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

A kaleidoscope of beach huts

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"Beach huts have become something of a photographic cliche for UK-based snappers." Or so I said in April 2009 when I posted a photograph of these brightly painted seaside cabins at Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk. Mind you, when I wrote that sentence I'd already posted photographs of beach huts at Fleetwood, Lancashire, and Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire. And I subsequently posted one from Cromer, Norfolk, and a different shot from Wells-next-the-Sea. Today I've got three shots of beach huts from Southwold, so I guess you could say that if they are a photographic cliche then it's one I'm happy to indulge in.

As I walked past these immaculate daytime residences in Suffolk (there are 300) I idly wondered whether there is a collective noun for them. I can't find one so I suggest "a spectrum of beach huts", "a variegation of beach huts", or better still perhaps, a kaleidoscope of beach huts". We came upon these long lines on promenade and sand fairly early in the day, so people weren't very numerous. Moreover the sky was bluer than we had any right to expect in mid-September, and these two facts together made my photography easier.

As well as being painted in each owners' chosen colour scheme most of the beach huts have names. Often they are humorous (Pete's Palace, Aunty Bong Bong, Jabba the Hut, OOZUTIZIT, ShoreThing), frequently they have a touch of the idyllic (Shangri-La, Sunny Retreat), and some just make you wonder (why "Shepherdess Rest")? However, the rightmost part of the group that are shown in the top and bottom images (the same set taken from different angles) were unusual in having names that follow a theme. In these collective action had triumphed over the rampant individualism that usually characterises these small dwellings. Here are some of the names - can you work out the theme? Victoria, Albert, Elizabeth, Queenie, Margaret Rose. It wasn't difficult was it!?

photographs and text (c) T. Boughen

(Image 1)
Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 22mm (44mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/1000 seconds
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Wells next the Sea and Wilde

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"I don't desire to change anything in England except the weather."
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Irish playwright, poet and author

The quotation above is one of the less memorable of the many quotations by Oscar Wilde. It repeats a feeling about England's weather that many English people and visitors to these islands share, but with which I strongly disagree. Elsewhere in this blog I've written about the pleasures of living with weather that is rarely settled, particularly if you're a photographer. Today's photograph was taken in early May, when these 10 beach huts at Wells next the Sea, Norfolk, along with most of the other 190 stretched along the North Sea coast, were uninhabited, the strong wind and scurrying clouds making the sea's edge a place for cagoules, hats, and brisk walking. During my April visit they were busy, and a few days after I took this shot they were, doubtless, thronged with owners soaking up the sun and making the most of the location.

But, since I've written about these huts alongside an image taken on my first visit, I'll return to Oscar Wilde. I have the feeling that, as with many brilliant people, he's not the sort of person you'd like to spend much time with. However, there's no denying that his brand of egotism, vanity, astuteness, insight and wit has its appeal. Here's a selection of some of my favourite quotations. Anyone who isn't familiar with the writer can easily find hundreds more on the internet.

• "I have nothing to declare but my genius." (allegedly said at Customs when entering the United States)
• "There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it."
• "America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between."
• "What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."
• "I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I'm saying."
• "Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught."
• "Popularity is the one insult I have never suffered."
• "Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter."
• "I can resist everything but temptation."
• "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go."
• "Be yourself: everyone else is already taken."
  
• "Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit." (hence me quoting Wilde today!)

photographs & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 110mm (220mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/160 seconds
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Why RGBY?

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In English schools pupils are assigned to "houses". These are groupings of pupils in each year group and across the school that are not subject or ability-based as classes often are. Rather they are mixed groupings used for sports competitions and other activities where it is useful for the whole school population to be divided into sub-sets. There are usually four houses and they can be named after almost anything. I've come across the cardinal points of the compass, archbishops, mountains, rivers, saints, and even British army generals. As well as a name each house has a colour, and in most cases these are red, blue, green and yellow.

My primary school (5-11 years) "house" system was the first time I came across the use of this particular set of colours used in combination. As I grew older I came to realise that it is frequently pressed into service where four strong colours are felt to be required. Designers particularly associate these colours with children. Games such as Ludo use them, my son's first two-wheeler bicycle used them, building bricks often feature the combination, play apparatus in public parks is frequently painted red, blue, green and yellow. Occasionally you see a designer make a desperate bid for freedom and use purple, orange, turquoise - anything but these four! But, invariably, the quartet re-assert themselves. Local authorities wanting to give a splash of colour to a building, to street furniture, or to a derelict corner seem drawn to this quartet of colours.

When I was in Cromer, Norfolk, photographing these newly-painted beach huts, it dawned on me how we got to this position. Red, blue, green and yellow have been so frequently used in combination that they've become "standard" and "timeless". Anyone using them knows that people will recognise the combination as of proven quality, and that they are unlikely to provoke any criticism. If, on the other hand, they combine four different colours they run the risk of attracting the public's disaproval. Or they can find themselves using a colour group that is fashionable, and hence one that will date quickly. The truth is, red, blue, green and yellow are a safe set of colours. But here's another truth - I'm fed up of seeing them!

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 53mm (106mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/250 seconds
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Photographic cliches and beach huts

click photo to enlarge
Beach huts have become something of a photographic cliche for UK-based snappers. These wooden, low-cost, weekend and summer holiday shacks are making something of a comeback. In the 1970s and 1980s it like they might disappear. However, there has been an increased interest and demand in recent years, and a few new ones have started to appear. The straitened economic times that are upon us will doubtless give them a further fillip as many families forsake the beaches of the Mediterranean for the beautiful, though cooler, coasts of the British Isles.

What is it about beach huts that makes people point their cameras at them? It must be a combination of their bright colours, the unusual and varied nature of their construction, the fact that they are redolent of times past, and the photogenic places in which they are located. I wasn't prepared for this particular group of beach huts at Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, until I went over the sand dune nearest the sea and came upon them. Beach huts superseded bathing machines at the end of the nineteenth century when mixed bathing became more acceptable, and people no longer minded walking across the beach to the sea in their bathing costumes. The examples shown here are some of the oldest in the UK, dating from around 1900, and differ from others I've seen around the coast by being raised on legs and having steps up to a small verandah. I don't know whether any are municipally owned, but judging by the way they have been individualised I'd guess not. Probably most are privately owned, though doubtless some are available for hire.

Given that I described photographs of beach huts as a cliche, why was I taking pictures of them? Well, there's a challenge in producing an image that gets away from the stereotypical series of multi-coloured gable ends (though I have done that one in the past!) There's also the desire to record these distinctive structures. So, with those two points in mind I ended up with this distant shot of the huts backed by the pine trees and holidaymakers as the right foreground interest.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 150mm (300mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/640 seconds
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -1.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On