We all have preconceptions about places we know well. As photographers, we are uniquely placed to ‘sneak up’ and shoot a different story, deliberately skewing things..

The Lancashire resort of Morecambe is less than 30 minutes drive from where we live. Tess, our collie, loves the beaches there, and there is a three mile promenade allowing pleasant Sunday walks with access to take-away coffees to minimise the cold…

Morecambe Sailing Club (MSC) has a race office that sits on a recessed part of the promenade, right over the sea. It’s a daring piece of modern engineering, and I’ve photographed it many times and posted on the New Morecambe Past and Present page on Facebook.

I’m usually after a complimentary look, but the design is so radical, it invites a bit of mischief, too, as the opening shot, above, shows. The bulbous and bulging ‘nose’ of the race office window can suggest an authoritarian look, which I highlighted, just for fun…

Sticking with the same subject, I noticed that, further down the promenade, there was an open angle shot that placed the racing office to the extreme left of a wide-angle view. The effect was to emphasise the massive nature of Morecambe Bay and place the MSC building as a tiny hut on the edge of it! Mischief, indeed…

The final photograph is above. Boats are at their best floating, but these two look like they’re sleeping on the job…

©Stephen Tanham, 2021.

Stephen Tanham is a Director of the Silent Eye, a modern yet mystical journey through the forest of personality to the sunrise of Being.