A topic for Assignment 4

Have been reflecting for a while on what to do about Assignment 4 since concluding that covering the whole of the Solway Firth was too big an ask for a single project.  As I mentioned in a comment to a previous post I think a single village is the way to go, so I’m going to make the nearby seaside village of Allonby my target. It’s worth recording here that this reflection has been going on for rather longer than the time suggested by these blog posts – I find there is some real challenge in keeping these notes consistent with my thought processes.

Allonby has an interesting mix of historic buildings, narrow cobbled streets, a wonderful location on the coast some small caravan parks and a number of small shops and cafes. In reasonable (and sometimes not so reasonable) weather, it is a bit of a honey-pot for local people walking their dogs or out for a stroll with their families, and attracts kite surfers, sailboarders and a range of other tourists. Taken together I feel their should be plenty of material to produce the required number of shots.

Lots of information on the village can be found on the Visit Cumbria and Solway Plains websites, although neither capture my perception of the village. I know the assignment instructions say I should write up how I see the essential character after I have done the photography, but for the record, and as a guide (not a strait-jacket) it seems helpful to think through what I hope to achieve first.

The village always seems a little ‘hunkered down’ against the westerlies that blow along the coast, and much of its charm is quite intimate and well hidden from the casual passer-by because the main road was diverted out of the narrow, and cobbled, village main street many years ago. There are a couple of key locations that need to be captured in one way or another to capture the essence of the village – these include Jack’s Surf Bar, Twentyman’s General Store (famous across the north of Cumbria for its ice cream) and perhaps The Codfather (chip shop),The Ship Hotel and the Bath House. There is also the contrast between the wide open grassy banks and the narrow lanes, and if the opportunity presents the windsurfers and their colourful sails as mentioned above.

This one’s not an assignment shot, but is included here for good measure.