Personal Best of 2019

2019 was pretty cool, you can see what we mean if you take a look at our favourite wedding shots from last year. When we’re not shooting weddings Emma likes to head out (mostly to the seaside) and take photos. Sometimes Rich tags along, sometimes it’s just Emma, headphones and her comfy boots.

Blackpool Street Photography - July 2019

At the end of July I went on a mini adventure to Blackpool with a few friends for some street photography. The day we planned to meet and shoot ended up being the hottest day of the year, you know the ‘don’t travel unless extremely necessary’ one. I ended up getting there early and headed out on my own in the midday sun with a Fujifilm X-Pro 2, three bottles of liquid and a bottle of factor 50 suncream. Upon arrival I bought a hat, the most stylish hat I ever did see.

When it comes to street photography, I’ve figured if I look like a tourist I can get away with SO MUCH MORE than just looking like a person with a camera. 

The idea of this day off was head out to virgin territory and have some fun taking photographs in the busy time that is wedding season. I ended up covering 8 miles which translated into 17,000 steps and 4 amazing blisters. I trekked up to the North Pier at one point because I remembered that is where Sooty is from and I couldn’t possibly not pay him a visit. I even stopped for lunch, a salad and a root beer float, just so I could sit in an air conditioned restaurant for half an hour.

Anyway, this is what I got up to. I’m thinking of putting all my seaside stuff into a book or zine this winter. Not sure yet, needs more research and possibly a couple more days at the seaside.

Scarborough Street Photography - Walk of Witness 2019

Good Friday means it’s time for the annual Walk of Witness in Scarborough.

Organised by Churches Together In Scarborough, the Walk of Witness is part parade, part re-telling of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Representatives and members from local churches of all denominations meet at the top of town and begin the story with a dramatisation of Christ being arrested. The cross is then carried into the town centre for the crucifixion and then all the way up to Scarborough Castle for a sermon.

While shooting it was hard not to notice a duality to the event. The shots in town have quite a jarring juxtaposition between the boarded-up shopfronts and the pubs and bookmakers as a solemn religious procession passes by. It would be easy to play these moments for laughs but, as one of the organisers pointed out to us, they feel it is important to see the story of Christ in a modern setting. Jesus would have been paraded through a town with many of the same types of shops. The second half of the Walk of Witness takes on a more spiritual vibe as we leave the commercialised town centre and head up to the castle, the ancient roots of our town.

I must admit, I’m not a religious person yet I certainly enjoyed following along. We’ve made it a bit of a personal project to document the people and events in our hometown. I’m not quite sure where it will lead us, but I love the journey.

Personal Best of 2018

2018 was amazing. If you’ve not seen our best of 2018 wedding stuff – you must check it out. This post, however, is all the things we shot in 2018 that weren’t weddings. Pancake Day and Boxing Day make an appearance along with a couple of trips down the seafront and the most amazing benefit gig. Oh and Merlin (our corgi) is in there somewhere too.

Here are a few of our favourite shots from the last year. They’ve made us realise we need to shoot more of this kinda thing this year. If anyone knows of anything cool happening that we should photograph – let us know.

Scarborough Street Photography - Boxing Day 2018

Once more, we joined a sizable chunk of Scarborough folk as we shook off our Christmas hangovers and food comas and headed down to the seafront on Boxing Day morning for the Fishermen And Firemen’s Charity Event.

For well over a hundred years the comic football match has been raising money for those in need and alongside the raft race in the harbour and the mile of pennies, it’s grown into a uniquely enjoyable way to help people out over the festive period.

HIP Fest 2018 – Fujiholic of the Year

We entered our first ever non-wedding photography competition a few weeks ago – and we only came bloody 2nd!

Emma had seen a sponsored post on Facebook for a Fujiholics competition and being the sucker for an advert that she is, decided to enter. Right at the last minute, like a couple of hours before the deadline.

Then found out the next week that we had placed in the top 3! The deal was the placings would be announced at HIP Fest, Hull International Photography Festival. We were headed there anyways to see Peter Dench’s A1 exhibition, which was handy.

Emma finally got a copy of the A1 book that she’d been after for ages and an epic pile of old photo books from the Lomography shop too. We had a good nosy around all the exhibits and played with some of the toys on the Fuji stand which is always fun.

A most successful Saturday off from weddings!

Street Photography - Sledmere 'Posh' Car Boot Sale 2018

Another year, another trip to the car boot at Sledmere House, which was better than buying lots of things we don’t need. Apart from a bacon sandwich and an cherry bun, we needed those.

This year was hot, we had to keep taking breaks in the tombola tent as there was a lovely draft and good shade. My mum bought a mirror, which I think I melted 12 people with as I had to carry it while taking photos – multitasking.

Anyway, here’s a look at a very English car boot sale in the middle of a very hot summer.

Scarborough Street Photography - Seafest 2018

Me and my mum went to Seafest for a little bit back in July. It seems I ended up photographing people eating ice cream and then went and ate my very own ice cream.  For the first time ever, I had something that wasn’t a Knickerbocker Glory. I had a Banana Split and it was really good, maybe even nicer than the KG. I think I am going to try the cherry one next time as the cherries on the Banana Split were amazing.

As for Seafest, we mostly saw stalls selling things, a bloke poking some fish in a tank, a glimpse of the Lifeboat in the bay and the Mayor eating a sausage roll. There’s probably more to it than that but that was our afternoon. I think there were cooking demos and stuff going on, but we must have been there in a break.

I can see why people get ANGRY with the seagulls. It was nonstop attacks for food in front of the Lifeboat house. Fun to watch though, not much in the way of free entertainment in Scarborough, this is probably in the top 5 activities now. Might have to go add it to Tripadvisor.

Scarborough Seaside Street Photography – July 2018

Everytime I see the Hispaniola sailing in the bay I like to think I’m in the end credits of the Goonies. The kids are on the beach with Sloth and the bad guys and One Eyed Willie’s treasure is sailing off into the great unknown.

In reality it’s full of paying tourists who are in the process of having a windy trip on the North Sea and I’m usually heading for chips and ice cream.

I try to get one weekend off in summer, usually around my birthday so I get to fill my eyes with the seaside. I’ve discovered that I owe a decent chunk of debt to the garish and tacky seaside I grew up in as it has influenced how I see the world. I need to investigate this more when it’s not the middle of wedding season.

Brighton Street Photography - May Bank Holiday 2018

We ended up in Brighton on a bank holiday Sunday and it was HEAVING. We started wandering in the town, a quick stop at the Pavillion, a wander round the art gallery and then on to the seafront. Being from the seaside has made me pretty obsessed with every where that happens to be next to the sea. All our holidays end up being by a sea of some sort without us realising a lot of the time.

We had ice creams, we sat on rubbish pebbles (Scarborough has awesome sand), we got sunburnt and ended the day eating noodles before we caught the bus back to our airbnb.

We wandered (12,000+ steps apparently) and I had control of the X-Pro2 which resulted in the following photographs.

Scarborough Street Photography - Good Friday 2018

We watched an interview with Martin Parr recently, he spoke about shooting things at their peak. Not waiting till something was almost dead, we should celebrate and photograph things while they are popular. Something like that anyway.

We’re not at all religious but we do love seeing what events happen in our little seaside town*. We accidentally stumbled upon the Walk of Witness last year (Emma was fascinated and loved how all the local churches come together to celebrate). So we made a note to go and capture it properly this year. There was LOADS of people there and we think this counts as popular.

We see a lot of street photography from all over the world but there’s so much in this country that’s hardly been touched. We could go out with our cameras every day and still find new things to photograph.

Scarborough Street Photography - Skipping Day + Pancake Race 2018

Weather wise, 2018’s skipping day in Scarborough was the complete opposite to last year. Holy crap was it cold!  I think it’s going to take a while for my camera harness and bag to dry out from all the rain. If you saw my pictures from last year you’ll remember the balmy sunshine and ice cream. No such luck this year, gloves, hats and hot chips were the order of the day.

There was still a good turnout though with people out braving the elements, you can see when the rain came down half way through the pancake race. Not that it was going to stop Scarborough’s top tossers and skipping stars!

Scarborough Street Photography - Boxing Day 2017

Whilst most folks spend Boxing Day clearing their heads and getting some fresh air, the fine people of Scarborough have a different agenda.  One that involves copious amounts of alcohol, sports and friendly violence.  All for a good cause of course.

The Fishermen and Firemen fund was originally started to raise money for the bereft families of the crew of the ‘Evelyn and Maud’ which was lost with all hands on the 18th November 1893.  Nowadays the fund is used to help the elderly and infirm during the winter months.

A mile of pennies is laid down around the seafront by the spectators whilst a football match between the fishermen and firemen is played on the beach.  Afterwards, there’s a raft race around the harbour.

Event Street Photography - Crowle and Ealand 1940s Weekend 2017

Back in late September, we spent an afternoon with 4 Kompanie Grossdeutschland at the Crowle and Ealand 1940s weekend. Bit different to the weddings we’re used to shooting, but we had so much fun.

We had no idea what to expect as we parked up next to a caravan park in Lincolnshire. After yomping past the boating lake we were confronted with tanks and fighter planes and then we rendezvoused with our new friends. a company of fully armed German soldiers from WWII. There were no flowers or confetti in sight, we were well out of our element!

Turns out they were all super friendly folk. Part of a surprisingly (to us at least) large living history community who travel the land putting on displays and battle re-enactments from WWII. Aside from the two large battles they performed, there were dozens of little camps set up where each company would interact with the spectators, sharing their expansive knowledge of this dark portion of recent history. You could even buy a serving of hearty stew from some British cooks.

Aside from epic battles, we loved snapping everyone enjoying the day, often dressed in full 40s fashions. Our visit to the Crowle and Ealand 1940s Weekend was a strange twist on the street photography we occasionally practice but hey, we loved it.

We can’t recommend a visit to one of these events highly enough and we’d jump at the chance to shoot one again. Get yer sen out to one!

Street Photography - Sledmere 'Posh' Car Boot Sale 2017

I love car boot sales, I don’t buy as much tat as I used to, but I still love the randomness of them. Sledmere House holds an annual ‘posh’ car boot sale in aid of local charities. It’s a little bit more upmarket than your normal car boot sale, think less DVDs and more taxidermy.  I normally tag along with my Mum and Dad every year, this year I managed to convince Rich to come with and bring Merlin. Merlin loved it, so many doggos to say hello to. We even met another dog called Merlin!

Didn’t buy anything this year, nothing will top the little box of old random photos and vintage Sooty bowl I got last year. Distracting myself from spending by taking photographs was a good move. That red squirrel is the only one I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been looking.

Scarborough Street Photography - Out Of Season February 2017

We know 2017 was a busy one when we’ve only just got round to blogging this day out from this time last year. Right now everyone is buzzing about Britney Spears coming to Scarborough, while we’re excited that it’s almost pancake day and we get to go and stretch our legs and cameras.

Back in January 2017, Emma was wandering about on the internet and happened upon a Kickstarter project documenting out of season seaside towns. We saw Scarborough was on Jill’s list of places to visit so Emma flung her a message and offered to show all the sights our little town has to offer. Albeit in deepest, darkest February. We’re used to seeing our town out of season but it was a good exercise to go down the seafront and see it through new eyes. We wrapped up warm, met Jill at the car park and had a good wander round the seafront. Emma took the Fujifilm X-Pro2 along and this is what we saw.