with misted up windows and lots of bright lights inside. Checking my watch and the train time, I had about five minutes spare…so we dashed across the road and I set about working as quickly as I could to get some shots of the silhouettes in the bar. At first, nothing special…then, as if they knew I was waiting for it, someone got up close to the window and BAM! I got the shot. Happy with this forutuitous spot on the way to the station, I hurried my way through St Pancras and onto the train. Even the disco in my carriage and the person smoking across the aisle (on the train!) couldn’t dent my mood. Maybe there were no bangers, but I got myself out into a different environment and got myself some shots. And the backpack did an exceptional job too. I guess I need to start planning for that overseas trip…

Silhouettes of people behind a window covered in condensation. — 33mm, f1.4, 1/250, ISO640

Anyway, gallery below…do let me know what you think!

ian

(Header image c/o Andrew Preater.)

Decisive Lucky Moments

February 22, 2023

There are days where I wonder around with my camera, taking photos on the streets, feeling that…I’ve not really got much. Just some bog standard shots of people walking past a fairly interesting building, or just standing on a street corner. Ok shots, but nothing that makes me feel “wow, that’s a portfolio” image (some might say even the ones I consider portfolio images…really aren’t). I come home, load the SD card into my iPad, and expect to be just flicking through a series of fairly standard images, 99% of which will end up deleted.

Every now and then, however, I get home and realise…maybe I had something after all without realising it. Sometimes I capture an image and think “well, I could pass this off as intended, but the reality is that it was just chance”. Last week I had one of those moments. An image I was pleased to capture, but had no idea I’d caught something I’d consider for my portfolio until I got home…

Two people embracing with a poster featuring a man looking towards the couple on the left of the frame.

Now, when composing this image, I genuinely did not spot the poster in the optician window with a model looking out towards the couple embracing. Genuinely. So I have a mixture of feelings when I look at this image now. Pleased I caught it, but also weirdly annoyed I didn’t really check the full frame before I took the shot. But does that really matter? It’s not as if I could have captured it any better, is it? Is it just a case of a bit of imposter syndrome trying to undermine me?

Ultimately, the main thing is getting the shot. And besides, it would look more than a little wrong to stand across the street and analyse the scene while two people were embracing. It could look…well…a bit intrusive shall we say. And, in all honesty, even taking this shot made me feel a bit uncomfortable, as though I was intruding on their intimacy (but equally I have serious problems with public affection…it’s not really my thing). Maybe I could have improved the composition, but equally I could have ended up dealing with a very awkward situation, accused of all sorts. As it is, it’s in focus and, after cropping it (the original shot was vertical), it works. And, in the end, that’s all that matters.

I always try to remind myself that perfection is the enemy of good. Whether that be a photo that is slightly off focus or not fully exploring the scene before taking the photo. Sometimes it just has to be about getting the shot and that decisive moment. You may not get technically perfect images every time, but you capture a moment and sometimes, not always, that is enough. In this case, the decisive moment was a lucky one.

The Fog Descends On Deal

February 15, 2023

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:

Concrete pier leading off into the sea — 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.

Person walking alone in the fog looking at their phone — 23mm, f8, 1/500, ISO500

Person walking along the pier, the wet ground reflecting their body — 23mm, f8, 1/500, ISO160

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…

The back of a person holding a smartphone taking a picture of the pier in the fog. — 33mm, f8, 1/500, ISO160

A person crouched down on the beach taking a photo of the pier. — 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.

Two people walking towards the camera on the promende. — 33mm, f8, 1/500, ISO160

Person walking in the fog towards the camera. Building obscured in the background and cars on the right of the frame. — 33mm, f8, 1/500, ISO160

View from a beach shelter with an individual walking along the promenade. — 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

February 8, 2023

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.

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.

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.

Low image looking across the shore out towards the pierhead. — 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…

Cracked green paintwork with a red stripe. — 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.

A cyclist riding past a shelter opposite. — 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!).

a plate with a rhubarb and custard pastry, atop a dark wooden table.

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

February 1, 2023

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.

Shakespeare cliff with waves crashing on the beach — *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.

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.

groynes in the sea — *15mm ƒ/5.6 0.8secs 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.

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

January 25, 2023

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.