December 2008

Dawn Some of my favorite photographers shoot mainly black and white images. Kind of strange when you consider the majority of the images I shoot are mainly colour.

Black and White photography is what first made me pick up a camera. Lately I have been hankering back to those early days when I’d shoot a roll of FP4 develop it myself then make the final print in a small dark Rodinal smelling shed that doubled as a darkroom.

Recently one sleepless night and with these thoughts of days gone by I dragged myself out of bed one dark bitterly cold morning to create some images that were colourful whilst retaining a monochromatic feel. Sounds wierd! It is but I hope you get where I am coming from.
The beach at Laytown Co Meath was the location for my early morning foray. The River Nanny meets the Irish Sea here, so beach pools and small streams are to be found littered all over the beach.

In my mind I had the idea that these tidal streams illuminated by the reflection of the pre dawn sky would make made for an interesting image. Using these reflections combined with the dark sand to create a monochromatic yet colour image was my challenge.

So with dawn rapidly breaking,cold hands and exposure times of up to 30 seconds I set about trying to capture something interesting. The resulting image may not be to everyones taste. There is no sweeping vista, it is not a Hollywood shot, it is simple, light against dark.

Does it work? I think so.