We've seen it all before! Done to death! Nowt special as they would say up north. But really? Who cares! Look, its about being there. Capturing the light, the atmosphere, the situation... I could go on! But then again, so could others before me.
After an early rise, 4am to be exact, and out the caravan for half-past, it's little wonder that the roads were empty - deathly quiet and pitch black to boot. It was a peacefull and quiet journey to the small town of Wells-next-the-Sea, a fishing community where tourist normally flock mid-summer afternoons for tea, coffee and of course fish & chips. With half the country still in bed, parking was easy. And although still dark, there was enough light to get around. There was no breeze, no hustling of trees and very little traffic. Even the sea gulls were still asleep! So you see, it all adds to the tranquil atmosphere which, for me at least, connects with the stillness of the black & white image before you.
Making the image was'nt as straight forward as to what I would have liked. To start with, the angle of shooting was restricted; very little room left and right. I wanted to be as high as possible as I knew i needed clearance between the large cobble centre left, and the boat directly behind with its dark hull. Fortunately, my tripod reaches amazing heights and I just made the gap! As still as it was, these boats were still moving thanks to the incoming tide - that meant a conscious effort with shutterspeed selection. Being able to view images on the back of the camera can be a god send and helped with the choice of shutterspeed. Too slow and yeah, a nice soft river but also soft boats. I needed to freeze the action and plummed for 1/250th sec. Shooting against the light was another issue and yes I could have used multiple exposures but I'm old school and so, the graduated filters done the job!
For the record and if you really want to know, Sony A7R11, 24-105G OSS. 400 ISO 1/250th sec @f13.
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