No, No, No, No, NO, NO, NOOOO!!!

  I went out shooting at the weekend.  Which turned out to be a very bad idea.  A very very bad idea.  I discovered last week that a section of coastline not far from me had lots of wooden coastal protection.  Coastal protection = photographers delight so I decided to head out there on Saturday (along with Jess who, as it was sunny, decided to leave the house).  We had a lovely walk but alas it was too sunny and I only shot two frames.  The tide was a little too far out as well so there wasn’t really much to photograph as I was in a long exposure mood.

  I decided to head back at sunrise the next morning when the light would be a bit flatter and the tide would be all the way in.  I woke up Sunday morning wide awake, grabbed my gear and shot out of the house.  Half an hour later I was parked up and walking through the dunes, it was drizzling a little but I thought I’d endure, I could always run back to the car if conditions got worse.  I setup and shot 5 or so frames, keeping my eye on the tide as it turned out I had arrived just before high tide so the water was coming in fast.

  On the 8^th or so frame as I was setting up the water came shooting in up the side of one of the coastal protection barriers and headed straight for my bag.  I ran back and snatched up my bag only to turn and see my camera ditch sideways into the sand. ARGH!  I ran back and up-righted the tripod to find my camera encased in grit.  I dusted it off and re-seated the tripod just as the tide came sweeping in again and half inundated my camera bag. ARGH AGAIN!  I ran back, rescued the bag and moved it further inland just as my tripod decided to blow over again and ditch my camera into the sea. 

AAARRGGHHHH!!  I ran back, rescued the camera and ran inland.  Well, the water had washed off the sand which was nice but water and cameras are never a good mix.  Fortunately there are very few electronics in my Bronica.  I grabbed my gear and decided to head home.  I split my SLR kit up and put it on the passenger seat of the car with the air blowers on full.

  When I got home I used a brush to dust off as much sand as I could and left the gear to dry.  It’s still drying now and every few hours I dust off any loose sand.  Handily the squeak on my 80mm lens has disappeared but alas my 50mm makes a horrible grinding noise when focusing.  It looks like no water got into the camera body or the film back which is a bonus; it’s just the 50mm lens that seems to have taken most of the damage.  Ill dry it and clean it as best I can but time will tell if any salt remains inside to cause any damage. 

  I decided to develop my film using PMK Pyro, praying that it would have some good shots on.  Alas, on removing the film from the tank it was almost transparent.  I’m not sure what happened, it looks like it didn’t develop fully.  My guess is the Pyro was dead as it was a very old stock solution, but I can’t be sure.  So now I am left with a potentially knackered camera and no pictures to show for it.  Damn.

But here’s what I learnt from my day of tragedy:

1. heavy tripods are a wise investment
2. sand and seawater do not compliment camera gear
3. PMK Pyro solutions need to be used up quickly
4. incoming tides move in rapidly
5. cameras take a long time to dry out
6. hats are useful for covering lenses
7. it is hard to keep filters sand and water free when it is raining and you're on a beach

Hopefully you will learn a lesson from this tale of woe.  Keep your gear dry and avoid wet and windy beaches.  Right, message sent - i'm off tripod shopping...

 

Fleetwood Marsh Wrecks

  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... 

A Holiday from Holiday

  For the first time since i left work last Friday i managed to get away from the family days out to do a quick hour of shooting.  I met up with one of my shooting pals Paul and we headed to Lytham/St Annes beach.  It was windy.  Extremely windy.  Tripod use was out of the question.  We headed down onto the beach hoping to head for the remains of the old pier but alas the tide was further in than i have ever seen it so we had to shoot from afar.  After spending some time messing with assembling my Bronica i finally got some shots in.  The tide was coming in at a ridiculously rapid pace and by the time i had setup my gear and eyed the shot in on my waist level finder i was stood in water.  Metering was a nightmare so i just used my instincts and shot.  I was a bit worried as the strong wind was battering our cameras with sand particles and blowing our gear bags all over the place.  We persevered regardless and shortly moved further up the coast where a flock of birds was sat on the water quite close to shore.  The local dogs chasing them proved to create some nice photo opportunities.

  Shortly thereafter i spotted a partially filled plastic bottle dumped on the sand which caught my eye so i snapped it.  It turned out to be one of the best shots on the negative.

  Our final stop was a little further up the coast where the waves were now smashing against the sea defences.  I sacrificed dryness to snap a few quick shots of the spray coming over the wall.

  The results were a bit hit-and-miss on the developed negative and some shots took a bit of work to get a decent image of but all in all i think they came out ok.  It was nice to be out in some extreme weather shooting on instinct rather than taking my time over each shot and meticulously recording every detail.