Seaside 'street'

On my regular visits to the seaside for my photo walks, they mainly focus on my love of watching waves or capturing smaller details along the shoreline, in the case of fishing towns, such as Brixham,it would be the nets, crab,or lobster pots stored on the quayside, a great source of my appetite for texture and shape.

Sidmouth, in East Devon offers an array of all the above but with the sea front being so close to its town centre, it offers great opportunities for people watching and ‘street’ style photography.

With the rare occurrence of two consecutive days of sunshine, I seized such an opportunity today, knowing that there would be subjects aplenty, all sharing the same thought of making the most of a relatively dry and warm day.

The first half hour of todays jaunt saw a band of rain having its last word, before giving way to brighter conditions, all the better for the atmosphere it conveys and the changing light.

Armed with my Canon point and shoot siblings, the S95 and the S100, I take a good few wave shots, as the sea front is only sparsely populated with human subjects while the rain still lingers.

A relatively quiet sea front as the rain lingers

As with much of my ‘people’ photography, I like to find ways of capturing my subject through reflection or on the other side of a seaside shelter window, the implied image offering the kind of abstraction that appeals to my left field nature.

Of course, when the latter is not always an option so the direct shot is the one to go for, this is where having a small camera comes into its own, its just a point and shoot after all, not a huge DSLR that screams ‘I’M TAKING PHOTOS!’

The candid nature of these images are always good to look back on, asking the questions, did they travel far? are they long time friends or passing strangers?

All in all, it has been a very good weekend for getting a few miles under the belt and doing what I enjoy most.
With spring on the horizon, there is much to look forward to.