Sunday 13 October 2013

Down Among The Beach Huts

Some go to paddle in the sea, some to eat fish 'n' chips, some to relax on the beach. But I rarely go to the seaside without some time at least being spent photographing the beach huts. These little wooden shelters provide a place to stow all the things you might need for your time on the beach - buckets, spades, deckchairs, towels - as well as a place to change your clothes and brew a cuppa.  


They are often brightly coloured but here at Hunstanton they are more natural shades whether because of some by-law or just the inclination of the owners I don't know. Locally Hunstanton is pronounced Hunst'on, by the way. The poet SirJohn Betjeman insisted upon it, though with his pompous, plummy intonation he could scarcely be taken for a local. 



A little landscape in the lee of a hut.


Odd compositions pop up unexpectedly as the huts jostle side-by-side along the shore.








Cross the dunes for a view of  mysterious landscape-or-is-it-seascape of The Wash.




Take care.

13 comments:

  1. Interesting to see these beach huts. We don't have them in the parts of the USA that I know, though I have seen them in Italy, France and South Africa. The image shooting down the row is very nice, as is the one with the tufts of grass against the blue wall.

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  2. We were there this summer. It was glorious. Great pictures.

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  3. I am in love with your last picture....glory and mystery, a combination. Beautiful !

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  4. Fabulois photo of The Wash John. I love these beach huts, I remember them being like little houses when I was a little girl and we were in Paignton for our week's holiday. Don't think we ever rented one of our own, just used other people's occasionally. My son lives about 40 minutes drive from Southwold and one day I shall get there and see for myself the wonderful colourful beach huts there.

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  5. Really like the last shot and then two shots above that.

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  6. The last few are otherwordly and beautiful. I love the composition down that row of huts! Beach huts are not a common sight stateside, but I wish they were.

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  7. Thanks, everybody. The Wash is a rather strange area - a big shallow inlet on the edge of the Fens, there are occasionally mad schemes to drain it. In winter it becomes home for thousands of ducks and waders.

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  8. fun little beach shacks, they have quite the quirky charm about them. Do people lease them or just hire for the day maybe? Yes, would be good to make the cuppa, and wait around for sunset photos over the water, with the fish and chips! The dunes shot with those great clouds in the horizon look great too. You had a great photography day John.

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  9. Great repetition in that top shot and the subtle melding of colours in that bottom shot is terrific. Makes the scene look so serene.

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  10. Lovely post! there is something magical about beach huts and I expect childhood memories of seaside holidays are part of that. I was taking photos of beach huts a couple of weeks ago. We used to live in South Lincolnshire so appreciate the strange beauty of The Wash - the wide skies and the flocks of swans and geese flying over - such an evocative sight:)

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  11. Just the kind of photos I wanted to take at Hunstanton but didn't get anything like these. Gorgeous, John. I can't even pick a favorite; they all remind me of our day there, and how peaceful it was. I loved those little huts too; I've seen something like them here, on the outer banks of North Carolina. They call them cabanas, but they are small rentals with complete facilities, I believe. The ones at Hunstanton are much more photogenic, scattered as they are among the dunes.

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  12. I like the grass against the strong blue of the hut, near the end . . . but loved all the pics.

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