Sea Staring

30 Days of Herne Bay Seascapes

You can see the montage on Herne Bay seafront on the opposite side of the road to the pier. It’s an impressive 10m x 3m.

The images were taken by Photographer Liz Gregg throughout October 2021. The aim was to take a photo looking out to sea from Herne Bay every day for one calendar month. The only requirement was to include a straight horizon running through the middle of each shot. Liz kept most images very minimalist, the sky and the sea just providing a wash of changing colours dictated by the time of day and weather. While some are peppered with points of interest, details that the viewer would need to search to find; there’s boats, buoys, birds, wind turbines, Herne Bay landmarks. . .

October seemed like a good month to choose, both sunrise and sunset conveniently timed to be not too early and not too late. Liz was in the Isle of Wight for a couple of days so we have Danielle Roughan to thank for the 8th and the 9th. Then, October’s 31 days did provide an awkward number for a neat montage, but no worries both Liz and Danielle were in Devon for work on the 12th, problem conveniently solved. So we come to the 17th. It was just a very pretty day which resulted in about 15 photos that were too difficult to choose between. To help with the decision, Herne Bay residents were reached out to on Facebook and Insta and asked to pick their favourite. The dog silhouette against sunset won the vote. Now comes the confession, the 22nd was a bit of a fail in comparison so Liz decided to include another from the 17th, the tranquil sunset reflected on a stripy sea. Cheating I know, but she created the rules for the project and therefore took the decision to also break them, sorry!

We hope you like the resulting montage. A Herne Bay seascape from every day in October (ish) was a project Liz definitely hopes to repeat. She never tired of searching the sea for the day’s shot and still sees fresh perspectives and sea furniture that she’s excited about including next time.

Liz is a freelance photographer with 20 years experience working for magazines, newspapers, international organisations, commercial and individual clients.

The Prints -

Some days, like the 17th, were really photogenic, so I thought you might like to see some more from those days. Would you have chosen to include different ones?

Can you believe, the day I started the project, the 1st October, we had the most perfect rainbow!

6th October, I chose the container ship behind the windfarm as it’s an image that I’d wanted to capture even before I started shooting the project. I’m quite fascinated by the huge container ships that I see drifting by on the horizon, I’d like to take some photos on one really.

17th October was the type of day that made me very snap happy. Not only was the light beautiful but I also had some subjects for the photos, my friend’s children Marley and River and my dog Jeanie.

The 25th October, lovely light and I enjoyed playing with composition around Herne Bay harbour

Portraits of Liz and 8th and 9th seascapes by Danielle Roughan, thanks Danielle