Don’t ever go to a
marsh when the tide is in. And if you do
go don’t take your wife who, although lovely, has no balance whatsoever. Such was my lesson learnt after a few hours
at Fleetwod Marsh Nature Reserve one sunny Saturday afternoon a week or so
ago. The marsh is located on the west
coast of the UK, just north of Blackpool and aside from housing a variety of
wildlife contains multiple wrecked and rotting boats which i had seen online
and was rather keen on shooting. When I,
my wife Jess and our friend Paul went the tide was in and the water had filled
the metre or so deep channels that ran from the coastline inland towards the
footpath full of very cold water. These
are what Jess kept falling in up to her waist.
I really felt sorry for her as she isn’t warm at the best of times and
this water must have tipped her over the edge.
She braved the outside for a further hour or so after her final fall
though – all credit to her! It was a bit
of a rushed shoot as i wanted jess to get somewhere warm so i shot a quick roll
and we piled back into the car with the heaters on full blast on the journey home. When i developed the film at home i
discovered my developer had expired so my negatives were covered in streaky
blues. Useless. Jess on the other hand had had taken a
beautiful shot of one of the wrecks - the colours were fantastic and the
composition spot on. She really does
have a superb eye for photography and you can see her shot here http://www.flickr.com/photos/mindymooface/6782584991/in/photostream
Following my C41
failure I decided to take a Friday off work and head back to shoot in black and
white. I checked the weather and i was
promised sun so when Friday came i packed my bag and headed out. The weather was just as good as my first
visit and i had timed it so that the tide was fully out. Having been there before i had a good idea of
some of the shots i wanted to take and what gear i would need. I love shooting with other people but
sometimes its nice to be alone to really take your time and get the exposures and
compositions right. With the water back
out to sea the land was mostly very soft mud which prevented me from getting
right up to the shoreline so i stayed a little inland. Getting up to the wrecks took a little manoeuvring
but it was so much easier with the channels empty. It was nice to have the time to picture the
finished shot in my mind and compose/expose accordingly.
I developed the film
as soon as i got home and im really happy with the results. I’ll probably head back at some point soon-im
wondering how the shots will turn out with the infra red film i have in my
freezer...
