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Shipwrecks It’s not easy to find shipwrecks
but, if you do, they make the best photographs
alongside a rugged coastline. Anyone seeing an
anchor or a ship’s skeleton in the sand will know what
it is – it’s so evocative and typical of the coast.
You can find reminisces of shipwrecks throughout
the UK coast – some of my favourites are at
Westward Ho, Bamburgh Beach and this one at
Gower Peninsula in south Wales. Not all shipwrecks
look very appealing though – it needs to be obvious
what it is for it to work well. Most shipwrecks are
sandy skeletons on a beach, which are best
photographed using a wide-angle lens up close to
accentuate their curved shape. The challenge,
however, is to fit the sea to the shipwreck; they often
look the most dramatic surrounded by reflections,
tidal pools or a retreating sea. Timing your shoot with
the tide to incorporate wave motion, as well as a
clean sandy beach, is important as shipwrecks attract
a lot of attention and you don’t want footprints in the
shot. Sand levels also rise and fall so sometimes a
wreckage can be seen and other times it's
disappeared so you may have to return many times.Ma y 2019 Digital SLR Photography 77
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Long lenses Too often, at the coast, photographers reach for a wide-angle lens
to make the most of the foreground but this diminishes the background. When
you have a subject in the distance, putting on a long lens such as the 70-200mm
gives you an entirely different kind of shot. It may not be as dramatic as a wide-angle
view with crashing waves in the foreground, but it gives you a different feel that
enriches your portfolio. Also, if you can’t get close to the shore because the waves
are too big or it’s a stormy day, fitting a long lens lets you pull the scene closer to
make subjects bigger. For instance, if you’ve a stormy sea crashing against the side
of a lighthouse the impact can be lost without a long lens to zoom in on the detail.