Pregnant pause - # 94/2011

Shouldn't really do this. I said earlier that it was the last Dungeness image. However, I just liked the sense of mystery, anticipation, "what's about to happen?" that I felt when I composed this, and which I still sensed when I was looking at it again last night. So here is "the last Dungeness image" - until I accidentally stumble over another one that I like.

Essay on colour - # 92/2011

Stay with me a while. I snapped this playing with camera settings to try things out. But I got something unexpected.

I grew up with this scene, and at that time, at low tide the beach would often yield unexploded war-time munitions and patches of fuel oil, some of which had seeped from ships and aircraft sunk in battle.

My memory is happy but the predominant colour in mind is grey. The ships that habitually anchored here to wait for the storm winds to pass had black hulls and white topwork and grey hatch coverers. Life boats on the ships were white and frankly very primitive. Metal marker posts were rusting and one wondered how anyone ever saw them or made use of them. The sea was grey or blue. The concrete was grey. A photo was always black and white.

Today we have a world of colour.  The ships that still anchor for shelter are multicoloured often with blue hulls and red or vermillion cargo hatches, the topwork is still white but brilliant orange breaks out and lifeboats are high-tech and brilliantly visible. The marker posts are multicoloured red and white and clearly in business to be seen. And the sea has acquired unexpected colourfulness, thanks to the polarizing filter on a camera that a mere childish lad of the 1940s/50s never dreamt could ever exist.

This is just a snap, trying something out. But it is in fact much, much more as I stand, watch, and remember. 

On the mud at Margate - # 91/2011

The tide's going out and the fishing boat is resting on the mud at Margate Harbour.  As you can see the usual brisk north-easterly wind is livening things up.  These old seaside towns like Margate once had great charm, but air-travel and sunseeking abroad have brought them to their knees and they now struggle, and cope with dereliction, trying to find a way to revive themselves.

Tough at the seaside - # 90/2011

This is typical for a day out on the English coast facing the North Sea. Bright sun, and a good north-easterly wind to make it nice and fresh (that's code for - "A bit chilly; I think I'll wear a woolly jumper").  However, the wind-sailor at Kingsgate Bay near Margate is having a good time.  But notice the coastal cargo vessel: she's anchored waiting for the strong winds to die down before she dashes across to Rotterdam. It was ever thus, since Dutchmen and Englishmen and Viking Norsemen took to ships.

Lurid Dungeness - # 84/2011

I think I overdid the tweak on the polarizing filter, but the startling effect on the sky doesn't spoil the atmosphere. We still get the essence of a typical Dungeness scene, with the derelict and the active, the old and the modern all functioning nicely together, and the wet and the terribly dry being baked under broad skies.

The Lugger - # 83/2011

Let's stay for a while longer on the South Coast admiring the quirks of the English Channel (or, as the French call it, La Manche = The Sleeve - why on earth The Sleeve?).

Here's a lovely traditional lugger sailing safely and well in stiff breeze, just as the old craftsmen who invented the design meant her to do.

South Coast dreaming - # 77/2011

For those of you who don't know, this is a classic "South Coast" view akin to the iconic "White Cliffs of Dover".  This scene shows the coast guard cottages at Cuckmere Haven (where the Cuckmere flows off the South Downs into the English Channel) and the famous "Seven Sisters" chalk cliffs stretching towards Beachy Head light house and Eastbourne, Hastings and onwards towards Dover after the interruption of Dungeoness and Romney Marsh .


The scene is much photographed, in sunshine, evening light, frosty early mornings etc.  My scene shows it as bad weather suddenly sweeps in having traveled rapidly up the English Channel from the South West. A strong "Souwester" is blowing - loved (and feared) by generations of British and Dutch sailors as this wind blew them hard and very fast up the Channel on the final leg of their long sea voyages towards home.  The "day tripper" photographer has to take what he gets.  When I started out to walk the cliff tops, the sun was bright. Suddenly this rough weather fell upon me within minutes!!


In the 1940s you could stand here and watch dramatic aerial battles between squadrons of German and British aircraft locked in mortal combat, swooping upon each other at 340 mph, creating the legends of the White Cliffs as they fought. 

Cote d'Az dreams - # 62/2011

It's all too easy to over-romanticise and falsely idolise the Cote d'Azur, but it's also very easy to understand how it got and how it keeps its good reputation.  For me this is a delightful scene that any Englishman fed up with the grey British winter will long to see and enjoy.  Early morning, delightfully fresh before the day warms up. The scent of the bushes and plants. The sound of a torrent rushing down the canyon from the mountains. A terrace garden, high up and looking out towards the Mediterranean Sea where the blue sky is reflected. (I took lots and lots photos of this same scene with the hanging bird table, trying to capture the essence. I didn't get exactly what I was trying for, but so far this is the nearest).

On a close reach - # 09/62

A typical scene on the Suffolk coast. This vessel looks to be a good 75 years old. Sailing fast, sails reefed; the stiff breeze from the North Sea is strong enough to lay her over to the rail. She's all wood and brass and full of style: captured sailing past the ancient Suffolk village of Orford, a place with more than 1,000 years of British history to tell.

The North Sea - # 09/60

Here be Vikings..............at certain times of year the wind sort of just blows them towards England. They have to come. They can't help it.

I grew up by the North Sea. I could sit here for hours trying to capture the greyness, the twinkling light, the turbulence. B&W tonality is (for me at least) the best way to show it.