A project

A place I know well is Portstewart Strand.  A 2-mile long stretch of sand between Portstewart and the mouth of the River Bann near Castlerock.  I got into the beach a few years ago when Missy was going to the local primary school.  After dropping her off I would take the Dog-Hound-Thing to the beach, where he would chase after the ball for a while.  Although Missy goes to Coleraine High School now I still like the beach for a morning stroll - good soul food it is!  I did try a few other venues when Missy moved schools, but with my mobility issues sometimes I didn't feel very safe, particularly since I'm usually carrying a camera.  So most days I go the extra mile or so and head back down to the beach in the mornings.  The D-H-T still likes to chase the ball, though he's getting older now (10 this year) so these days is content with carrying the ball more than chasing it.

I'm considering having a photographic 'project' this year and that project may well be 'Portstewart Strand'.  I have in mind a sort of '12 months of the year' thingmy.  I'm on the beach every week of the year - although I tend to go less frequently in the summer months since it does get very busy.  In the winter time I'm there every week no matter what.  It can be quite cold (understatement of the year, that) but to my mind much preferable, since there are only the regulars on the beach - mostly dog-walkers like myself  You do need the right gear, of course.

Here's a few shots with the new Nikon from a day or two ago. This particular day the wind was really very cold and so I headed into the sand dunes, which tend to be a little more sheltered.

Towards Castlerock from the sand dunes

Lovely grainy sky in this, methinks.  The old FP4+ in DD-X, as usual.  I must get round to trying some new film/developer combinations.  There are so many around and variety. as they say, is the spice of life.  However, I like the quality DD-X gives me and I seem to be able to get consistently good results (or results I like, anyway) from it.  Since I haven't been into film again for very long (less than a year) it's good to stick to one combination while honing your processing technique.  So I can see myself sticking to FP4+ and DD-X for another while and then maybe being a little more adventurous.

The beach to themselves...well, almost

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of this project.   The challenge is to seek out different views of the same place - but since there's a couple of miles to work with that shouldn't be too difficult.  The good thing is this being Ireland you can take the car onto the beach, so on the days when the legs aren't working too well (that would be most days these days unfortunately) then I can drive fairly close to where I want to be.