Clevedon must be a photographer’s dream with its spectacular sunsets, sometimes blazing reds and purples, other times subdued blues and yellows but always mesmerising. Add to this the lovely Marine Lake; beautiful coastal walks such as Poets Walk which offers spectacular sea views; the iconic Clevedon Pier described by John Betjeman as ‘the most beautiful pier in England’ and you have a wealth of material for photographers.
There are so many talented photographers in Clevedon, who are a constant source of inspiration and one of my favourites is Gary Clark. Check out his website here and be assured you’re in for a real treat. https://www.garyclark.photography
Gary generously shares his work on Clevedon social media sites which is where I first came across him. He also supports the local community in Clevedon by allowing his images to be used, free of charge, for promotions and charity events. It was Gary who provided many of the photographs for the beautiful Discover Clevedon website. https://www.discoverclevedon.co.uk He has done the same for Hello Clevedon and the Clevedon Markets. On the subject of markets, I believe the wonderful Clevedon Sunday Market is starting again in May; if you’d like to know more about this then follow the link https://facesofclevedon.com/2019/08/27/clevedon-sunday-market/
If it’s happening in Clevedon and Gary is free, then you’ll find him out and about with his camera. Check out these photos from some of the lovely events that we enjoyed prior to the pandemic and which we’ve all missed so much. It will be wonderful when these start up again as I am sure they will. I for one cannot wait!
He even managed to grab a few shots of the Tour of Great Britain Cycle race that skirted Clevedon in 2018.
This self-taught, passionate photographer started photography as a means of unwinding from his job in IT but is now at the stage of slowly moving away from the IT day job and describes himself as a semi-professional photographer.
Gary’s huge talent has been recognised by many prestigious organisations, these are just a couple of the most recent. Viewbug are a worldwide, unique photography community and photo sharing site and Gary’s stunning shot ‘Autumn Bench’ won the Viewbug Fall Award 2020 and his equally beautiful ‘Autumnal Reflections’, won the Winter Award the same year. Gary has been a member of Viewbug since 2013 and has won a staggering number of awards. Here’s the link in case you’d like to know more about Viewbug or perhaps you’d like to join yourself. https://www.viewbug.com
Gary took 2nd place in the Adult Open Category of the 2019 Museum of Bath Architecture competition with his wonderful shot ‘Looking Up!’ which is now on display in the Museum of Bath. The feedback from the judges talked about what a difficult choice it had been to select the finalists because the level of entries was so high.
Until I started to research and write about Gary, I hadn’t appreciated the scope of his work. He really is an all-round talent. Did you know for example that he enjoys portraiture, these are some of my favourites.
Gary also loves macro, below are once again some of my favourites. I was tempted to use one of these for the banner heading of this blog post, but in the week that Clevedon Pier was awarded the coveted title of ‘Pier of the Year’ by the National Piers Society (NPS) for the third time, it just had to be one of his many fabulous Pier shots. If you’d like to know more about Clevedon Pier and the award, you can check it out here https://facesofclevedon.com/2021/04/20/perfect-tribute-as-clevedon-pier-named-pier-of-the-year-2021/
And finally, some gorgeous wildlife photos.
Gary has also had a number of his images published in a range of photography magazines, both In print and also online, these include Practical Photography Magazine, Photography Week, NPhoto Magazine, Digital Camera Magazine, Somerset Life, BBC Points West and other lesser known local publications.
I knew that Gary’s favourite genre was landscape photography and I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that he does not restrict himself to Clevedon. Most of his work focuses on coastal locations in the South West of England, North and South Wales. I found these particularly striking.
For those who are interested in photography, Gary almost always use ND Filters, Graduated and Reverse Graduated filters from NISI. They allow him to extend the exposure time and hold back the skies to help him capture images that the eye can’t see.
He supplies unmounted, mounted or framed prints with images from Clevedon, Portishead, Weston-super-Mer, Nailsea, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, North Wales, South Wales, Bristol to name but a few. Check out these mock ups.
This talented individual supplies and produces his own prints using a professional photographic printer with quality Archive Inks on PermaJet professional papers. His limited edition prints are each personally signed and supplied in black display archival print boxes together with a certificate of authenticity.
Gary has a collection of seven different Clevedon jigsaw puzzle designs and six of Portishead. I have one of the Clevedon puzzles, and yes it is challenging but hugely satisfying when completed. The banner photograph on this blog and the very first photo are both available as jigsaws. He has also produced a Clevedon calendar which is in its sixth year, it sells out very quickly but as soon as the latest is out, I’ll let you know.
Gary’s Clevedon colouring book is beautiful and comes complete with a free pack of twelve coloured pencils to get you started. The colouring books contain twenty of his colour photographs (for reference) with a mono sketch art image on the opposite page for you to colour in. His A5 greeting cards featuring Clevedon are also very popular and include a Christmas collection.
Rumour has it that once the Clevedon Sunday Market is back up and running Gary may well be there. Fingers crossed!
Writing this blog post has involved me in much scrutiny of Gary’s work which has been such a pleasure because it really is so very beautiful and I’m absolutely delighted to feature him on the website and my social media.
Thank you Gary.
Gary is on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GaryClarksPhotography Instagram @garyclark.photography