Photography News Issue 64

Photography News | Issue 64 | photographynews.co.uk

Feature

Rachael Talibart Seascapephotography Fotospeed photographer Rachael Talibart is a former lawyer turned professional photographer who specialises in seascapes. She is most known for her Sirens portfolio – critically acclaimed photographs of stormy seas, named after creatures of myth and legend. Rachael shares her love for seascape photography and the importance of seeing your images in print

Rachael Talibart first became interested in photography in her teens, but the obsession really set in when she took her first 35mm camera on a nine-week solo backpacking trip around the world. “I’d just qualified as a solicitor and, when I got back, I spent my first pay cheque on an SLR. That was it – I was completely hooked,” Rachael explains. “I left the legal profession in 2000 and went back to university to study part-time while my children were young.” After obtaining a Masters in Victorian Literature and Art from Royal Holloway, University of London (her dissertation was, unsurprisingly, about maritime literature), Rachael considered doing a PhD, but the lure of photography led her to decide to make it a career instead. The sea has always been a huge part of Rachael’s life. Growing up on the south coast of England, her father was a keen yachtsman, which meant she spend every weekend and school holiday at sea. “These days our lives are so complicated – the sea is an antidote. Elemental, indifferent and mysterious, it makes me feel small and it makes my petty issues seems insignificant. How could it fail to inspire?” Rachael asks. Over the years, Rachael has dabbled in many genres, including street photography and macro photography, predominantly focusing on insects – proving that mastering the sea isn’t all about focusing on the coast. “Photographing bees in flight, for example, is not unlike photographing monster waves – both of them require fast reactions and lots of practice,” Rachael explains. From graceful rollers to foamy shore breaks, Rachael finds the possibilities are endless when waves are your subject, and keeps finding new ways to photograph them. “I try to make pictures that are less about documenting scenery and more about

Above Taking striking photographs of waves requires fast reactions and lots of practice

communicating how it felt to be there. I find simplicity of composition is often key, and seascapes are a great genre for this as the view is almost always simple.” So, how do you ensure you’re choosing the right location? Rachael believes finding places you can get to easily and then visiting them repeatedly is important. “Not only will you learn the vagaries of the place, which will help you make the most of all conditions, you will also be more willing to risk spending time on experiments. Fleeting visits tend to result in standard compositions,” she says. When it comes to capturing the shot, there isn’t always a prescriptive way to do so. For

Rachael, making the creative moment happen when clicking the shutter on location is important, not because she considers it more ‘pure’ to get it right in camera first, but simply because she feels more inspired by the sea rather than at her computer later. “After I’ve clicked the shutter, I usually review the image and its histogram and make another photograph if I’d like to change something. When I’m capturing storm waves, however, it’s different. It’s more like sports photography – the decisive moment becomes key. After a few checks of the histogram to make sure I’m nailing the exposure, I just get on with making photographs,” she says.