Step into foam

Marsden Rock, South Shields

As promised in my post yesterday, here is the view from the patio of the world famous Marsden Grotto in South Shields.

Normally you can expect to see an expanse of the broad pebbled beach leading towards Marsden Rock but on this day the tide was so high that it was in danger of breaching the wall making the bar and restaurant awash with this deep foam creating sea water! (This has happened on a few occasions in the past). The water here is only four or five feet from the patio wall and the steps leading to the beach!

Camera details; Pentax K100D, 28mm lens, 1/750 second, f5.6, iso 200

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Lot’s Wife

Marsden Bay, South Shields

I took this picture of Lot’s Wife during a high tide in Marsden Bay which was stiffened by a northerly wind, and it was whipping the surf and the waves into this spectacular sea foam that lay all around the beach.

Lot’s Wife is the name that we give to the perpendicular stack of rock in the middle distance, tomorrow I’ll show you the view from the patio of the world famous Marsden Grotto in South Shields.

Camera details; Pentax K100D, 8mm lens, 1/30 second, f22, iso 200

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A Big Thank You

Curly, by his dad!

I’d like to say a big thank you to all the members of the City Daily Photo network who contributed, supported, and helped raise the profile of this post that I made on 24th. March in my other blog. The issue is an emotive one and also a political one because it touches on areas of law and public perceptions of how we deal with fears surrounding paedophiles and terrorists, as well as some Orwellian “Big Brother” aspects.

The matter has now been put down for consideration in the British House of Commons after Great Grimsby MP Austin Mitchell tabled an Early Day Motion, it has also been featured and incorporated into a campaign by the Press Gazette, and our Foreign Secretary (and South Shields MP) David Miliband unexpectedly wrote to me with the thoughts of Home Office minister Tony McNulty.

The contentious issue of the rights of photographers (amateur or professional) was also aired on the BBC’s Breakfast Time last week, and because of the way you have helped to raise the profile worldwide, it has also appeared on the front page of Boing Boing, one of the internet’s biggest collaborative blogs.

As hobbyists, amateurs, or professionals, we must all stick together and remain united in our desire to record our world as we see it through the lens of our camera, we must ensure that material is available for future generations so that they can appreciate mankind’s progress (or lack of) during the early decades of this new millennium. We must remind the rest of society that the world would be a much duller place without pictures, and that often the greater dangers come from those close to us, rather than from strangers.

Thank you again for your support.

Curly’s dad is 77, but still enjoys taking pictures in public. This is me photographing him, in his South Shields garden.

Camera details; Kodak C330 zoom digital, 35mm lens, 1/430 second, f2.7, iso 80

“Shiver me timbers”

Pirates prepare to board

Argh, Jim lad, one of the pieces of eight from the archives today me hearties.

Just as proof that sometimes you can have real fun photographing people here in South Shields. I found this motley crew in King Street getting ready for a recent fun event, I think they were representing the Shields Gazette in this team pursuit.

Anyone care to take a guess what the evnt was? You may have go back a few posts to find a clue!

Camera details; Pentax K100D, 28mm lens, 1/30 second, f3.5, iso 200 flash fired.

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Distant memories

Looking across Trow Quarry, South Shields, at peace with a lily.

I remember this view,

as a child and an adult too.

Do you remember, it was oh so long ago, we played on The Leas with footballs and kites,

we walked forever whether at morning or during summer nights.

The wind blew through my hair as we gazed at the ships out there,

and you dreamed of a life at sea and building a life we could share.

I remember this view,

as a child and as an adult too.

The beach beyond was a world of fun, in the longer days that were warmed with the sun,

the grass in winter became a blanket of white, and we sledged down Blackberry Hills, just for fun.

We brought our children here so they could spend their time,

watching and waiting for traffic leaving the River Tyne.

I remember this view,

as a child and an adult too.

I hope you will remember us for ever and a day,

and the life we lived in South Shields with it’s carnivals, hooray!

Remember us, and remember this view forever,

and one day, once again, we will be united together.

There are scores of these seats along the paths that snake across the cliff tops in South Shields, bought by families and dedicated to their loved ones to provide a resting place for weary legs making the four mile walk from Whitburn. The money raised goes directly to the National Trust and helps them to maintain The Leas, those wide swarthes of grassy goodness that makes our coastline a joy to visit.

Camera details: Pentax K100D, 28mm lens, 1/125th. second, f9.5, iso 200

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