Photos From Nautical Itchenor Photo Walkshop
Over the summer and early autumn we had mixed up the locations of the photo walkshops a little bit with more locations out of Portsmouth, including visits to some of the best places around Chichester Harbour to discover with a camera. At the end of August we visited Itchenor on the southern edge of the main channel, this historic waterside village is home to the main offices of Chichester Harbour Conservancy, one of the oldest boatyards in the area and home to hundreds of boats and yachts. Despite the downpour that greeted us on arrival, the dark storm clouds soon moved on and we started exploring around the dozens of small, old tenders on the low tide shore. Many of these small craft were old, with faded, hand-painted names. Perfect for textures and details.
Also parked up on the shore was one of the Conservancy’s working craft, used for tasks like maintaining and repairing the mooring chains out in the harbour. The craft was sitting on the solid shore and was a great opportunity to get up close with our cameras. The many peeling layers of paint and depth markers in rust plus chains and ropes made for great nautical themed subjects. We also found coils of rusting chains on the shoreline, old mooring links and worn concrete blocks. The views out over the channel were also perfect for looking at different perspectives and trying out rule of thirds using the yacht masts. Our final stop on the shoreline was the main pontoon that led out in to the water. We looked at leading lines along the edges and also natural framing looking out at the boats on blocks at the boatyard.
We made our way along the shore path alleyway out to the old boatyard and spent the second hour looking around. The boatyard goes back many years and as well as the new yachts up on the concrete awaiting repair and cleaning, the shore was also littered with the remains of older boats and the materials used to fix them. Also on the shore were large moulds used to build fibreglass hulls. These structures mixed fluid lines with structured frameworks, making for fascinating subjects catching the curves, lines, light, shadow and colour.
As always the two hours absolutely flew by and we could have easily spent a day continuing to discover what Itchenor had to offer as a source of photographic inspiration. Will be back there soon. A big thank you to everyone who braved the initial grim weather and helped make for an excellent morning’s photography.
The Autumn & Winter photography walkshops have begun, find out more about the upcoming walkshops at:
Check the new Strong Island Photo Walkshops Instagram account packed with photos from all of the last 30+ walkshops and soon to include photos from the photographers who have come along on the walks too:
www.instagram.com/PhotoWalkshops
We also have a new Facebook page for Photography Walkshops, with more photos and information plus, if you like, leave us a review too:
www.facebook.com/siphotowalkshops