A winter's day at Skegness

Winter at a sandy coast is a time for the warmest clothing because the wind is often bitter. Usually the most appropriately dressed are the sea anglers. Standing by a rod for a few hours very quickly tells you about any shortcomings in your clothing. Bird watchers are usually well dressed for the location, as are dog walkers. It is the casual winter visitors to the coast, the sort who wear their car as a coat, that often get caught out. I remember taking this photograph in January 2014, at Skegness in Lincolnshire, because of a family with children who charged down the beach to the water's edge, pleased to see the sea, and almost immediately turned round and raced back to their car making noisy complaints about the cold.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100     2014

Funfair, Skegness

On the second day of the new year in 2011 we visited Skegness in Lincolnshire. Winter at a traditional (i.e. tourist/commercial) seaside has always had an appeal for me. The silent funfairs and piers, the out of place colours and the locked up amusement arcades offer off-season note of melancholy that somehow appeals. This photograph, taken with my back to the sea, benefitted enormously from the dark sky that accentuated the bright colours of the roller coaster, big wheel, lights and shelters.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Canon 5D Mk2     2011

Beach tracks

It's not unusual to see vehicles cleaning and raking the sand of beaches that are heavily used by holidaymakers. In such places it is a daily, or even twice daily, occurence. Many years ago tracks of this kind added to a slightly surreal shot I took of the beach at Blackpool, Lancashire. The tracks in the photograph above were made by vehicles preparing for beach motorcycle racing at Skegness, Lincolnshire, a task that involved not only raking level but also the creation of mounds and hollows to add to the excitement of the event.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300     2014

Changes to this blog

This blog usually updates on alternate days. It automatically selects and posts the blog written for that particular date. I write the posts up to three weeks ahead, in blocks, and leave automation to do the rest. However, the coronavirus restrictions now disrupt my planning and I am running out of posts. I have to restrict where I go, and how frequently, and consequently I have not taken as many photographs as usual. So, what I plan to do is search through my catalogue of photographs from the past twenty or so years - from the time I changed to digital photography - and post those alongside any recent shots I manage to get. Here is the first one from the archives. If you are interested when such shots were taken I'll be putting the date at the end of the post near the camera details.

The photograph shows a wind farm in the North Sea off Skegness, Lincolnshire. We visited, I recall, on a particularly calm, bright day as a sea mist was starting to clear. The blades were not turning and one unco-operative turbine was not even facing the right way. Perhaps the small maintenance boat was there to sort out the problem. I took a few other shots that day with dog walkers giving foreground interest. I liked this composition because its symmetry was broken by the gulls that were gently rising and falling as the waves rolled in.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300