Compton Beach Panorama Vertorama, Isle of Wight., originally uploaded by s0ulsurfing.

A nice little summer swell rolls into Compton Bay

That’s it now, the last batch of surfing photographs from the last big day, maybe we’ll get another good swell now that they are all gone.

You can also see the five previous photo blogs here

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/you-shouldve-been-here-yesterday/ (15 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/yshbhy-part-two/ (15 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/hands-up-if-youre-having-fun-yet-yshbhy3/ (9 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/the-swell-that-just-kept-on-coming-yshbhy-4/ (12 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/you-should-have-been-here-in-february/ (14 photos)

Been so long since we’ve had a decent swell to ride here (and photograph), and with summer almost here, its probably not going to pick up anytime soon, so i returned to archives for ‘that day’ back in February, and had a look at the shots that were overlooked at the time, I took over 700 pictures that day, so there’s plenty to choose from! I’ve also tried to keep the processing to a minimum, just the occasional bit of ‘punch’ and horizon straightening in Lightroom!

You can also see the four previous photo blogs here

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/you-shouldve-been-here-yesterday/ (15 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/yshbhy-part-two/ (15 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/hands-up-if-youre-having-fun-yet-yshbhy3/ (9 photos)

http://soul-surfing.co.uk/the-swell-that-just-kept-on-coming-yshbhy-4/ (12 photos)

So once again i’m posting non-surfing pics on my site ‘dedicated to surf photography’. But its been a really long time since i’ve seen good waves, i’m struggling for anything surfing related to blog about again, and I was up in the Lake District the last time the Island had a swell, so there it is. Maybe soul-surfing will evolve to just being my general blog site if the surf doesn’t pick up soon!

I’m also pretty sure my surfing time will be badly affected by the fact that my good friend and surf buddy ‘pacey’ (psychedelic surfer on fiickr) has gone travelling for a year. So i wont be getting those excited early morning phone calls on cold winter mornings telling me to get my ass out of bed because the bay is going off and there’s no one in! I hope he stops to think about that as he pulls into another barrel in indo or Oz the lucky #!$@#….

So back to the lakes, it was my first trip to this stunning part of the world, and the first time i can remember going anywhere without a surfboard or wetsuit in a very long time. The only thing that sweetened that pill beforehand was that I would be taking my new camera, and i’d get to try out the 7D on some seriously beautiful landscapes.

Of course visiting somewhere as photographed as the lakes comes with its own pressures, I’ve seen some truly amazing images from the lake district, and aside from having the right kit and the skills to use it properly, a big part of getting a great landscape is knowing where to be to catch the best light and compositions, and then of course having good lighting conditions happen whilst you’re there.

I could add that you need to be in the right place creatively speaking too, but i’m taking that for granted here, because if the lakes don’t inspire you, you’re not meant to be a landscape photographer.

Bearing that in mind, and being honest with myself, I dont think i’d call any of the shots I came back with anything really special. The trip reminded me that i’m still on a learning curve with photography, and I’m also certain that i need to be there a lot longer and at different times of the year to really even begin to see and understand the beauty of the place and appreciate the rhythms of nature and weather up there. It’s not all bad, I do like some of the shots, but many are lacking that certain something that you get when you truly know a place. I’m also wondering if i should pick up the paint brushes again, I’ve got a little itch somewhere in my mind, and maybe the problem i have with the photos is just that they’re not paintings?

So here’s the first batch of photos anyway, your thoughts and constructive feedback are appreciated, i’ll probably do a couple more photo-blogs from up there and then move on to something new, (I’ll also try and talk a bit more about the place and the walking / hiking / climbing in the next blog)

*Bonus surfing pic because i cant ignore surfing completely! this one is for Pacey, hope you & SJ have a great trip mate

Will it mean more crowds at Freshwater bay and fields? as surely a certain % of surfers will stop and have a look at those breaks, if they are forced to detour via Freshwater Bay to get to Hanover car park. Or will everyone try and squeeze into Brook car park and walk along the cliffs or beach?

Of course, miracles might happen and either the erosion will stop where it is, and one lane of the military road will remain open (those traffic lights will be fun in the summer) or maybe someone will come up with the £10m figure thats being bandied about as the amount needed to sort it out.

*** UPDATE (24-03-2010) ***

Here’s an email i got this morning from Jill Wareham who’s running a facebook campaign to save the road, better act soon if you want it to stay open!

Subject: Military Road will close at Brook
The recommendation to the Cabinet (7 Councillors) of the Isle of Wight Council due to meet on 30th March is that when the road becomes unsafe, the council truncates the road both side of the breach at point (between Brook and Compton) and install turning heads and improve car parking as necessary.
This means that the Council don’t care – they’ve done no consultation with the public and the road could close at this point tomorrow.
Please write to Cllr Giles the Councillor in charge of roads at edward.giles@iow.gov.uk if you don’t want this to happen.
7 Councillors could let this road close – is this what you want?

*** UPDATE (31-03-2010) ***

So a week later, and Jill is reporting good news on the facebook group today, the Councillors have decided to defer the decision to close the road. People power works! They have decided that they are going to consult people – possibly because of the amount of emails Cllr Giles has had this week. They are also going to get round the table with Natural England and the Environment Agency, etc to see what can be done.

Here’s a few pics* i took there last week, and also a couple of bonus ones from Brook, proving that whilst it can be beautiful there, there’s also still a bit of beach cleaning to be done here to… (thats not a dig at the great job done with the recent SAS beach clean at Grange by the way, just a reminder that there’s always more to do, and always will be as long as people keep treating the sea like a garbage dump)

*please note that the image with the bus is deliberately trying to attract interest and spark debate by exaggerating reality. The wide angle lens and the low angle,  and a bit of extra editing are all designed to make that look more dramatic than it really is. Although with all the rain we had over the last few days, reality might now have imitated art and overtaken it.

Then i thought i shouldn’t do it at all, as the site should remain pure and only deal with surfing and waves (i’ve never taken any ads or promos on the site, despite requests)

But in the end i thought it best just to come out with it, make it a shameless plug, its my site why not good wetsuits are a vital part of surfing in the UK, and the changes over the last 10-15 years mean you can probably have twice as much time in the water on a winters day, and thats when the best waves are here, so maybe a little discussion about suits wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

And this blog has another angle too, vanity, and perhaps its an angle a few people can relate to, pretending that the advancing years are having no effect and i can still fit into the same size suit as i did 15 years ago. I got seduced by all the hi-tec jargon for the new ‘pyschofreak’ winter suits, and i let my desire blind me to the fact that the one i was looking at was a size medium, and i’ve really been too big for a medium for a few years now.

The ebay listing is WAS full of all that technical gumpf that worked on me, describing the ‘state of the art’ technology making it the warmest suit ever made etc.. And the fact is, it is the warmest suit i’ve ever tried, i actually felt warm out there in it, and i tried it on two of the coldest days this winter, so i’m genuinely disappointed to be selling HAVE SOLD it, but i need to wear a large and wearing a suit thats too small isnt good for your back or you’re surfing so its gotHAD to go.

Time for a bit of blatant self promotion and cheesy sentiment, so if you’re offended by either of those, look away now.

Thank you Flickr.com ….

I’d like to say thanks to all the people who follow my s0ulsurfing account on Flickr and who having seen my pictures from around the island over the last few years said that i should be working for the tourist board. People mostly say nice stuff to each other on Flickr (its like the opposite of magicseaweed), so i don’t like to get carried away with any praise, for many its a social network first and serious photographic appreciation second, but many of my contacts on there are awesome photographers, and i do value their judgment, and their words. So without getting carried away, i also know that sometimes i can produce decent work, and the feedback I get is genuine.

So encouraged by those words, I eventually wrote to all the various parties responsible for isle of wight tourism, mentioned the comments and suggested that they might like to use some of my photos to help promote the island. And to cut a long story short, the good people at the Isle of Wight Chamber of Commerce (who are now responsible for publishing the islands tourist guides) responded positively,  and a few meetings later, here it is, my photos are in this years official 2010 ISLE OF WIGHT accommodation guide.

60 of my images have been used in total, including the two on the front cover, and you can take a look yourself at the interactive brochure here http://www.gowight.com/brochure/

I’ve followed the debate about the merits of the brochure design over on the ventnorblog website (http://ventnorblog.com/2010/01/18/interest-in-tourism-guide-strong/), some islanders have liked it but its not been universally well received here, some dont like the colours and feel of the cover, but personally i think its a great piece of design by the talented local designer Aaron Rudd, and the IWCC report that its creating lots of interest and orders are strong (which is what really counts).

Not all of the images are mine, but i think there are 60 from me, 3 from my good friend Paul Blackley and the remaining 26 are from either Steve Thearle or Tom Stroud. I’m talking about the ‘editorial’ images here, the ones used to illustrate island locations, not those of the hotels etc.

So thanks again flickr, this wouldn’t have happened without you, and i’m writing about it here on soul-surfing because following on from the positive coverage that island surfing got during the ‘wight surf history‘ exhibition, its a surfing image that’s made the front cover, and some people reading might recognise Andrew Swinton posing on his longboard on a lovely summers evening at Compton Fields last year.

Summer longboarding

http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/blogs/news/441924/weekend-surf-gallery.html

Click here for part one of ‘You should have been here yesterday’

Click here for part two of ‘You should have been here yesterday’

Click here for part three of ‘You should have been here yesterday’

Click here for part one of ‘You should have been here yesterday’

Click here for part two of ‘You should have been here yesterday’

The shot was taken during the good swell on the 6th Feb 2010, you can see more from that day in the ‘You should’ve been here yesterday…’ blog

Life is just a series of peaks and troughs. Retro surf style

Click here for part one of ‘You should have been here yesterday’