Introduction

Recently, there was a break in the miserable rainy weather we have been having on the south coast, so I took it upon myself to jump on a train and head to Hastings to grab a few shots on the seafront.

It's not far from Rye. It's only approximately 20 minutes of the train; so I did not mind, looking a little bit ridiculous, having my GoPro attached to my neck, via a neck mount, as I sat on the train. Unfortunately, having a disability, I cannot use a GoPro body harness, simply for the reason that my arms would obscure the view from the GoPro’s camera. This is why I choose to wear either a neck mount or a hat mount.

So what did I get up to when I got to Hastings? What was the weather like? Where exactly did I go? What were my camera settings? And what did I have for lunch?

Let's get into it!

My Settings

For every shot that I took, I used my trusty Ricoh GRIII, with the fixed 28 mm lens.

For daytime Street photography, in the Sun, I always use Auto ISO - with an ISO range of 100 - 800 and a minimum shutter speed of 1/250 seconds. using this setting I can be safe in the knowledge that my minimum shutter speed won't be sacrificed unless the ISO hits 800 and they're still isn't enough light. Considering I kept my aperture at approximately f/3.5 - f/4, for the whole street photography session, and the light remained pretty constantly bright, I didn't have to worry about the ISO increasing to the maximum. When I am making videos, I find that Aperture priority, allows me to work quickly and efficiently. I also used Evaluative metering mode as I wanted the camera to meter for pretty much the whole scene. Why did I use such a wide aperture, you might ask? I love the slightly soft, atmospheric look to my photos.

The Pier

When I arrived in Hastings I immediately headed to Hastings Pier. I have taken some decent shots on the Pier before, so I thought that this would be a good place to start, even though, from experience, it's always quite empty. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing when shooting street photography.

Just as I thought, there were only a few people on the pier, but the light was nice enough to capture a couple of people walking, a man gazing over the edge of the pier, and a few Urban landscapes (street photography shots without people). My favourite image on the pier, and possibly my favourite image of the day, was of a burger cooker trolley (if that's what it's called), simply sitting in the sunlight with some kind of fabric draped over it. For me, this image worked because of the light, which allowed for some beautiful colours and highlighted a lot of detail that would've looked drab if there had been no light.

Hastings Old Town

I then took a stroll down towards the fishing end of Hastings. On my way, I headed to Hastings old town. I was expecting to take some more photos in this characteristic and picturesque street, but the light was nowhere in this location, and there were only so many photos of people sitting down having cups of tea you can take before you start annoying people. so I simply grabbed a shot of a colourful clown’s head in a shop window, that sat behind a fake spider’s web. Not really the kind of shot I like to shoot, but I didn't want to come away from this street empty-handed

I then made my way up the High Street where my eye was immediately drawn to a green rubbish collecting bin, sitting outside a laundrette. luckily there was a woman in the Laundrette window and I quickly framed the shot, with the green rubbish bin in the left-hand corner.

The Fishing Quarter

This is probably the most interesting place in Hastings. Not only do you have unique-looking black fishing huts sitting at the top of the beach and awesome fish and chips restaurants, but you also have a plethora of fishing paraphernalia on the beach, and lots of beautifully coloured fishing boats, and nets, ropes, all sorts of stuff that only a fisherman would know about. This location is like roulette - depending upon the day you arrive, the boats could be in a certain position which would make your shots look great, or as in this case, the boats weren't in a particularly aesthetically pleasing formation, which didn't make my shots look great.

However, every experience with my camera is a learning experience. And framing shots that you don't think are going to work is just as important as framing shots that you know are going to work. I did get a couple of keepers, but I had to do a lot of kneeling down and conceptualising in my mind, before I took the shot.

The Promenade

It's not always about people. Finding compositions on the streets which are colourful, have interesting detail, might have a retro vibe, or might just look great if you take the shot - are all viable candidates for interesting street photos. That's why I took a photo of a vintage-looking churro stand, a bench that looked like a zigzag, and a rollercoaster in the warm light. If you always looking for people for your street photography, you might miss out on interesting shots that don't necessarily need to have people in them.

Back to the Pier

Before I headed home, I decided to go back to the pier, just one more time, to see how the light had changed throughout the day. It was still just as empty as it was earlier. However, I did grab a couple of images that I was fairly pleased about.

Strangely enough, a few shots that I took during the day didn't make the cutting room floor. Here is a taster…

To see more of the images from the day check out the video!

I hope this blog post and my video will be an inspiration to you to get out there and start shooting.

Go forth and create!

Street and Urban Photography Blog

Chasing Light on Hastings Seafront - A Street Photography Session