Throwback Thursday #5

9th May 2018

There's nothing on

This image was shot during a winter’s walk along St. Annes beach with a friend but, despite being one of my all-time favourite beachcoming shots, it almost didn’t happen.

[This image was first published on chromasia on December 28th, 2005]

Up until I took this image all my beachcombing shots were of items I found on the beach, as I found them – washed up flip-flops, shoes, water bottles, tyres, cans, shells, and various other bits of flotsam and jetsam. It wasn’t a rule, but it seemed to me that shooting things as I found them was more authentic than staging the scene in some way, and up until this point it hadn’t been an issue.

In this instance though we had a problem. We found a really photogenic TV stuck in a sand dune and no matter what we tried we couldn’t get a decent shot. The light was wrong, and the background was boring. So after a bit of deliberation we decided to move it a few yards down the beach.

Everything was looking good, right up until the point I tried to take a shot: my battery had died. John (the friend I mentioned above) had taken quite a few shots by this point, and as we’d been walking for hours, it was late, we were hungry and so on, I almost gave up …

“John, can I borrow your camera?”

We swapped CF cards, I took a bunch of shots, and then we wandered home. I can’t remember a single other thing we shot that day, but I do remember the pleasure I felt when I opened this RAW file – it was definitely worth the effort.

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Comments

Carlos Garcia says

10th May 2018 at 1:20 pm

Well… this takes me back a ways! Your beachcombing images are still among my favorites… it’s where I was inspired back to taking photographs. Thanks for sharing.

- David J. Nightingale says
  
  10th May 2018 at 1:30 pm
  
  Thanks Carlos. And yep, it was quite a while ago now. It’s amazing how quickly the time has passed.
  
  - Carlos Garcia says
    
    10th May 2018 at 1:36 pm
    
    It has been so amazing and fun to see your family grow! Hope you are all well. Coming over to this side of the pond any time soon? 🙂
    
    - David J. Nightingale says
      
      10th May 2018 at 1:47 pm
      
      Yes, thanks, we’re all good hear. And it would be great to head over the pond, but I don’t think it’s going to happen any time soon. It’s on the list though, so you never know 🙂
      
      - Carlos Garcia says
        
        10th May 2018 at 1:52 pm
        
        And Blackpool is on my list.
      - David J. Nightingale says
        
        10th May 2018 at 5:28 pm
        
        🙂
Simpliv says

7th November 2018 at 4:20 am

Nice pics.wow.Worth remembering…