I have visited Laugharne, a small town on the Carmarthenshire coast, many times over the years with my wife and my West Highland White Terrier, Pugwash. As you probably know, Laugharne is famous for being the burial place of Dylan Thomas and is where he did his writing, in the boathouse, which is always popular with photographers.

It has also been a much-loved location for the outings I arrange for my camera club, Afan Nedd, on Fridays. Often, we would arrive in the dark, ready for a sunrise, and be lucky enough to capture a rainbow over the castle in light rain. We were due to visit Pugwash on 17th February last year, too. Sadly, he went over the Rainbow Bridge a few days earlier on St Valentine’s Day, aged fourteen and a half. The club kept the date, and members joined me in toasting our honorary doggie member.

This photo was taken on 20th February this year. I was on my own and on my way to judge a monochrome print competition at Tenby Camera Club. I stopped at Laugharne for a twenty minute break and a wander around with my camera. Luckily, the tide was out and there were a few boats to be seen. This looked in the best angle to take the picture, although I did try a few others.

When I uploaded my images from this quick shoot, I knew they looked good, so I set about editing them. I have done some creative work on the image, including adding grain, using Nik Software in Colour Efx. I also saturated the boat and desaturated a blue ball, which was a distraction.

I intend to go to Laugharne soon to take the boats in different weather conditions.
If anyone fancies a visit to Laugharne, take care as the river is tidal and floods the car park.

What are the TWO most impactful features that make your image a good photograph? Don’t be shy!

I like the grain/grunge in the sky that I’ve added. I also like the colors of the boat. I tried to bring atmosphere to the photo. It has plenty of drama.

If you could make this photo again, what would be the ONE thing you would like to do better or different?

There’s a bit of rope on the left that appears dark. Maybe I could have lightened it or cropped it, as some have said, but at the end of the day, I like it like this.

Gareth Martin shared this photograph with the FRAMES Facebook Group.

Photographer

Gareth Martin, Port Talbot, South Wales, UK

FACEBOOK (AFFAN NEDD CAMERA CLUB)
GALLERY ON THE CLUB WESBITE

Equipment and settings

Olympus EM1 MK 3 + 12mm-40mm F2.8
probably set on F11 using 400 ISO