January 2021 - The soldier on watch

Most years, at the end of December, I go down to Lancing to spend a day by the sea, watching the waves and having the wind blow me around. Surprisingly often, there is good weather - with sunshine as well as wind, and last year was one of those days. 

I sometimes take Poppy down with me - our cockerpoo, with attitude! - but this time I had left her at home with my wife, so I was able to wander along the shoreline with no responsibilities other than my camera.

There is a type of sea wall - a berm - between our chalet and the beach: not very high, but enough to protect us from winter storms. A coastal path runs along this and there are beach huts (love them!) along the path. I took this picture from below the berm, looking up a beach hut. The sun was in my face, and the picture turned into a silhouette. To me it looks like a soldier from one of the big wars in the last century standing guard, maybe standing on a tower. 

The only editing I did was to convert it into black and white and to try to tone down the sun a bit. Oh, and I cropped it so that the ‘soldier’ was emphasised, and so you won’t realise that that is a colourful beach hut on his right. The truth is that it was simply a pole in the ground with ropes wrapped around it. I was quite disappointed when I went up to see what it was; I had thought (hoped?) that it was a small sculpture or something. 

One of the joys of photography is that you, the photographer, can make pictures out of seemingly poor material, and can weave a story around it that keeps a viewer’s interest.