My mum’s side of the family are from the North East of England and so we visited Newbiggin a lot when I was a child. At the time it didn’t have the best beach for children but still a good place for a family day out.

These days, Newbiggin is definitely worth a visit with or without a camera. There is a lot of local history and a couple of art installations around the beach area.

My photos were taken on a mostly grey October day and I’ve edited them for dramatic effect, it’s not this grey in reality! If the sun is out it can be quite beautiful walking along the seafront.

The beach was one of the inspirations for the ‘matchstick men’ artist L.S. Lowry. I often find my beach scenes in the North East have something of this artist in them.

When I was editing the photos from the day, I found it difficult to choose whether they should be in monochrome or colour. For example the two different photos below:

I like the green tones in the rocks but I’m still not sure if there’s more ’emotion’ in the monochrome version.

One of my favourite pictures from the trip was the photo below of the Couple sculpture, using the telephoto lens and wide aperture to give the impression the couple are tiny models standing on the wall:

If you find yourself with a grey sky when out taking photos, you can use it for the graphical effect known as negative space.

For more photos taken in Newbiggin:

PS if you are interested in watching me mumble my way through editing the photos from this day, I have a video of that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeaSlAa7AIY