Capture a snapshot of life on Brighton Pier
We kicked off the day with a roasting stroll on Brighton Pier, on the hunt for characterful candids and colourful abstracts.
“It was a challenge to use an unfamiliar camera with a wide-angle zoom for the first time, but the glorious weather helped,” explains Alain. “It meant that I was able to keep the aperture at around f/8 and use the base ISO of 200. The advantage of using a wide-angle lens is that although you have to get quite close, the subject is not really aware of you as you are not generally pointing the camera directly at them.
I never actually looked at my subject here, and was very quick to take the shot.
“With such a wide lens, it can be difficult to keep the camera level, and it is easy to lose control of the verticals and horizontals. Correcting them in processing can mean sacrificing a lot of the composition, so it’s best to get it right in-camera. And I do like the composition of this shot. The heavy shadow made the exposure quite tricky, and I had to lose some of the highlights to keep detail in the figure, but at least this helped to isolate him. The cracking paintwork on the wood hints at the faded past glory of the pier, and the man himself seems to have quite a back story.”
Expert opinion
A cracking use of leading lines to direct the eye towards the subject. Keeping him close to the edge, looking out of shot, conveys a feeling of isolation.
We initially didn’t have to stray far from Brighton Pier to find interesting shots. The structure of the pier itself lent itself to interesting abstracts and silhouettes, while the seaside staples of the shoreline, fisherman and backlit deckchairs were there to tempt us. Ben was the only member of the group to have the burden of a tripod, but this meant that long-exposure shots of the derelict West Pier – a Brighton classic – were pretty much off the menu.
Given his career background, it was unsurprising to see Derek expressing his eye for architectural pictures, even on the beach. “Looking towards the pier, I could see the potential for a great structured image,” he says. “Using a long lens meant that the planes could be flattened, although shooting handheld meant I had to be sure to keep the camera steady.
“The signage above the pier, combined with the children swimming under the open section, helped to create an idealised image of a perfect summer’s day at the British seaside.”
Expert opinion
Defined by its rhythmic repeating lines, Derek’s shot of the pier is tightly structured. The little amount of breathing space allowed at the top between the building and the edge of the frame, combined with the straight verticals and horizontals, results in a graphical image that we find very satisfying.