In Camera ... Queen Victoria joins the Iron Men

The Cunard Liner Queen Victoria sailed into the Mersey this morning to a guard of honour from the iron men of Crosby beach. It was the vessel's first visit to Liverpool and unfortunately the weather did not do justice to the landscape of the Liverpool waterfront. It was a grey overcast morning at the beach, it had been raining earlier and the tops of the wind farm masts were disappearing into the thick low clouds. Further down river towards Liverpool the buildings appeared misty and grey through a driving mist.

This picture matches earlier images of the Queen Elizabeth 2 and the Queen Mary 2, having been taken from as closes as possible to the earlier pictures with the same figure in the left foreground.

In Camera ... Postcard AG366

This image was captured on the September day that I accompanied a party of school children from Kelsall near Chester along the beach. I had been invited to give a talk about photography of the figures on the beach and demonstrate how to get the best views.
It was an ideal day for photography, a late morning high tide was on the turn on a blustery day which had started off showery but the clouds were now breaking up and beams of sunlight were breaking through.
This was one of the first pictures I demonstrated, comparing the iron figures with the industrial iron work in the background, using a longer lens brings several of the sculptures into the image and adjusts the perspective so that they appear closer together. As we walked back along the beach towards Hall Road the sky cleared further casing the wet sands to glisten in the sunlight with the still rough seas in the background. A bracing day that produced some good images for everyone. The children were inspired by their visit and produced good pictures and poetry as a record of their trip. The school used this image on the cover of a book they produced about their day on the beach.

In Camera ... Postcard AG350

A winter sunset after a day of snow flurries and hail, the Welsh hills were covered in snow and a cold north east wind was blowing down the beach. This gap in the clouds appeared not long before sunset and filled the cold winter day with warm golden light for a short time, uplifting the spirits on such a miserable day.

In Camera ... Postcard AG337

A vibrant, stormy October Saturday afternoon high tide at 3.30pm, a day of rapidly changing weather conditions, sunshine, showers, blue sky, rolling clouds. Just before high tide I went down to Hall Road, the waves were just rolling against the promenade wall. The sky had clouded over somewhat but I could see brighter sky on the horizon and decided to wait. Tantalizing glimpses of sunlight, faint glimmers on the rough water and lots of crepuscular rays on the horizon. One figure was holding my attention, I could see the possibilities if the light changed, if a gap in the clouds just happened to appear in the right place...!

After half an hour the sun burst through for about a minute, full strength and the shots were in the bag. I lingered a while longer but knew I had captured the image I required.

Working on the images afterwards I was reminded of an earlier image, AG 154, which I called "Creation" and which sold out on the limited edition print of 100. On sales to date it looks as though this picture AG337 might prove to be just as popular with collectors of my work. 

In Camera ... Postcard AG330

A September evening during which an ordinary sunset turned into something extraordinary without any warning. I had actually gone down to the beach to shoot a publicity shot for the 2010 calendar, myself holding a copy of the new publication in front of an orange sky. We took the publicity shots just before sunset, but then, just after sunset, this large cloud with a rippled undersurface began to catch the light from the by now invisible sun and glowed with a crimson light. It was a lovely spectacular sky in which the colours intensified as the sun sank even further below the horizon, I had started packing up the equipment but then kept turning back to see even better colours than before. This was nature putting on a spectacular show for the few watchers on the beach at this time of night. Nearly an hour after sunset I moved from my position near the Leisure Centre to near the car park at Hall Road. Now the slow moving cloud was glowing a deep, intense crimson with hints of fiery orange filling the gap between sea and cloud.

I was doing my best to record these spectacular changes of light with time exposures now of up to ten seconds, there was only the glow of reflected light from the clouds now to provide any light now almost an hour and a half after sunset. My wife, helping earlier with the publicity shot, had sat in the car at Hall Road listening to music whilst watching the last half hour slowly fade into darkness. She said it was an amazing experience, listening to gentle background music whilst viewing this incredible light show, one of the best I have ever scene from the beach. Dinner that night was much later than anticipated but we sat talking long into the night, enthused by what we had witnessed.

In Camera ... Postcard AG324

An April afternoon when a north westerly gale was sweeping across the Irish Sea, unusually the sky was clear but the combination of strong winds and high lunch time tide resulted in this stormy looking scene. The tide was actually on the way out but the pressure of the wind was keeping the water higher than usual as I took this shot crouched low to staedy myself and camera against the wind from the steps of the promenade wall.