Take a little beach walk with me

Last year I was fortunate enough to be able to take some time out managing about 3 weeks on the NSW South Coast. It was lovely spending some time with my relatives and really special. I loved walking everyday exploring the beach that was right opposite where I was staying and going to sleep each night with the sound of waves breaking on the beach.

I took lots of photos at the time but I am only getting around to having a closer look at them now. I have been doing a lot ‘catch up’ and re-filing of photos recently. After resisting the whole marking of my images I have now made a basic watermark for copyright purposes – I hope to develop a better one in the future but for now this will have to do. I have been taking photos for 35 years but I still consider myself to be an amateur photographer a bit of a ‘snapper’ – maybe one day I’ll go and learn all those finer details and secrets the professionals know.

My poor old Canon 400D has a few problems – the flash died a couple of years ago and although I bought an external flash the camera is temperamental and I suspect there is something amiss with some of the electronics. The lenses also have small mould spots probably from the humidity on the North Coast. Let me say this camera has been carted everywhere and absolutely used to death! I rarely have gone anywhere without it and when I have left it behind I have often been sorry as inevitably I see something I would love to record.

The photos are not quite what I would like for quality but I do like the images, they remind me of a wonderful place and time as do many photos people take. Although these are landscapes they still remind of the people I was with at that time as well.

I love photography and although I did a semester at art college in black and white photography and processing I am really just self-taught. I bought this first digital camera in 2006 and although I loved film and still have a soft spot for processing B&W it has been a long time since I have developed my own photographs. I must say I love digital cameras as well – especially the fact I can take 700 photos and not have to worry about the costs of processing I can choose the ones I want to print and file the rest. I have an extensive print and digital library of photos and the prints are filed away in photo boxes arranged alphabetically. The digital files are all on an external hard drive – filed with many ‘processed’ with photoshop – and backed up to another external hardrive. I also from time to time back up to Gold Discs. I do worry that one day all these digital files will become obsolete as computers and graphics evolve.

    

I have been recently scanning and updating old family photos and slides to help save them from the ravages of time. I love old photos and especially family photos where those that are still here are still able to recall the events or people who the photos represent. Some of these photos are 100 years old … it makes me wonder whether my digital photos will still be around in 100 years for others to look back on…

I find the South Coast beaches more isolated (well out of school holidays) and a bit wilder than the North Coast beaches and the days when I was there ranged from cold and wet, to storms and to glorious sunshine.

So take a little beach walk with me.