The
final piece for TAOP has to be in the form of a magazine article telling a
photographic story. I have decided to show the WWI and WWII defences that
circle the coast of Fife, most of which are in very poor repair and can only be
found if you are actively looking for them, they are certainly not signposted
like most historic monuments, although they probably should be. These are
coastal remains that fascinate me, as they are so rarely visited except by the
local graffiti artists, and were so important in the defence of Britain.
I
spent some time deciding on whether to use monochrome or colour, trying using
all of one or the other and ended using a mix to show the feelings the
buildings evoked in me. Many were taken in poor weather, a few in bright
sunshine. Most were taken using a Panasonic Lumix G1.The images were taken in
RAW, processed via Lightroom 3, and the pages put together in Photoshop
Elements 8 and 11. The font for all the pages except the title page is Ariel.
The hardest part of this project was to
cut down the number of image used from hundreds of possible ones. Initially I
had several more on some of the pages, but the pages looked cluttered, and the
additional images did not add anything to the story. I also tried a variety of
fonts for the text, but they made reading it more difficult and proved an
unnecessary complication.
Cover
page:
Tank blocks - ISO 80, f/5.0, 21.8mm
efl, 1/320 sec
This
shows the tank blocks that were made in their thousands and lined the coast.
They are hardly visible today in most places, and many have been moved.
Monochrome was used to emphasise the graphic nature of the cubes. The font is
'Day Poster Black', which was then outlined with a white stoke in Photoshop Elements.
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Page
1 – Castles:
Top – Seafield Tower – ISO 80, f/5.6, 14.8mm efl,
1/400 sec
Bottom –Ravenscraig Castle ISO 100, f/16, 42mm efl,
1/60 sec
The
castles along the seacoast make dramatic images, especially when seen on a
stormy day. I choose to concentrate on the skies to show the often threatening
nature of the weather in Scotland in winter. This was emphasised further in
monochrome and by the distance and use of a wide angle lens in the lower image.
The upper image was taken from directly below the tower to show the effect it
has of looming over you, even though mostly in ruins.
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Page
2 – Rosyth
Top – Overgrown Brick bunker – ISO
100, f/5.6, 90mm efl, 1/30 sec
Bottom – Bunker on hillside – ISO
100, f/4.5, 34mm efl, 1/640 sec
The
WWI and WWII defences are much less dramatic, and often much less visible. Here
the lower image shows how the bunkers sits on the hill, and uses the hill as
protection, unlike the castles which stand above the landscape. A wide angle
lens was used to show the bunker within the background. Walking backwards to get
further away would have had me walking off the edge of a cliff. The colour
detail image shows the overgrowth of ivy and closed over window.
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Page
3 Braefoot 1
Top – Top of gun emplacement – ISO
640, f/6.3, 28mm efl, 1/200 sec
Bottom – Detail of gun emplacement – ISO 640, f/ 6.3,
62mm efl, 1/100 sec
The
colour images here show the scale of the massive gun emplacements, and how desolate
they are. Even with colour in winter the concrete blends in, and in summer they
are almost invisible behind plant growth.
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Page
4 – Braefoot 2
Top left – Telephone post – ISO 400,
f/5.5, 68mm efl, 1/50 sec.
Top right – Summer view – ISO 400,
f/5.6, 90mm efl, 1/50 sec
Bottom – ISO 640, f/7.1, 40mm efl,
1/125 sec
The
use of colour shows how different the bunkers look in different seasons, but
they are still overwhelmed by the new (relative to the age of the bunkers) tree
growth. Even in summer there is little light available, needing a high ISO to
take a sharp hand-held image.
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Page
5 – Charles Hill 1
Top – Corridor in the gun area – ISO
100, f/2.5, 40mm efl, 1/200
Bottom – Gun base – ISO 100, f/4.0,
40mm efl, 1/640 sec
This
page uses a combination of detail (above) and landscape of the same building.
The lower image is taken from where one would stand if operating the gun.
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Page
6 – Charles Hill 2
Top – Inside a bunker – ISO 125, f/1.7, 40mm
efl, 1/250 sec
Bottom – Bunkers lining the coast – ISO 100, f/4.0,
40mm efl, 1/640 sec
The
view inside the bunker seems much larger because of the relatively wide-angled
lens which increased the apparent way the walls converge, even when only a
short length of the side walls is visible. It also increases the depth of field
so all is in focus. The monochrome
emphasises the wrecked and deserted inside. The figure stress out the window as
many must have done in the past. In the bottom image a wide-angle view was used
to show as much of the view as possible. Colour shows the contrast between the
concrete and nature, especially now the site is almost overrun with gorse.
Page
7 – Elie
Top - Pile of tank blocks – ISO100,
f/9.0, 52mm efl, 1/320 sec
Bottom – Tank blocks ob cliff edge –
ISO 100, f/6.3, 28mm efl, 1/320 sec
The
landscape image shows a line of blocks looking over the coast, here the alien
nature of the blocks is emphasised against the sky, but in most cases the
blocks are being slowly broken down by the elements and lichen, or tumbles out
of their original position. The monochrome emphasises the bleakness of the
coast, especially on a winter’s day.
Page
8 – Crail Airfield
Top – Part of aircraft hangers – ISO 100, f/11, 90mm
efl, 1/100 sec
Bottom – Bunker at the edge of a cliff – ISO160,
f/5.6, 400mm efl, 1/250 sec
Colour
was chosen here to show the deserted, rust streaked, nature of the hangers. A
similar image in monochrome also worked well. The single bunker is a very bleak
view, perched right on the cliff top. The use of a long telephoto lens has
increased the visual bulk of the bunker and made it stand out. A similar
picture using a standard lens from the same shot would have given a very small
and less impressive image.
Page
9 - Tentsmuir 1
Top - View of the nature reserve with tank blocks – ISO
80, f/7.1, 20.4mm efl, 1/320 sec
Middle – Steel pillbox – ISO 80,
f/5.0, 14.8mm efl, 1/320 sec
Bottom – Gun platform – ISO 80,
f/7.1, 25.2mm efl, 1/320 sec
Here
the defences stand out from the landscape of the nature reserve, and are being
slowly destroyed by nature. Colour shows the contrast of man-made against
nature. The steel pillbox is virtually rusted away. A wide-angle lens was used
from close up to both show detail and exaggerate the shape of the gun platform.
The same lens was used for the view of the setting, but here it simply allows
for a wider angle of view.
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Page
10 – Tentsmuir 2
Top – Map
Bottom – Bunker in a sand dune – ISO
100, f7.1, 28mm efl, 1/80 sec.
The map was taken and altered from Wikipedia,
used under a Creative Commons licence,
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fife_UK_relief_location_map.jpg).
I
returned to monochrome for the final image to show my emotion when faced with
the lack of care given to these monuments of war. This image also has the only
human figure, a hardly visible person sitting waiting in army dress. The lower picture shows the deserted nature of
many of the remaining buildings which are like this one, covered in graffiti
and half buried in blown sand. The single seated figure gives an idea of scale.
