Pronouncing Tony Worobeic’s name correctly may be problematic, but the message he gave to Norton Radstock Photographic Society (NRPS) members recently was crystal clear.

He told the gathering: “Enjoy the beauty of the UK coastline whatever the weather; milk every location for its changing light with creative shutter speeds, and put your own personal spin on every famous landmark.”

Dorset-based Tony and his wife, Eva, work together to produce outstanding images that reflect peace, tranquillity, openness and minimalism. His inspirational presentation featured the work underpinning their book The Water’s Edge, but also contained images from the waterside elsewhere that had caught his eye and stimulated his creativity.

Tony thoroughly explored the photographer’s opportunities to exploit the power of sun and moonlight, together with the sea, to transform the coastal landscapes within and beyond high and low watermarks.

The light that Tony captures, typically within a couple of hours of sunrise or sunset, is often a delicate, eggshell blue, tinged with ‘lipstick’ pinks and oranges. The subject matter ranges from the reflections in the wet sea, sand and mud of estuaries and beaches, to the rocks and wrecks, the piers and the boats that abound along our coastlines.

Tony celebrates each in all conditions, embracing the fading or emerging light behind him as well as in front. The bridges and lidos of Bude and Brixham, the piers of Whitby, and Boscombe in the eye of a storm, as well as the jetties at Salcombe and the serenity of the sun setting at Swanage, present him with a challenge and provide him with the images for which he is renowned.

It was an evening in which we were led to an appreciation of mood and minimalism by a true master in his element, and one which will make many of us return again and again to the haunting, ephemeral images that are Tony Worobeic’s trademark.

Jenny Short, NRPS