Framedlight

Whitby on a cold, very windy afternoon in January, but still packed with people and still difficult to park near the town. Where do they all come from, here to sample the fish and chips or various goth delights on offer? But Whitby is always a street photographer's delight, relatively untouched by chain stores and with it's own quirky atmosphere. Here are some pictures from the streets of the town and then looking across the coast through the course of a short afternoon.

After the tide had forced us off Saltwick Bay we drove north to Saltburn to photograph the pier. The tide was almost up to the very top of the beach which was good and the sea was fairly rough as well which made for good long exposure shots. I was finding that exposures of around a second showed some movement in the sea but longer exposures of 15 seconds or more smoothed it out. The scene was interrupted by a couple of horses being ridden along. I was not really set up to take them but have done so anyway! I had new boots on (Meindl Toronto) which stood up really well to the soaking they received. Again there are some coloured pictures and then monochrome. The pier really suits monochrome but I love the muted colours that long exposures give. The pictures with the horses I have only shown in black and white as one of the riders had on a high vis yellow jacket.

The second day of the workshop dawned grey and dull. We all met up at the top of the cliff overlooking Saltwick bay at 7.00am, but it wasn't until 7.20 that the gloom lightened enough to walk down the cliff to the beach. The bottom of the path had given way and the side of the cliff had had some subsisdance from the recent storms. The tide was on its way out and retreating quickly so we spent around 2 hours on the beach before it came up again, just as quickly, threatening to cut us off. I took pictures of the nab - a severe outcrop of stone and the waves as they were fairly fierce where they hit the edge of the reef. I got rather wet taking these as the waves kept sneaking up from behind. Also there was the remains of an old barnacle encrusted boat wrecked under the cliff which was very photogenic. With the wave pictures I prefer the ones with more detail in the water to show the movement. The whole place was a joy to photograph. It is just a pity that the tides do not allow m...

After working around the pier for quite some time we walked across the bridge that takes you to the east side of the town. The sun was low in the sky and we stopped to take pictures of the two piers before walking on to the east pier to photograph the sun going down over the town. From there we migrated to the Whitby steps - a famous haunt for photographers, although unfortunately the street lights which are supposed to leave pools of atmospheric illumination on the steps were out and we were faced with almost darkness. I have tried to make the best of this in the picture.