Clevedon Marine Lake, September 2020

The photos here are from two separate visits to photograph the seawater swimming lake in Clevedon, just a few days apart. I wasn't happy with the results from the first visit, so actually went back and had another go. We visited the lake last summer (see Clevedon & Portishead, June 2019), when I realised that it would be perfect for some long exposures - so having some time off work in September, I decided to give it a go. I specifically avoided a sunny day, as that wouldn't work so well. One other thing I had to do was make sure that the swimmers knew I wasn't taking photos of them - it's a public space so you can just pitch up and take photos. I made it clear to everyone that I wasn't photographing them and was using long exposures - it actually made for a few conversations as people were interested in the film cameras and the technique. The first set...
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Clevedon & Portishead, June 2019

We don't visit other towns in the area quite as much as we should, so made the effort to go out to Clevedon and Portishead on a midweek day off. Obviously one has to visit Clevedon pier - although with our customary bad timing, the far end of it was closed off for decoration work.We also ambled along to the open air pool, which is somewhere I need to investigate more from a photographic point of view - I'm thinking long exposures with smooth water, smooth sea and just a hint of a line between them.Some bits of it made me think of 70s eastern Europe, stark concrete that's seen slightly better days. We also headed over to Portishead as I'd see that there's an art trail and one of the exhibits had caught my eye - "Full Fathom Five" by Michael Dan Archer, the stone columns.And as we found, some of the buildings around the marina photograph quite well too....
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