The other day, I headed to Formby to meet with Steve O’Nions. Every year, we visit Formby because winter in the UK is one of the best times to photograph the beach. In the past, we’ve had some fantastic light throughout the day, and the sunsets have often been spectacular.
This year, we weren’t so lucky. Storm Bert continued to make its presence felt. Although it wasn’t raining, the sky was thick with clouds, and there wasn’t much light. In a word, it was DULL.
Steve had the advantage over me in these conditions because he came prepared. He broke out an old Holga film camera with some black-and-white 120 film. If you don’t know the Holga, it’s a medium-format film camera with a fixed shutter speed, very little control over focus, and (usually) a plastic lens. The posh ones have a flash and a glass lens, but that ruins the effect.
The Holga gallery on the Lomography website provides good examples of work with a Holga.
Anyway, after our challenging day out, I was disappointed by my efforts and thought nothing would have worked well. It wasn’t until I saw some of Steve’s Holga shots that I realised I needed to go more extreme with my post-processing. Here’s the result.
I shot this using a Nikon Z7ii and a Nikon 24-120 lens at 24mm. The original image looked uninspiring, but I transformed it into something more interesting by adding a digital Holga look. My post on Instagram explains my editing process and includes the original RAW file.
I hope you like the finished image, and have a great weekend.
The Lightweight Photographer 
I consider Formby my local beach – I’m in Chester so fairly close. Unfortunately I wasn’t there when the aurora was visible 😦 I might try and go there at the end of December, and if the weather is dull, experiment with post – processing afterwards. Your photo turned out nice 🙂
Yes, you aren’t too far living in Chester and probably a lot nearer than I am. It takes me about an hour and half to drive there. I’m glad you like the photo although I have produced a lot better at Formby when the coniditions are right. It’s a great place.