A question of Style
- dobbiemark1509
- Jul 13
- 3 min read
For the most part, I take landscape images. If asked what I take photographs of, my reply is generally 'the landscape'. I could never get bored of mountains, waterfalls, sunsets and sunrises, but sometimes, it feels good to try new things: new styles of photography, new subjects and trying different techniques. Placing yourself in a specific photographic genre can subconsciously restrict your thought process and recently I have been thinking about that quite a lot. Increasingly, I have wanted to branch out and just take photographs that I like, that inspire me or capture a moment.
I recently went on a trip to France: A long weekend specifically to watch the 'classic' motor racing at Le Mans. Now this is something that I love and older cars being driven hard, on a truly iconic circuit appeals to my sense of nostalgia for more simple times of 'gentlemen' racers (there were very few 'lady' racers back in the 1950's and 60's: Pat Moss being a rare exception) and cars that I recognise for their individuality and beauty.
However, there is more to this weekend for me. A chance to spend a weekend with one of my best buddies, the journey itself; especially the ferry. Driving on the other side of the road and an opportunity to experience a slightly different culture: I also like France a lot. The whole experience is exciting to me: arriving at Portsmouth to catch the ferry still feels like an adventure and is just the start! Something I want to capture the spirit of.


As we embark on our journey, the camera is immediately out of the bag and I am looking for interesting compositions and images to create from the deck of the ship. Night photography is always enjoyable for me, but made more challenging by the movement of the sea. It is easy to capture this movement unintentionally, so understanding how to avoid it is useful. Equally true is understanding how to induce movement in a creative way to achieve a desired result.

A walk around Le Mans itself the evening before the racing started found me looking at scenes in the town and images that in my head were likely to be best interpreted in monochrome. For some reason, I am often able to imagine a scene in Black and White as I am taking it, so it helps guide my choices of camera setting when taking these images. Just wandering around and spontaneously pointing the camera at compositions that enter my head is liberating and in a way, the opposite to the more considered approach when photographing the landscape. I love the immediacy of it.







I am somewhat self conscious about photographing 'people' as it feels intrusive, but it is a genre of photography that I would like to do more of: overcoming that sense of being a little voyeuristic isn't easy for me though.



As a photographer, it is easy to get trapped into taking images that are your own 'style', but liberating yourself from the shackles of one genre or type of photograph is both fun and creative. Looking at the world through a different lens so to speak feels liberating and exciting.
The racing was still to look forward to.........


Love some of the b&w shots Mark. I like ICM and that one is fab as are the other shots of the Spinnaker.