Marine photography

You probably know by now of my interest and involvement with boats and the sea. I try to spend as much time sailing as I can. Sailing and photography suit each other so very well because the one creates so many great opportunities to enjoy the other. Some years ago I sailed right round the coast of Britain in a 27ft sailing yacht, and I now have an archive of photographs showing harbours of Britain from Dover in Kent, to Newlyn in Cornwall, and Scrabster on the northern coast of Scotland.

This picture was taken at the entrance to Scarborough in Yorkshire. It was a very easy picture to capture especially as the sky and the light were so dramatic. Of course I pressed the button a couple of times as the fishing boat rolled into the harbour entrance. I was using a Nikon F3 film camera, so there was none of this '8-frames-a-second' stuff. I just had to wait for just the right moment. The boat was moving very quickly in order to maintain steerage in the rolling waves.

Of the two shots taken, I prefer this one because it has such a tremendous feeling of movement. The bow of the boat is just about to go out of shot and that has injected a sense of depth to the composition. Of course the use of a 24mm wide angle lens has accentuated this effect by exaggerating the perspective of the harbour wall.

PHOTOFACTS:
Camera: Nikon F3
Lens: Nikkor 24mm f2.8
Film: Fujichrome 100
Exposure: 1/125th f8