Evening at the paddling pool

click photo to enlarge
Any photographer in the UK looking for colourful subjects for their camera could do worse than visit a travelling fun-fair or pay a visit to the British seaside. Not the quiet, refined seaside however, but the glitzy, brash seaside. One of Lincolnshire's locations that fits that latter description is Mablethorpe north of Skegness (another such place).

We dropped into the town in the early evening for a little diversion as we travelled to an appointment further north. After 6pm in the middle of September in the UK isn't the place you usually encounter a temperature in the twenties and people still frolicking on the beach, in the parks and along the main street, but that's what we found. The low sun lit up the scenes before us with a yellow tinted glow and the freshly painted buildings, beach huts, wall and railings positively glowed with deep colours in the evening light. As did the deserted blue paddling pool with its fountains still feeding the water. I took a few shots of the colours that the view offered and a further shot as one adventurous little girl entered the water for a final paddle of the day. To her great credit she went in at just the point where my composition needed some interest!

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Early Evening at the Paddling Pool
Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 10.4mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5
Shutter Speed: 1/640
ISO: 125
Exposure Compensation:  -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Beach Hut No.33

click photo to enlarge
Prior to my recent visit to the town I had only been to Mablethorpe in Lincolnshire once. That was several years ago, on a cold, dull spring day, as we passed through on our way elsewhere. Maybe the circumstances coloured my judgement somewhat but I wasn't impressed. My second visit was on a sunny, reasonably warm day, and though I wouldn't describe myself as wildly enthusiastic about what I saw, it wasn't quite the dire place that I remembered.

Mablethorpe is a small, brash seaside town with a modest promenade, fine sandy beach and several dashes of glitz. Oh, and caravans by the acre and beach huts a-plenty. I don't mind a bit of British seaside fun, though I do tend to prefer such places in the winter. From a photographic point of view, however, they provide a welcome contrast to the rural and more sedate places where I often find myself with my camera. Bright colours, surface sheen and jollity aren't bad subjects for the wandering photographer.

The beach huts at Mablethorpe stood out on our sunny day, many of them freshly painted for the coming season. Some were clearly municipally owned and quite uniform, others were privately owned with many bearing the stamp of the owner's individuality - quirky colour schemes, slogans, odd names, cartoon characters etc. And, it must be said, quite a few of the beach huts had seen better days and really needed some TLC..

Today's photograph shows part of one of the municipally owned huts in two-tone blue. Red blue and green were the favoured colours for these huts and each sported a large identification number. In one area they stood along the sea wall like the remaining teeth in a mouth full of extractions, the concrete base of a disappeared hut marking each cavity. I liked the diagonal shape that the sun placed on the verticals and horizontals of this example and the way it turned two shades of blue into four.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 50mm (75mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/400 sec
ISO:100
Exposure Compensation: -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On