Anyone who has been near me on a shoot where wind has been prevalent, will know how much I adore gusty weather! I love the emotion and earthy naturalness that wind lends to images... I become very excited and jump up and down a lot! Nothing quite prepared me for the 40 mile-an-hour strong winds that whistled around Catherine and Symon for their LOVE shoot on West Wittering Beach, West Sussex. When keeping eyes open is a challenge as relentless clouds of sand whooshed around the beach, and one finds oneself clinging onto a beach hut to prevent being floored, you know it's windy out! Oh my, did we have fun though! There's something really exhilarating being out when mother nature is feeling angry - the sea becomes a mirror of shattered reflections and the sand a mirage of textures. The wall of sound drummed up from the sand being blasted about the beach made direction near impossible, so I left Catherine and Symon to simply be themselves. They were both amazing. I feel this can often be a good recipe for natural images that reflect true emotion.
Symon and Catherine both enjoy the extreme sport of kitesurfing. Although the wind was too strong to safely launch a kite (we were almost airborne without any extra help from a kite which certainly would have landed us in France with a single gust), we enjoyed the extreme sport of navigating the beach in whipping winds - it was extremely fun too! We finished this adventure by jumping into our cosy cars, ears ringing and full of sand, hair white from sandblasting, eyes stinging, but ultimately feeling alive and high on the forces of nature. High fives and huge thanks to Symon and Catherine for braving the wild conditions and being so natural in front of the camera. LOVE x
