15 Photos, 1 Location EP.4 - Newbiggin By The Sea

Newbiggin-by-the-sea was the first location in this series so far that I was completely new to. When visiting somewhere for the first time I normally do a trusty google earth scan and try to come up with a few ideas ahead of time. But in honour of the challenge I decided to head here completely blind. Beyond the shore, the small town has a rich maritime history, with the Newbiggin Maritime Centre offering a glimpse into its fishing past. Possibly the most photographed scene here is the "Couple" sculpture standing in the sea, so despite my lack of exploration here thus far I knew I was at least going to grab a snap of that.

EP4 - NEWBIGGIN BY THE SEA

To my surprise It wasn’t long at all before I used up my 15 frames, and along with that gained a lot of inspiration for future long exposure seascape sessions on the rare occasion I venture out with that goal in mind. I’ve recently gotten into the great habit of pinning photographic opportunities straight into my saved google maps locations. This way if a day does crop up where I’m in the mood for long exposures, I can open that particular saved list and check back on all the spots I’ve previously noted as a possible area for that type of photography.

The weather was changing quickly, raining for a moment, blue skies the next. I’m pretty fond of this happening when out with my camera as it means I can adapt my style a few different times throughout a photo walk, and not worry too much about images feeling repetitive. As mentioned in the Blyth blog post from episode 5 of this challenge, I’m really into capturing humans interacting with landscapes at the moment. Years of landscape photography can get quite boring at times but this new direction has been really refreshing.

This episode reminded me that even if a location doesn’t look particularly up your street via maps or existing images online, you should always give it a shot even if its just in passing while heading to somewhere close by. You’ll never know what photographic opportunities await otherwise. Newbiggin by the sea will definitely be a place I continue to visit here on out, even if its mostly for dog walks.