Faded seaside glamour

I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter which British seaside town or resort you go to, these places are always a really interesting mix of faded grandeur, pockets of gentrification, pockets of real deprivation, and good old-fashioned family entertainment attractions that defiantly cling on to the better days they would have last seen some thirty or forty years ago. It's no wonder they make such fertile ground to walk around with a camera in hand. Just the architectural contrasts of Victorian and Edwardian buildings against modern attractions that attempt to draw the public back alone would make great photography subjects.

But then when you add in the people element - that odd mix of daytrippers and weekenders alongside privileged and not-so privileged residents, and the fact that everyone rubs along against each other, brought together by the common experience of wanting to enjoy the sunshine (or wind and rain!) on a beach or promenade, then you have photography gold.

In this respect, Newquay in Cornwall is much like any other British seaside town. The only difference in Newquay is that you have an additional element - the surf community and the thousands who make the trip down to this part of the world in their fleet of VW campervans to ride the waves at Newquay's Fistral Beach and other spots along the coast. Surf culture added onto faded seaside glamour gives Newquay a really interesting feel.

And so it was that I found myself a week or two ago wandering around Newquay in the early evening with a camera in my hand. Well, actually, to tell the truth I had two cameras on me. My trusted vintage Pentax KM loaded with black and white film, and my Canon EOS 1 with colour. As you will have seen from my previous posts, I'm still very much in the experimenting phase with my photography. I had initially thought I would shoot exclusively black and white, but I haven't quite given up on colour yet. There was something about the light - Cornwall just has gorgeous light at the end of the day - and the saturation of the colours, with a glorious turquoise sea as the backdrop, that I felt I could do justice to on colour film.

Unfortunately, you'll have to wait to see some of the colour images I took as they're not developed yet. I know - the suspense is killing me, so I can only imagine what it will be like for you dear reader!

The first few images above are of the harbour and give a nice sense, I think, of how picturesque it is. These images and the others I've included hopefully give a real sense of the character of the place, including how different one street or part of town can feel to another.

What struck me most during this evening stroll was how I'm building confidence with the camera, but also recognising my limitations. I feel increasingly less self-conscious wandering around with a camera in hand, and I really enjoy being in the moment and just walking, taking scenes in, and thinking about how they'll translate onto film. But if I'm honest, I tend to capture pictures at the moment which don't push me out of my comfort zone in terms of the subjects I'm photographing.

What do I mean by that? Well, I'm very happy snapping away at inanimate objects and buildings, but I'm not that comfortable photographing random people in the traditional street photography sense. It's something I'm going to have to get over, and I'm sure practice will build my confidence. I know that all the best street and streetscape photography that I've seen and that has inspired me inevitably includes people in it. Great photographs should tell stories or, at the very least, encourage the viewer to ask questions about what they are looking at. People in your pictures as subjects or context really help turn perfectly pleasant but average images into great photographs.

The guy walking along with a surfboard in what would otherwise be a pretty straightforward urban high street scene gives a good sense of how the surf culture in Newquay just blends into everyday life in the rest of town. The last picture below uses a couple in the far distance down on the beach as subjects to provide some depth to the image.

I'm instinctively drawn to big cities for my pictures, so most of what you will see me post comes from a big city context. But I definitely enjoyed this leisurely summer's evening strolling around Newquay. Week by week I'm building my confidence and getting to know a bit more about what I like photographing, what works, what doesn't work. It's all a learning process - but that's what makes it so much fun.

Thanks as ever for reading - and for those of you more experienced photographers, all tips, suggestions and feedback very welcomed!