Enjoying photography again

During what I like to call my growing up  years I was a keen and somewhat successful  amateur photographer. Living in West Sussex near Gatwick Airport I would happily drive many miles to take a couple of shots and drive back home, a 200 mile round trip was not uncommon, often late at night because I specialised in low light photography, so I would travel to a specific location for sunset, not stay as I could not afford the expense of hotels or even B&B’s, I was working on a budget and often needed to go to work the next morning. In those days film was expensive to buy and develope but I could get the shot I wanted in one evening so why hang around. Sunrise was a personal favourite, but the difference being you can take night shots after sunset yet after sunrise the lighting is often flat and the increasing heat of the day would make me tired, not good when you have a long drive ahead, as a result I could not be bothered to stop on route home to take more pictures, I just wanted to go home and sleep. At night the air is cooler and the drive home would offer glimpses of the next great location, the one that most people would not have seen because what you see is not necessarily what you get with time exposures, the colours are more intense more vibrant, experience meant I could see the image I wanted and best of all it was easy selling a night time image of a common landmark so I could afford to enjoy my hobby.

I would spend most of my money on photography and the petrol to get me on location. It was great, then digital photography took over, It  was not the same for me so gradually I just  gave up, preferring to take foreign daylight scenes on holidays instead using a simple digital camera, the same shots most tourists take but with a photographers eye, using composition, making and ordinary scene interesting, something that comes naturally or you learn from experience.

Now in my 50’s I have a new hobby, caravanning. Back in the day I would say never in a million years would I tow a caravan but how wrong was I, i’m even enjoy it. Now I take the caravan to areas where I would once drive to, pitch the van and go exploring with the family. Now if I want to take a late evening shot I can be there in a flash and not worry about that long drive home to be ready for work in the morning, it may be all digital now but thanks to travelling with my caravan I am now starting to enjoy photography once more and the two hobbies together make planning trips away that much more fun.

On a recent trip to Pembrey Park, and area well outside my usual old haunts, pitching here to see places like Tenby and Swansea showed me what I have been missing all these years, still very few people take night pictures properly, by uing time exposure mode stunning results can be achieved.