Street photography for me is mainly about creating luck.
What I mean by that is, know your camera (into muscle memory), the settings, the lens range and with knowing your surroundings (quirky people activity or light), you generally get a good shot.
I think the golfer - Gary Player - said this best, when he uttered ‘The more I practice, the luckier I get’. Aka the photo gods deliver from time to time.
This is one of the reasons why I pound the streets in Brighton so often, revisiting the same scene, time and time again. This has led to me exploring different angles and perspectives, such as window reflections through COVID-19 retail shops:
When I have been studying the theory of street photography, I discovered that Joshua K Jackson called this the curiosity gap. Watch this excellent video on Sean Tucker’s channel, when he outlines this theory. It's intriguing.
What I have found of late is a little fatigue, or 'Brighton Revisited' which has generally been caused by the pandemic and the restriction of movement that we have all experienced.
Also, due to commitments with my kids, I cant really journey out too far of a weekend. However due to the upturn in the weather of late, my son and I recently ventured over to Folkestone. A place we hadn't frequented before.
Deriving from the landlocked West Midlands, for me, there is a general kitsch allure of a seaside town, it's idiosyncrasies and especially one that is emerging from the closed season of the winter, into their high season.
Whilst I hadn’t been there before, I suppose I had an opinion of the place, the stance on Brexit and the imminent impact of the motorway turning the county into a Brexit car park.
I decided on my usual kit. My trusty Fuji GS645s (I need to do a blog post on the GS645s, its a truly exceptional camera. Pin Sharp, light and nimble, its the perfect street photography medium format camera) with two rolls of Kodak Portra 400 and Berrger Pancro 400. I also took my Sony A7iii with a 35mm lens.
We headed off at 08:30 for the 1 3/4 hour drive, honestly, it was a little weird heading out on the motorway, after a year, mainly quiet, but I can report that the wacky races of the M23 motorway is as mad as ever!
The journey into Kent and Folkestone on the M20 was largely eventless, other that the self imposed 50 miles an hour speed limit, as we entered into Folkestone.
We got there at 10:30 and parked in the main Shopping Centre car park.
Next, we did a quick circuit of the town centre, to familiarise ourselves. I actually thought the town centre evidenced signs of gentrification and the shopping side (national store chains), left Brighton wanting. That said there was still instances of small town UK on show, providing plenty of charm and character.
The creative quarter was a delight, a cobbled lane with colourful shops housing the creative element of Folkestone, the light bathed the street beautifully and I was lucky to get a couple of keepers.
Next we headed down to the harbourside. The imposing Grand Burstin Hotel, is a stark contrast to the regenerated side of the port town. I can only imagine that this side of the town is packed when the restrictions of COVID-19 are not evident.
Lunch was taken in at Chummys Seafood Cafe. Prawn chilli noodles and squid. Very very good.
One more lap of the down evidenced plenty of photo opportunities and items of interest.
Folkestone is a place that I have marked as a place to revisit, for a number of reasons: street photography, the harbourside, the shops (for the kids) and also the seafood.
Until next time, keep snapping.
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