Solent Sea Kayaking

Photography is a relatively new hobby for me and provides an added dimension to paddles, particularly when paddling local routes repeatedly.
A recent post by a superb Sea Kayaking photographer Mark Rainsley on the excellent South West Sea Kayaking website about the kit he uses, along with a couple of email enquiries about my own [...]

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had a couple of great night paddles and one aborted paddle. I recently outlined my self enforced criteria for deciding when to paddle solo at night and the routes I’m prepared to paddle.
Last week I set out in wonderfully calm conditions and enjoyed a great paddle along the [...]

Having been off the water due to a back injury then the recent atrocious weather tonight provided a spectacular if unexpected return to night paddling. I’d neglected my usual daily inspection of the weather forecasts and tide times having settled my little ones down for the night I stepped outside to be greeted by a [...]

Hythe Marina is my closest put in for paddles using the Public Slipway. It is situated opposite Southampton Docks where the large cruise liners and various cargo ships berth. For me it’s become a playground not only for paddling but also practising my photography skills. I thought I’d share a few of my recent efforts.

Another night paddle. Very calm conditions tonight but the forecast clear skies didn’t materialise. However, I took the opportunity to play with a 50-200mm lens on the Pentax and ran through several takes of each photo making small adjustments to ISO, then exposure time to compare and contrast the results.
A reasonable moon made occasional [...]

A very still but cloudy night tonight so I headed out from Calshot with the DSLR & tripod packed in a dry bag with the intention of having another go at getting some long exposure photographs. Started to drizzle and get a little misty which made me glad of the good weather proof seals on [...]

I’m lucky enough to teach an A Level student, Sam, who is a keen photographer. He’s been giving me some advice on various manual settings on my DSLR, in particular night scene photography for which I am extremely grateful.
Thought I would share my first efforts. Pretty pleased yet so, so much to learn! Click [...]

Ok, I have no illusions of being the next Justine Curvengen, Bryan Smith or Simon Willis. However, I would like to get more interesting shots from the kayak and in particular some video footage.
However, my main issue is that 99% of my paddling is done solo as I have to snatch paddles, often at unsociable [...]

I have been really impressed with the quality of the photographs on a number of sea kayaking blogs such as Sea Kayak Photo, Southwest Sea Kayaking, Simon Willis & Cailean’s Blog. In particular, the shots taken on the water. It’s got me thinking about what kit people use to take photos whilst paddling – point [...]