Does Familiarity Breed Complacency?

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Under Normal Circumstances

Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t have bothered heading to Dawlish Warren last Friday. I had already been there the week before, and with the weather forecast not exactly predicting spectacular conditions, I wouldn’t have normally visited this location again. However, these weren’t normal circumstances. My friend and newly turned professional photographer, Chris Sale, was in the area and he was keen to visit the beach at Dawlish Warren.

Chris was staying in Cornwall for a week to immerse himself in photography and see his mum. This was also going to be an excellent opportunity for us to catch up and do a little photography. Unfortunately for us the weather was pretty poor all week. The one evening I was able to meet up with Chris the weather was particularly poor.

We had decided to meet at Trebarwith Strand, a wonderful coastal location to photograph, but the wind was howling. While stormy weather can sometimes be used to great effect, this wasn’t one of those evenings. The wind had churned up the sea into a mass of white water and foam. Only a mad person would have ventured down onto the beach and the view from the cliffs wasn’t exactly inspiring. In the end I didn’t take any photographs so we went to the pub and had a very nice pizza.

With Trebarwith a right off, we committed ourselves to a dawn shoot. Chris had always wanted to photograph the beach at Dawlish Warren so we decided to head there on Friday morning. Unfortunately, yet again, the weather forecast was poor. High winds, lots of cloud and the potential for rain didn’t fill me with enthusiasm. I did however want to head out on another shoot with Chris and go out for a spot of breakfast, so I thought it was worth a punt.

More Chat than Photography

Arriving at Dawlish Warren the conditions were slightly better than forecast but still not particularity inspiring. I already knew I probably wasn’t going to get a better shot than last week. No worries though, Chris was with me and the banter was flowing.

Even after many years of photographing Dawlish Warren, it is still a place that excites me, but sometimes when I feel I can’t get a better or a different image than previous visits then I do perhaps get a little lazy with my photography. That familiarity with a location can sometimes make me a bit complacent.

While I do like the image I captured that morning, I think I could have taken a better shot if I’d focused a little more on what I was doing and the conditions I had to work with.

Into the Void, Dawlish Warren, Devon - Nikon Z7 with Nikkor Z 14-30 mm f/4 at 29 mm, f/8, 224 sec at ISO 64, Kase Filters K8 holder, CPL, and 10 stop ND.

So what exactly do I feel is wrong with the photograph? While I like the long exposure, the slightly desaturated colour palette, and the way the groyne fades into the sea, I’m not that happy with the location in the frame where the groyne appears in the photograph. For me at least, I think the right-hand side of the groyne needs to be more prominent and perhaps start further down in the frame. This probably would have been best achieved by moving closer to the groyne and perhaps turning to face it more directly.

I could change the relative position of the groyne in this image through a crop but I would lose a lot of the sea in the foreground. The best option of course is just to get it right in camera in the first place!

While I like the image, it definitely has room for improvement. Perhaps if I’d been a little less complacent and was focusing more on all the elements of the composition, I might have made a slightly different but improved image. Photography is a constant journey of learning, and this trip to Dawlish Warren has taught me not to be so complacent or lazy with composition, even when I don’t think I can improve on previous images.

Do you agree with my critique? Do you sometimes get complacent when photographing your favourite locations? Let me know in the comments below.