Solent Shooting
It's summertime in the Solent, the waters between the Isle of Wight and mainland UK. The sun is sparkling off the blue-green waters and the yachties are out in force, filling the air with their sails.
Sunset in the Solent
Other than increased traffic and borderline suicidal weekend sailors, the Solent, the stretch of water separating the Isle of Wight from the UK Mainland is a nice place to work in the summer months. The sun is warm, starting and ending its day in blaze of colour, the breeze is cool and constant, and the bright skies and picturesque clouds make all the difference to a navigator like me whose job is to look out of the window all day.
But, whilst this all seems like perfect photography territory, these benefits are in constant balance with the plethora of problems that come with shooting from a ship!
You see, the sea is boring. If you look at most seascapes that is worth its salt, the most interesting bits in the image are those objects which juxtapose the sea. A sandy beach against an azure sea, a dark immovable object standing strong against a white, foamy waves. On land, these can be found by moving around to find a suitable composition and by using long exposures to make water look ethereal or dynamic. Both of these are cruelly difficult when shooting from an ever-moving, floating platform.
The sea is really big. And that's a problem when it comes to filling the frame with an interesting subject. Ships pass obstacles, and each other, at relatively large distances, maybe a mile or two where possible, so you rarely get close enough to suffice without the assistance of a long lens or a particularly brave yachtsman.
There is also the problem of scale, how do you demonstrate the epic vastness of the deep blue sea if there's no reference point for the viewer to establish a sense of proportion? On the same point, I've taken photographs of the some of the world's largest ship and they look tragically dull, just like any other ship. Just another boat floating on a pool of blue with a blue sky background. Boring.
Emirates Tower - Portsmouth
The one advantage to shooting on ships is that it's such an alien environment so most people, that the perspective from which shots are taken is very different from what people are used to seeing. When you start photography, you learn very quickly shooting from eye-level, more often that not, yields average photos, where as taking the same shots from above or below makes the images so much more dynamic. So, when I pick up my camera and look out of the windows, at a sea I tiresomely watch pass by me every day, I try to make the most of the unique vantage point that I'm so very bored of, but others may never the opportunity to see.
...with varying degrees of success...