Four of us were meeting up at Pin Mill in Suffolk.
Most of us hadn’t been here for years, and with the boats decaying at a rapid rate, it was good to return especially with favourable tide on its way out.
About Pin Mill
The Pin Mill boat wrecks, often called the “Pin Mill Boat Graveyard,” are a collection of abandoned vessels along the banks of the River Orwell in Suffolk.
Pin Mill was once a busy landing point for ship-borne cargo, a centre for the repair of Thames sailing barges and home to many small industries such as sail making, a maltings (now a workshop) and a brickyard.
The east coast has a long history of smuggling, in which Pin Mill and the Butt and Oyster pub allegedly played key parts.
During World War II Pin Mill was home to Royal Navy Motor Launches and to a degaussing vessel created from a herring drifter. Pin Mill and Woolverstone were home ports to many tank landing craft used in the invasion of Normandy in 1944.
The Shoot
We managed to park in the small car park just up the road from the pub, and walked down, through the pub car park and down metallic ladder.
A short walk later, and we’re on location.
There was a photographer already in prime position, and he asked if we could wait a few minutes while he finished capturing some shots for a panoramic. Of course, we were happy to oblige as we had plenty of time.
The guy had finished shortly thereafter, packed up and left so we had the place to ourselves.
We moved around to find our initial compositions and had a brief encounter with some swans.
I moved to a position where I could capture the boat wrecks as a long exposure.
During post-production, I decided to attempt a more minimalist look so edified out the horizon and background using PhotoShop.
I posted up online the monochrome version (which had a Nik Silver Efex filter applied) which received complimentary feedback.
I’ll show the colour version below which is quite nice too.
It was time to press the “something different” switch…
I tried some ICM shots but also got the infrared camera out and tried some shots, straight and ICM.
I quite like these, especially the bottom one which has an old worldly painting feel about it.
I decided to try a zoom burst ICM of the boat wrecks with the infrared camera.
I had another play with the edit and posted the next one up online.
I quite like these dramatic look albeit it was a quick job.
The tide has moved quite a way out now, and the light was dropping so I raced around doing a few more shots with the infrared camera handheld.
I was just about done and took my last shot.
I felt I had milked this location in the time we had, although this place has a lot of potential for different shots if you can think in that way.
We packed up and made our way back to the cars for a quick debrief and then home.
It had been a good trip and I am very pleased with achieving the minimalist image I produced plus some creative shots as well.
Most satisfying!
Onwards and upwards…