It’s a while since I posted an image from my old Print Archive. This image was taken at Budleigh Salterton on the South Coast of England in the late 1970s. It was late afternoon and our children were carefully selecting a few of the perfectly smooth and elliptical pebble disks of which that beach is made. I spotted a pair of women deep in conversation on a pair of bizarrely orientated seats (facing different ways).
Remember you can click on the image to see a higher quality enlargement
I used a wide-angle lens to maximise the foreground pebbles as the lead-in to the seating. The time of day, the position of the sun, all helped to bring contrast into the image. It was a style of B&W photography that I loved, and still do. Shooting towards the sun is guaranteed to create drama.
This image is another from a collection of images from my old Print Archive that dates from the mid 1970s to the mid ‘80s approximately and which I digitized by simply photographing the 20x16inch exhibition prints. To see more from this series go to Categories in the Rt sidebar and click on Print Archive, or quicker still click here
LensScaper 
Nice shot – and I like it that the women were able to have a conversation in spite of the way those benches were arranged!
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Thanks Melinda. I don’t know whose bright idea it was to arrange those benches that way. One looked out to sea and the other of course didn’t!
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Love the B&W and how the shadow leads you into the image, well done!
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Many thanks Mike
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I like the shot and the style as well. I wonder if you would let me steal your “print archive” idea? It’s a great concept.
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Of course, Ken. Go for it. It was far easier than scanning and then processing the scans with all the dust lark eradication issues. The hardest part was setting up the prints where there was adequate light but without reflections off the glossy surface of the prints.
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Love this Andy and how you’ve digitalised it. It’s kept the quality well. I will check out your archive page 🙂
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Thanks Norma. Do have a look at the Print Archive pages. There are quite a few other images that will get posted over time – so watch this space. This was really a very fast process once I had found a place and a set-up that eliminated reflections off the glossy surface of the prints.
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Great capture Andy. The rocks in the foreground add some nice depth.
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Thanks Steven. It was the light that lit those pebbles up and really made them work for the image. I just happened to be there at the right time of the day.
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This is really nice – the poses of the women speaks to the depth of their conversation, and that for them it really does not matter which way the benches face, or perhaps even where the benches are.
Still, what a bizarre placement of benches.
Nice grain!
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Thanks Ehpem. This image still appeals to me despite all the intervening years. As you say, a bizarre relationship of benches but it creates an intriguing counterpoint between the two women. And of course the light is critical. This would be dead in the water without the light.
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What a stunning piece Andy, top drawer!! It’s full of natural tension, and I love the way the light beams down delicately in the frame!!
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Many thanks Toad. The light beams were a nice bonus. I don’t often have praise for local government, but for once they got something right in the way they arranged these benches.
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A very beautiful shot.
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Thank you, Shimon.
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Excellent picture, Andy – what length wideangle did you use? I quite agree re shooting toward the sun. Adrian
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Thanks very much Adrian – that would have been a 24mm lens I think. In the old film days that was the widest lens I had and my fabourite lens.
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