Spring Tide 2012, Brighton Beach

Part one : Thursday 8th March 2012. During March, the orbital alignment of the sun and the moon creates a strong gravitational pull on Earth's oceans, resulting in abnormally low tides. Coastal features normally hidden at any other time of the year are revealed. Brighton beach is the place to be during the spring tides. I had the pleasure of meeting Alex (Agent Lawrence) and brightondj for the first time and once again, I bumped into Finn Hopson. Alex and I probably spent more time talking than taking photographs. Apparently, Brightonians are talking about me, admiring my work on-line and purposely venturing onto the South Downs or Brighton beach to meet me. In part two, I will revisit the beach on at the weekend, when the forecast is for bright sunshine. I will also have my new Canon EF 100-400mm lens by then, replacing the copy destroyed at Beachy Head on Monday evening.

On Saturday 10th March 2012, the water level fell to 30cm on an unseasonably warm evening. In places, one could walk at least 150 metres from the pebble line and 250 metres from Brighton promenade.  Indeed, 250 metres south of the Brighton Wheel is where I found Finn Hopson taking pictures after dark. I enjoyed a walk between the West Pier and Brighton Pier the most, because I could appreciate the serene twilight through my own fragile human senses. It was the sort of occasion I will recall for years to come, as truly mesmerising. Finn Hopson agreed. I started this week on a bad note, dropping an expensive telephoto lens into the sea. I head into Sunday, having enjoyed the perfect Saturday : I have a new lens, my starling photograph was selected for the Flickr front page, attracting enough views to populate Hove (and favourites to keep Arundel overcrowded with tourists) and now I am off to the local curry house for a vegetable Phall and a few ales.

Where lenses come to die

Shortly after I took this picture, I dropped my Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L USM lens into the sea, destroying its electronics, including the image stabiliser and autofocus system. The £1300 lens is now ruined. No-one else was at Beachy Head when this unfortunate accident happened, but if there had been, they would have seen a man cursing and crying. A friend of mine had invited me to her exhibition in Hastings today. There is no point in making a connection between the two, but its funny how decisions in life can have unforeseen consequences. 

Four bottles of real ale have just made an appointment with my central nervous system. I may be gone some time. Here is a full list of prices for my work, if you're interested in making a purchase (and helping a poor soul recover his losses) : www.alanmackenziephotography.com/p/licensing-and-prices.html

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I have started a Facebook page to promote my work and create revenue through direct image sales. I am thinking about running landscape and wildlife photography tuition sessions in the field, along with private indoor tuition. The sessions will be advertised on my Facebook page.

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I am pleased to announce a new comprehensive price list and portfolio, which will provide customers with guidance on buying digital files, inkjet prints and my book. Please click on the appropriate image for further details.

      

Snow on the South Downs

Snow fell across England and Wales on Saturday 4th February 2012. I got up early on Monday morning to capture a rare glimpse of the South Downs covered in snow. Rising temperatures and information from contacts in Eastbourne and Friston Forest persuaded me to avoid these areas. Instead, I visited Stanmer Down, north of Brighton in the morning and spent the afternoon at Kingston Ridge, to the west of Lewes. The partially melted snow created extremely difficult walking conditions. As temperatures fell sharply close to sunset, the snowy surface re-froze, creating ice on paths and a hard crust on top of undisturbed snow. The conditions also resulted in a pair of frozen boots.

Perseverance in Five Parts

I recently visited Stanmer Down, in the South Downs National Park, over five afternoons, figuring out how to photograph a lone tree amidst the undulating hills and dry valleys belonging to this wonderful part of East Sussex. The first two visits were marred by inaccurate weather forecasts; the third, by arriving late. By the forth visit, I had worked out the prime location for obtaining the photographs I wanted — north of the tree, along a hilly path leading up to Ditchling Beacon. I would need to use the moderate to long telephoto settings on my Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM lens in order to compress the landscape and isolate subject matter. The light was good for mid-afternoon in winter, being reasonably 'warm', although I was prevented from taking pictures during the 'Golden Hour' by increasing cloud cover. Haze, a common bugbear on the South Downs was present, although not altogether unpleasant. The daytime temperatures and physical presence of the South Downs caused the uplift of relatively humid air, creating hindering low level clouds. 

I knew in advance, that Thursday 2nd February 2012 was going to be free of cloud and blessed with excellent visibility. The previous day, I had spent an hour on Brighton beach, awaiting the huge starling murmurations at sunset (see pictures below). Cold, settled weather, featuring low humidity and weak uplift resulted in clear skies and distraction-free backgrounds in which to photograph these fascinating and mesmerising bird formations. I felt quite drunk, just looking at a murmuration of perhaps forty thousand birds over Brighton Pier.

On Thursday, I visited Stanmer Down for the fifth time, with a higher perspective in mind. I wanted a perfectly balanced composition, with the tree below the horizon and low sunlight modelling the landscape. With temperatures of -1°C and wind chill considerably lower, I finally experienced the light I had been yearning for. The Golden Hour accentuated the characteristic undulating South Downs landscape with gentle, golden sunlight caressing the brows and deep shadows filling the dry valleys. The moderately strong wind not only made temperatures feel like -10°C, but caused the telephoto lens to vibrate, requiring bracing and careful timing, setting off the 10 second timer, with mirror lock-up at just the right moment during a rare lull in the wind. ISO settings of 200 - 320 were necessary to obtain usable shutter speeds. I would have preferred ISO 100 for maximum quality, but I sacrificed a small decrease in image quality for sharpness, an obvious choice.

I was pleasantly surprised to meet Finn Hopson for the first time. He came walking up the hill, half-expecting to see me, after reading a comment I wrote on Flickr. Finn unfortunately arrived some fifteen minutes too late for the Golden Hour, but he will return another day. We had a most interesting conversation about photography and locations. Finn very kindly gave me a lift into Brighton. You can see Finn's pictures here: www.flickr.com/photos/finnhopson/

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Sunday 29th January 2012 — good light, but not what I wanted. The tree is above the horizon. The scene needs better light and a higher perspective.

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Wednesday 1st February 2012 — plenty of sunlight, clear skies and thousands of birds. If the weather tomorrow is like today, Stamner Down will be bathed in golden light.

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Thursday 2nd February 2012 — I've cracked it. Perfect composition, lighting and a higher perspective. Through careful planning, study of weather conditions, super-motivation, skill and perseverance in the face of disappointment, I have created a significantly better photograph of Stanmer Down on the fifth attempt. Future South Downs photographs will be of an equal or higher standard than this one. Only the highest quality pictures, taken in ideal conditions will be published.

Below: A closer view, fourteen minutes later. The sun is lower and the shadows even deeper. Here, I used a 400mm lens to isolate two brows from the surrounding elements. The setting compressed the perspective effectively, forcing the hill brows together to create a very dramatic picture.

First pictures of 2012

I feel rejuvenated by the longer daylight hours of January and at the prospect of spending 2012 exploring new parts of Sussex. On my list of places to visit are the Willoughby Fields, near Crawley, the High and Low Weald, the Ashdown Forest, Amberley, Stanmer Down and the South Downs between Woodingdean, Peacehaven and Kingston near Lewes. Of interest are the range of escarpments between Clayton and Offham. Site visitors will be seeing less of Brighton beach and Friston Forest, although be assured that important events, such as the spring low tides, Brighton's starling murmurations and the fiery reds of autumn will be featured on here.

2012 will see a continuation of my trend towards subtler colours and tones. The South Downs is a quiet, gentle landscape, deserving of brighter, lighter pictures. My approach will be directed on obtaining more complete, well-exposed photographs at the time of taking them, aided by the purchase of four and six stop neutral density filters.

I am going to spend every available opportunity searching for vantage points — this could mean going against my natural tendency to spend mornings in a horizontal position. By the end of 2012, I will have built up a formidable portfolio of photographs taken in my beloved home county of Sussex. I hope that the mild winter we are experiencing will be followed by a long, warm summer. Hydrangeas are flowering in Kingston near Lewes, while hedges of wild roses bloom in Rodmell. Let us hope that the summer doesn't betray our expectations with an unseasonal inversion of the elements.

What about the rest?

Seasons greetings and best wishes for 2012 to all visitors and followers of Thinking with Pictures. I posted my favourite Pictures of the Year 2011 earlier this month — but, I felt that there are many others deserving second exposure before the year is out. They are exciting, vibrant and remind me of the many happy hours I spent wandering the Sussex countryside over the spring and summer.

I have had enough of 2011 and now I am looking forward to January, when I will resume my normal habit of spending more time outdoors than glued to a computer screen looking at silly websites, such as Flickr and 500px. Flickr and 500px lead people to believe that they're being 'empowered' through having the chance to 'favorite' an item or vote for it. Site users are in fact given a narrow and restricted version of democracy, which promotes competition, status anxiety and ultimately, a production line of here today, gone tomorrow images, tailored to please others rather than please the individual taking the picture. Much like with 24 hour news, we are bombarded with a continuous stream of pictures, presented without context or historical meaning.

Visitors to alanmackenziephotography.com will always benefit from seeing my pictures in context to one another. My written accounts and photo essays provide meaning and historical value to my work, joining up a narrative, which, elsewhere, would otherwise be 'added as a fave' or 'reblogged 309 times' on Tumblr and forgotten about within days.