December 2019
If you’ve been reading my blog lately you will know I’ve had a pretty busy few months travelling and running workshops. I’m very fortunate to be so busy and I enjoy every minute of it but all the travelling and early starts take their toll so I did my best to keep as much of December as possible free. The idea was to spend some time catching up on all the things I’d neglected, things like paperwork, processing, planning new trips, jobs around the house, sleep and photographing my local landscapes… some clearly more appealing than others!
As usual though things didn’t quite go to plan.
Essex
Over the last year or so I have been spending quite a lot of time exploring and photographing Essex for a book project (more on this soon) and have discovered some very interesting places. It’s an area often overlooked by photographers but while it may not have the same timeless feel as Norfolk and Suffolk, it has are some hidden gems and I’d earmarked a few of these for another visit when the conditions were right.
As luck would have it, the forecast looked to be perfect for just such a visit the day after I arrived home from Iceland but after getting home from the airport late at night after a long journey, I couldn’t manage to drag myself out of bed again a few hours later for sunrise! Waking up the next day to see the tail end of a beautiful misty sunrise wasn’t the best start to the day and I spent much of the day trying in vain to convince myself that it was fine, that there would be other sunrises and missing one didn’t matter. As it turned out I was right, there was one the very next day and this time I was ready with my camera in front of a field full of splendidly gnarled and twisted dead trees looming out of the fog. The field in question is private so you have to shoot from along the fence which is something of a challenge but as I seem to be saying more and more frequently (and less and less convincingly) if photography was easy it wouldn’t be any fun!
I decided to push my luck and head out for sunrise the next day as well. The forecast mentioned the tantalising possibility of localised mist and frost but an hour into my drive and approaching my chosen location, deep in the Essex countryside I was yet to see any sign of either. I decided to keep going, I had the dog with me and had resigned myself to taking her for a walk while I was there but as I pulled up by the river I found the bank coated with frost and patches of mist swirling over the water… they weren’t joking when they said localised.
Later in the month I was back down in Essex with a couple of friends, very much looking forward to a dawn to dusk shoot along the Thames Estuary at Leigh-on-Sea and Southend-on-Sea. I love it here, especially at low tide with the boats scattered all over the vast sweep of sand. This time the weather did everything it could to make life difficult… strong winds and clear skies for sunrise, strong winds and sideways rain during the day and then strong winds and clear skies for sunset again. The weather didn’t dampen our spirits though and we managed to make the best of what we had… what was that I was saying about it being easy?
Suffolk
December’s weather continued to frustrate, actually it was the forecast which was really frustrating. The weather symbols seemed to be permanently stuck on cloud and would either turn out to be correct and a day of blank, dull greyness would ensue or it would be totally wrong and the forecast total cloud coverage would turn out to be anything but. Whether I chose to ignore the forecast or follow it, I generally got it wrong but when you set aside some time for photography I suppose that’s almost inevitable.
I did have a few 1-2-1 workshops booked in during December and fortunately those (mostly) fell on reasonably good days. As much as I love travelling and photographing different landscapes around the world, I really enjoy being back on the Suffolk coast amongst reassuringly familiar views. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I have been to some of the beaches along this coast, in fact there are only a couple of stretches of the Suffolk coast that I am yet to photograph (and I intend to put that right this year) but familiarity certainly doesn’t breed contempt, it’s never the same twice and I enjoy the challenge of finding new angles in places I know so well. Aside from that, such a thorough knowledge of the local area means I can provide the best experience for those on my workshops.
Northumberland
Also in December I was pleased to be once again commissioned by English Heritage, this time to photograph a Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall.
Carrawburgh Roman Fort has just been gifted to the nation having being private ownership for the last 70 years and will now be looked after by English Heritage. I’m fascinated by Roman history so was very excited by the prospect of shooting Hadrian’s Wall. The challenge was that unlike many of the other forts along the wall's 73 mile length, there has been little archaeological work carried out here and the fort’s remains lie under a covering of turf. The shape is clearly visible but I was going to need some nice low side light shining across the landscape to show the undulations in the ground that mark the walls position under the grass. Luckily during the day I was up there the weather was changeable with dramatic clouds and regular splashes of sunlight across the cold but beautiful Northumberland countryside… a return to further explore the wall is definitely on the cards.
John Minns
1944 - 2019
The year had been a bit of a rollercoaster but the wheels well and truly came off late in December with the unexpected passing of my Father, John Minns. As well as being responsible for nurturing my love of the outdoors and encouraging me to work hard and pursue my dreams, John always read my blog, so although this isn’t really the place for my personal life, I wanted to remember him here with his favourite photo… Rest in peace John, we miss you.