Walk and Shoot

J.A. Gilbert
Aug 2, 2016
4 min read

It's that time of year when festivals are taking place everywhere, many of which seem to be falling victim to this summer's changeable weather.

One event that caught my eye was "Walk and Shoot", which is part of the "Love Littlehampton Arts Festival" run by Littlehampton Organisation for Contemporary Arts (LOCA.) It was advertised as being a guided walk run by professional photographers, with the aim of meeting at the East Beach Café and then moving on to other various points to take photographs, with advice from professionals. Being a keen photographer, I thought I would give it a try and see what tips I could pick up during the evening. There was an additional attraction in the fact that it was free.

It was due to start at 4.45 one Monday afternoon, so after work that day I made my way to the beach and parked up. It was one of those hot sunny days that suddenly appeared this July, only to disappear just as quickly. The weather was ideal for wandering along the seafront, but possibly slightly too sunny for taking photos, as the colours tend to leach out.

I was a little early arriving, so I bought myself an ice-cream and sat down to wait. As I tried to avoid dripping melting chocolate chip all over my clothes, people gradually began to gather. Andy, the photographer in charge arrived and began setting out a collection of props on one of the tables by the café. He obviously knew some of the people who were taking part, as he greeted them all by name and exchanged pleasantries and a few jokes with them.

At 4.45ish he welcomed everyone and gave us a brief run down of what we would be doing, which included making our way along the beach to the river mouth, visiting the Oyster Pond and then moving on to the Look and Sea Centre. He also gave us a brief outline of the law regarding taking photos, although I'm still not convinced I would want to become involved with a stand up argument with a policeman!

Finally he told us to go off and start working. That was followed by an awkward few minutes, when everyone looked at everyone else and no-one wanted to be the first one to leave. Eventually we began dispersing. As the tide was out, I decided to walk down to the water's edge. I'd brought my new neutral density filter with me, so that I could see how much of a difference it would make to bright, sunlit scenes. I took a few photos and played with the filter, before looking back to see if the remainder of the group had moved. No. There was still a gaggle of them standing by the café. So I walked a bit further, took some more photos and checked again. Still no movement.

A close up of some sea weed

Footprints in the sand.

Whilst I was wandering along searching for something different to photograph, I bumped into two other women from the group and stopped briefly to chat to them. They both belonged to the Littlehampton Camera Club and were discussing which setting to use to take a close up of a winkle.

I took a few close ups of my own, such as the seaweed and some footprints and then found a spot where the groyne made an ideal frame for the small lighthouse at the end of the pier, the old coastguard tower and the (in)famous longest bench in the country. You can't actually sit on most of it, as the slats are at the wrong angle, so it isn't very popular with most of the locals, who preferred the old fashioned benches that it replaced.

I remembered Andy saying that we would work our way along to the river, so I gradually headed that way. By the time I reached it though, the rest of the group had disappeared. I clambered up the beach and back on to the prom, but they were nowhere to be seen. I looked along the path that runs along the river, racking my brain to remember what each person looked like. There were no familiar, or even vaguely familiar faces, so after waiting for a few minutes, I decided to call it a day and go home.

I had just started back, when I spotted two women sitting on a bench, Shirley and Lorraine, both holding cameras. Better still I recognised them. Once we began talking, I discovered they were in the same position as me and had lost the group. When I explained that I was leaving, they asked me to join them. It was actually the best thing that happened that evening. We hunted for the others along the river and round the Oyster Pond, but apart from one man who I was sure I had seen by the café, but was walking the other way, we were without luck.

So instead of spending just over three hours taking photos, which was the original plan, we spent the last hour sitting in the Harvester. We had never met before, but we spent an interesting and very entertaining evening chatting over a drink. We looked at each other's photos and wondered what we were meant to be doing with them. We never did find out, though, so now I'll just keep them as a souvenir of a strange, but rather pleasant evening!