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Written by Peter Truman
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Friday, 01 May 2009 00:00 |
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Previous: Part 1 - Easter 2008
 There are countless photographs of Southwold, published, fine-art prints, on-line through Flickr and others, through stock libraries and of course many individual web sites including this one. And the vast majority of them include photographs of the beach huts, the lighthouse and the recently (re-)constructed pier, all icons of the Suffolk town. I think we have all seen an increase in the number of people carrying and using a camera, but I was quite surprised at the number of people in Southwold during the week carrying and using DSLRs of one form or another. One of the great things about staying in the town is that I was able to leave mine in the rucksack for most of the day and take it out when the light was other than the harsh mid-day sunshine, which I'm delighted to say we saw a lot of. This meant I was able to try to be a little different to my frankly stereotypical Southwold photographs.
I should add that there are some great photographs of the Southwold icons and I was particularly impressed by the photographs of Peter Farrington that were displayed on Southwold Pier when we visited this year. He has the advantage of being relatively local and can, I assume, make repeat visits at optimal times to capture the best light. He certainly succeeds.
Hazy Horizon
The first image is close to one I had envisioned and then had to find the right conditions to get the picture. I had imagined a picture showing the sea and merging into a featureless sky, with no distinct demarcation between sea and sky. Clearly a photograph of that alone would have been very boring. However, the day started with quite a haze, quite bright and a hazy blue sky being visible inland but rapidly becoming a featureless blur looking out to sea. Just the ticket. As I watched my children playing on the beach and doing my bit to help with the sandcastles, I watched the sky until the horizon was only just still visible. I had already noted the end posts of the groyns (constructed to help prevent the sandy beach being washed out to sea - they don't stop it, but definitely slow things down) to provide something to anchor the image. The camera did at last come out of the rucksack. I had tried to picture this with the post to the left and to the right of the picture, but settled on this version to the right. It just feels to me to work better.
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Written by Peter Truman
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Thursday, 01 May 2008 00:00 |
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One of the joys of photography is that you can take it almost anywhere with you. A small camera can go in your pocket to work, to town, on the train or in the car. A larger set of gear can travel with you on holiday or you can of course travel specifically for a photographic project or assignment. Whilst I do manage to get out to explore and photograph near home in the Derbyshire Peak District, I do not otherwise travel specifically for photography. So a short family break in the school holidays in April meant that I would combine family time with some photography - in this case a week spent in Southwold on the Suffolk coast of England.
Such a time provides ample opportunity to explore a different area of the country and identify what photographic opportunities it could provide if time allows. But in addition, providing the right priorities are set and the right balance achieved, some time can also be spent making photographs. What such a week does not provide is the opportunity to work a subject, to wait for the perfect light or to loose oneself in the image. It is important to take the moment as it arrives.
This article chronicles what I did manage to achieve during a week in Southwold, the images I like most, how and where I made them. While I didn’t set out to tell the story of the week, what I did set out to create was a short set of photographs that say “Southwold”, as a reminder of what the town says to me. Clearly this is a personal view, and I am sure that others would show a very different set of images. I should also add that I have two different views - one includes my children and the other is that displayed here. Whilst I am immensely proud of my family the pictures can never have the same meaning for a casual viewer, so they are excluded.
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