15 Photos, 1 Location EP.2 - Whitley Bay

At the back end of 2023 I decided to make my way up the North East coastline, limiting myself to 15 photos only at each location. Not only did this give me the challenge of trying to produce 15 new photos in places I have spent a lot of time in over the years, but also to stop off at parts of the coastline I have overlooked or never walked before.

EP2 - WHITLEY BAY

Episode two saw me a stones throw north at Whitley Bay. Theres a lot more ground to cover here, and with the famous St Mary’s Lighthouse being hidden in fog shortly after taking a couple of frames there, I took to the promenade in search of more people. Whitley Bay is a lively seaside town with two miles of golden sands, it’s common to spot seals around St Mary's Lighthouse and theres no shortage of places to stop and grab a coffee or something to eat, my personal favourite given its location right on the beach front is the Rendezvous Cafe (photographed above).

Following the promenades stone walkway in either direction while stopping to admire the ocean meeting the fog, reminded me of why I practise photography in the first place. Regardless of how the 15 photos were going to turn out I knew it was going to be a great day/walk, it was peaceful, and rare moments like these while you watch other peoples days unfold always makes me feel part of humanity, even while alone holding a camera.

It can be difficult to photograph flat land in the fog at times, so searching for human elements or colourful foregrounds to give the front of your frame that much needed pop is always a great way to approach days like this one. Fog is pretty much always going to be brighter than the rest of your frame, so I find slightly over exposing in the fog always helps to keep the rest of the image bright and lively, when I expose normally I often find the finished result to be pretty dull and muddy. Even with the power of post production these days the files take a lot more work to get them to a place I’m happy with, so I’d rather embrace a bright white sky than have to fight the data in Lightroom.