I recently spent a busy but pleasant weekend on a wedding shoot on Barry Island. And I was fortunate enough to have a couple of hours - in the sunshine no less - to wander around the pleasure beach before the shoot started.
I’ve not been to Barry before, but the seafront - like most other British seaside resorts - is a noisy, glowing advert for copyright infringement. If Disney cared, and could prove the askew facsimiles of their characters were actually supposed to be their characters (in some instances the resemblance is closer to an unintentional Picasso rendering of Pocahontas or the like), the place would be blank. Flavour du jour is, of course, Frozen (as well as numerous Minions)... My favourite flattering imitation might have been Coastal Coffee; while their logo wasn’t too similar to their near-anagrammed namesake, the look of the cafe itself was remarkably similar. But the coffee was better.
It also seems that God is trolling Wales. It might have beautiful vistas, with the sea and mountains, but 95% of the time it’s covered in a cold, grey mist that obscures the view of anything more than 5m away. It’s ironic, then, that I caught the sun on Saturday (not too much, but getting close to becoming a redneck…). And apparently the only radio station is Heart FM - at least, that’s all anyone played. Maybe it’s the only signal, or maybe the locals just love early 90s chart dance music (and who wouldn’t want to listen to Haddaway, CC Peniston or Corona? Actually, don’t answer that.)
But how about the photography? Well, there are some wonderful locations (or, at the very least, locations that can be made to appear wonderful) - and most importantly, many of these are protected from the elements. Which was important, as Sunday made up for the sunshine on Saturday by throwing wind and rain at us in equal measure. But, we got some amazing photographs and I’ve got some fantastic ideas to bring back to west London (where, of course, the sun always shines. Ahem.)
