50 Really Impressive Washed Up Photographs

By Lee Milthorpe on January 26, 2010

Last week I got an invite to a secret birthday bash. The place wasn’t far from the coast where I used to go for a family holiday every year so I thought I’d make the most of it and head down to the beach with the camera. This particular beach can only be accessed via hundreds of steps winding down the side of the cliff face and I was disappointed to get half way down, only to realise that half the cliff had fallen into the sea, making getting down to the beach almost impossible. I had to admit defeat and head back without a single shot.

It was disappointing because the beach can throw up some interesting objects to photograph. Today though, rather than show you my album of nothing, I’m going to publish a set of images from an extremely talented photographer, David Nightingale of Chromasia Limited who just happens to live at the seaside!

David has some fantastic landscape shots in his collection but the following images all have one thing in common. The subjects are all items that have been washed up on the beach. Enjoy!

Photo by David Nightingale

If you’re interested in how these were taken and the post processing involved, David runs an online training company where he has highly detailed and in depth tutorials that teach you how to do it. It is a members only area and the fee to become a member at the time of writing is just £25 for the year or £75 for lifetime. The quality of the tutorials really does make it worthwhile.

Comments

Eva 6 months ago

I love the ship on the beach!
The exact same thing happened in Cape Town last year.

Eva
@friendsofdesign

Shannon 6 months ago

What a great series! I love that something so simple as stuff that washes up on the beach can become a really wonderful visual narrative.

Rishi 6 months ago

This is an outstanding collection of photographs. Very, very inspiring. I stay near the beach, and am ashamed to say that I’ve nothing similar to show. Yet.

Laura Carlie Marie Budder 5 months ago

I love the one of the boot lying sideways on the beach! I would love to be a photographer when i get older. If you guys have any advice for me, please just email me or something =) great shots by the way.

Neelakandan 5 months ago

This is an excellent one. Love the shell and all the images are simply great. Thanks for sharing :)

Nik 5 months ago

Rishi, I don’t think it’s about having anything to show in this case. It’s about bringing items and staging them. While a majority of them are possible wash-ups, my guess is around three of these were actual items found.

Just bring an old matchbox car race track to the beach then process the heck out of it. Then perhaps bring a high heel; proceed to process the heck out of it. Maybe bring a coffee cup, after shooting you will then process the heck out of it.

It’s a very simple ‘process’.

That said, I did enjoy the second-last photo, and the tv idea.

Nothing wrong with staging as long as people like it. Right? :)