Thursday 5 June 2008

More finds along the estuary

I have not got as much photographed the past few weeks as I would have liked much due to the weather. It has been a real washout on the days I am able to go places. Spent pretty much the whole of last Thursday in cafes on Sheppey waiting for the rain to stop, reading in the local paper how the island got more rain in two days than is normal for two months! And Monday was so bad I got really depressed. I love overcast skies but problem is no one is around when it is so wet.
I made a journey to Shoeburyness at the weekend and found an abandoned garrison where kids were playing. I would have loved this as a kid, absolute dream. The kids told me it was haunted by ghosts and this was all part of their excitement. This garrison will very soon disappear and make way to housing development on this former MOD land. I did not really get the picture I wanted so will go back and try again.
I was fascinated by the low visibility, normally one can see the other side very well but when it is foggy it is like starring out at sea unaware of the other sides existence. I tried to make some clean images illustrating this, which I am quite happy with except that I need to scan them better. (My scanner scans some things better than others).
On the beach in Shoebury there was was an African church holding mass. Really different, I spoke to them but they did not want me to take pictures however I had already taken a couple of quick snaps.
I have started to record what people are telling me rather than taking notes which is working far better, I think, but I have yet to put this next to the pictures. I have got small prints made of the images so I can show people I meet while photographing what I'm doing but also to try to see if the images work together and what is missing. I'm really quite worried about edit it all together, I like the process but I also feel insecure.
I will hopefully get to photograph the life boat crew in Southend on Saturday. They are based at the end of the longest pier in the world. I like the idea of this crumbling pier.

It is 6th June today - Sweden's Nation Day, I wish I was in Sweden.

5 comments:

antrim said...

hey anna, happy Sweeden day...i saw in your post...nice to see more work from the thames estuary...reading your description of the weather, i began to imagine using HCB's method of finding the stage and waiting ... for the weather, a lone soul, ... good luck and look forward to seeing more...

Mia said...

Thanks Antrim, I'm going to get the herring out and celebrate properly! As for the weather, well I'm prepared...

Mark Chilvers said...

hey Anna, I really like the pic of the foggy sea and the post, keep it up. While it is nice to get people in some of your pics I like the bleak ones too. put a bag over your camera and shoot some rainy beach pics as well perhaps?

Mia said...

Thanks Mark, Yes I really like that kind of light and mood and want to do more pictures along those lines.

jonowales said...

i do like the family shot on the wall....very UK seaside but as with mark i do appreciate the emptiness of some of the images. and very belated "Happy Sweden day"!