Lincolnshire, flat farm land and RAF bases with a very undramatic coast line. The most boring county in the UK, possibly, or is that because im looking at it as a local? I’m sure people who live in what we consider exciting places think they’re boring too. To photograph your home town or even county you have to think like a tourist, except with the added bonus of having a locals knowledge.
Starting with Louth, i grew up 5 miles from town, i went to secondary school in town, i have worked in town, and now i live much closer. Louth is the main hub for everything i do, so its hard to see it as anything more than the place i go to get my fuel and take aways. When i have tried to photograph it in the past i have struggled, wandering looking for something interesting to capture but seen nothing. Recently i started looking at it as an outsider, looking at Louth for what it really is, an old market town with tonnes of character and historic buildings. That is what i needed to capture, not to try and find something exciting like i would see in a big city. The first and most obvious building in Louth is the church, St James church stands tall above the rest of the town and can be seen for miles around.
St James church from London road
There are lots of normal ways to photograph buildings, but to capture the feel of a town and the buildings means incorporating other things into the image or picking out small details. Louth is full of other old and interesting buildings. A lot of the buildings are listed and have been left or restored to original standards making it feel like you’re photographing in the past. I can walk around Louth and notice something new every time to photograph, new angles, reflections, details on buildings, different lenses give different views again, it changes with the seasons and again when an event is hosted in Louth, like food markets, classic car shows and motorbike nights.
You don’t have to step far out of Louth before you start seeing photogenic countryside everywhere you look! Surrounded by farm land and the Wolds its not hard to find a nice landscape to photograph or just enjoy! Louth doesn’t put out much light pollution so on a clear night start can be seen clearly, turning some of the great landscapes into stunning night shots. Lincolnshire has many old towns like Louth, rich in character and lots of tiny villages that seem like they haven’t moved on from the 1800’s. These all make for interesting photographs in their own way., Landscapes, farm animals, architecture and people all give a feel of a place! I often go out in my car with no planning, and drive the back roads of Lincolnshire just looking for compositions, some for now, some to come back to at sunset , sunrise or night time in the future. The Lincolnshire country side offers countless photographic opportunities throughout the year no matter what you like to shoot!
Obviously we have Lincoln, the capital of the County, a stunning old city mixed with new architecture. It creates lots of photographic opportunities, whether its of the world famous cathedral, modern buildings, cityscapes or simply the people who live there. Lincoln is great for street photos, its busy enough to blend in, but not so busy that its hard to get a clean simple composition. It is hard to visit Lincoln and not think like a tourist and even harder to go with a camera and not photograph everything i see. I have been to Lincoln many times with my camera and feel i could go back another 100 times and not capture everything i want to.
Moving away from the country side we have the Lincolnshire coastline, while not dramatic, with big cliffs and jagged rocks, it does have lovely soft sandy beaches, from Grimsby, Donna Nook which has the RAF bombing range and once a year seal pups litter the beach. Mablethorpe and Skegness beaches are lovely flat soft and sandy, and offer some great seascape photography, with piers and buoys and old groynes in the water! On the bigger end of the scale, north we have the Humber Bridge too, or half of it anyway! When photographing the sea i like to slow the shutter speed down and smooth all the water and motion out for a nice simple peaceful image.
Being a tourist means visiting attractions and events in the area, so what better way to photograph like a tourist than do those exact things. There are many places in Lincolnshire to visit, national trust places like Tattershall Castle, wildlife parks like Woodside Wildlife Park near Lincoln, Belton House, food festivals or even go and watch motorcross racing at the beach. We even have our very own mini Nurburgring, Cadwell Park! There are so many things to chose from you’ll never be stuck to photograph what interests you!
I hope you enjoyed my images and it shows that even though during everyday life your home town might be mundane and normal, when you get the camera out and spend the day as a tourist you see things you have never noticed before and can come away with some “travel” photography worth keeping. It may be just a photo of your town but to somebody far away its a great travel image of a town and culture they have not experienced yet. I have lived in Lincolnshire my whole life, taking photos for 12 years and i have only captured a fraction of what there is to see. If you live here, get out with your camera and think like a tourist Not only will you get better images, you might see the place and a new light.