This photo shoot/recce took me to RAF Sandy Bay which is situated 2 miles south-west of Glenavy, Antrim. The site was used between 1940-1944 by U.S. Naval Transport Service and RAF Transport Command. The station consisted of 12 moorings for flying boats, sheltered by Rams Island on Lough Neagh it made the ideal spot for facilitating bombing and gunnery practice.
I drove up and down the shore line to try and identify potential sites, looking at the aerial imagery I shot the other week I took a guess and went on foot to find the remnants of a pier…. Bingo found it. I couldn’t find anything else though which was frustrating but of course this station had flying boat moorings so finding much intact would always be difficult. Before coming to this shoot, I expected that finding remnants would be limited and that’s why I picked it for this module to figure out how shoot the landscape after it has returned back to its natural state.
Eager to get this one in the bag it was not meant to be, weather was not on my side. The sun was in full sunset mode which was beautiful and created some lovely silhouettes but this does not work well with the rest of my work see my last WIP, the shadows, contrasting light, for me only detracts from the subject and distracts me from the task at hand. Documenting the landscape, so features can be made out such as Rams Island which is associated with RAF Sandy Bay.
Critical Research Journal 