Canvey Island – as it comes

Canvey Island is a unique place, it’s a favourite spot of ours for photography and last Saturday we paid another visit to walk around the island to look for new images.

We’d kept an eye on the weather forecast and anticipated a little rain on the day, but nothing like the amount we experienced last weekend. After driving through one heavy shower after another on the A13, we got to Canvey Island to find sodden fields, flooded roads and sombre skies.

Once in town, we headed straight for the river at the eastern end of the island. At this point on the Thames, we’re not far from the North Sea and the estuary widens rapidly. The opposite shore, the Isle of Grain, is about 4Km away, directly to the south. But, today, the yacht club and caravan parks at Allhallows-on-sea on the southern shore, were only just visible in the gloom.

The landscape was strikingly atmospheric. There was dead calm, the water was flat and the tide falling. The sky was practically colourless and was frequently darker than land and river. What colours were visible in the landscape, were subtle and muted. Perhaps I should have brought watercolours and an easel with me today, not a Leica M9?

The landscape and the weather provided a good test of my photographic skills and the capabilities of the Leica’s sensor. Would I be able to capture the muted, graduated tones of the landscape, the texture of the shore, the flat, slickness of the water and the moody light? Without a protective cover for the camera, it wasn’t possible to spend a lot of time composing photos in the pouring, persistent rain and after a while, the viewfinder started to mist up. (It’s quite common and doesn’t affect the final image, but it makes lining up a shot difficult.)

Personally, I’m pleased with some of the resulting images, which I think, with a little processing could produce one or two decent prints. However, in advance of any print production, I’ve posted a gallery of images from the day. These photos are unprocessed images, straight from the camera. They’ve been converted from DNG to jpeg and made a manageable size, but that’s all that’s been done to them. They’re uncropped, unadjusted, unmolested – “as it comes” as they say about whisky straight from the cask.

And, as to my photographic skills and the capabilities of the M9-P’s sensor, you can be the judge.

posted on 17 July 2012
category: daily photo