A Sense of Place: Meadfoot Beach
A walk along Meadfoot beach in Torbay on a stormy day, early in the Summer. Tempted out by the sun, then buffeted by the wind, disappointed that it was too rough to swim. I decided to challenge myself to capture Meadfoot's Sense of Place in ten to fifteen photos, with four simple guidelines: context, human scale, macro (details/texture) and light/shadow.
I started with setting the scene with some wide shots:
Walking along the seawall, to the left is a large, white modernist block of flats. Some say it is iconic, others that it spoils the view of the cliffs and is out of keeping with the traditional Regency and Victorian villas of Torbay. Ahead, the famous limestone Thatcher Rock, formed over 2 million years ago and now home to colonies of seabirds. To the right, a row of beach huts, built by the council over 10 years ago for the cost of £2m+. This decision had led to another controversy, as the cost was considerably more than had been spent on affordable housing in the bay over the past few years. The winter storms caused a lot of damage this year, and repairs to the huts, seawall, steps and pathways are still going on months later.
I then spent some time watching the waves as they ebbed and flowed up the sloping beach, glistening in the sunlight. I hoped to create a triptych of light/shadow but only this one, with the silhoutted figure, stood out:
The seawall, built of sandstone and limestone in Victorian times, offers plenty of photographic opportunities, but I remembered my limits and just captured a few macro abstracts of the details that caught my eye:
The beach itself is a mix of sand and shingle, and the tide wrack on the strand line was full of natural still-life compositions:
I turned my attention again to the pursuit of light and shadow. The sound of the waves incessant on the shore led me to experiment with ICM (intentional camera movement) to catch the effects of the light sparkling on the moving water, leading to a glorious mix of blues, greens and greys:
Soooo hard to limit myself to such a small number of pictures, but the guidelines helped. I am finding though that I need the words to tell the story. How to create this Sense of Place with just the photos is still a challenge.
Watch A Sense of Place from Photo Masters
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