July - 12 Meaningless Photos

Arrh the summer! Most landscape photographers will tell you Summer is their least favourite time of the year and many will stop shooting for a time during the summer months.

I don’t mind summer, its far from my favourite season, I much prefer being wrapped up in my winter coat on a deserted beach in January, but I enjoy being out in summer as well. The early starts and late finishes don’t bother me, how busy places are is more of an issue for me and I have to be selective where I go, especially in the evenings.

So how has June gone, well I have to say it has been a difficult month for me with my 2021 project. The name of the project is 12 Significant images based around an Ansel Adams quote. However this month far from producing 12 Significant images I feel I am producing a body of meaningless work.

Thats not to say I am producing bad images, far from it, I feel I am getting some wonderful shots for the project and I am really happy with some of the shots. Its more that as a body of work it lacks meaning and impact. It is ending up as a series of nice photos from the Isle of Wight, however it feels I have missed an opportunity to highlight some of the issues facing the Island. Its an isolated community due to its Island geography and like all isolated communities that creates issues. The last 17 months of the Pandemic have only served to highlight these issues and a drive through the towns of the Island show how bad things are getting with rows of boarded up shops. Its the side of the Island the tourists don’t see and I feel I may have missed an opportunity to tell the story of this other side of the Island.

However in a way I am glad to feel this way, one of the things I wanted to get from the project was to develop my skills in building a body of work rather than just single shots and this has been an important learning point.

So despite all that I have continued with the project and captured 4 more images for the project.

1) Watershoot Bay

The month started with the Round the Island race, one of the biggest mass participation sporting events in the U.K. After being cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic it was so nice to see the the boats back racing round the island, it felt like a huge slice of normality returning.

It wasn’t the best day but I enjoyed being out with the camera, I started the day at the Needles hoping to see the first few boats pass the iconic landmark. Unfortunately as the first boats rounded I was sat in thick fog and then got absolutely soaked as a heavy rain shower came through. However it was worth it to be in the right spot as the rain cleared and the start of the main fleet came into view passing the rock stacks.

The Round the Island race fleet passing the Needles as the rain cleared.

After capturing this shot I followed the fleet along the south of the Island to arrive at Watershoot bay, one of my locations for the project. The sky was pretty Grey at this point but I’m still pretty happy with the shot I captured. I’m not sure it will make it in to the final 12 but it is nice to have this in the collection as a reminder of normality returning.

Watershoot Bay with the Round the Island race fleet passing

2) Bembridge

For me Bembridge is all about low tide. At low tide the rock ledges and shelves reveal themselves and help tell the story of why the Lifeboat station is built at the end of a long pier and not on the beach. It needs to be out there to provide safe water for the lifeboat to launch into. So I tend to only go to Bembridge at low tides. On this occasion we got some lovely light as the sun rose into a mainly clear sky. I liked the pebbles in the Rockpool so used my Polarising filter to cut through the glare and make sure these could be seen in the image.

The two ships on the horizon are another important element of the story, that’s another reason the lifeboat station is here, its on one of the busiest Shipping lanes in the world as ships turn out of the English Channel and head into the Southampton to go to Southampton or Portsmouth docks. A shot from Bembridge without ships would not feel right.

Bembridge Beach and lifeboat station on a calm morning at low tide

3) Yarmouth Spit

Phew, July has been Hot! and that has also come with long clear evenings. I tended not to go out with the camera too much as the clear skies didn’t hold too much interest. However on this occasion I needed to get out to enjoy some time with the camera so seeing a small amount of cloud in the sky was enough to get me out to Yarmouth Spit where I knew the Sea Holly would be in bloom.

Its a lovely spot that not many people seem to know about so where as every other beach I drove past was packed with people trying to keep cool in the heat I had this spot to myself. I managed to find a nice patch of the Sea holly to use as a subject and the last wisp of cloud aligned nicely with the composition. I think this is my favourite image from July.

Yarmouth Spit on a hot July Evening

4) The Pepperpot

I’d always envisaged a sky on fire at sunset as my Summer shot from the Pepperpot, but with the clear skies we had for most of the month it never happened. There was one evening that looked really promising with a bank of high cloud but a clear horizon.

I grabbed the bag and drove down to the south coast of the island and quickly climbed the hill to the Pepperpot. As I climbed the hill I quickly realised the vision was not going to come to be as the cloud was quickly moving away to the south over the sea. However just as I got to the top of the hill the cloud was framing the Pepperpot perfectly. Unfortunately the sun was right in the middle of the frame as well but by narrowing the aperture a bit I managed to get a nice sun star to make a bit of a feature from the sun.

After this quick shot the sky cleared and was pretty uninteresting for the remainder of the evening.

The Pepperpot

So that was July, its funny to think I only have one more trip to some of these locations to complete the project, whereas there are other locations I have only been to once so far! Four more summer images to capture before we can start to look forward to Autumn!.

Thanks for reading

Chris