Alex Walton describes his experiences as a newspaper photographer.
Now at first I thought I drew the short straw, being the junior photographer, lets make him work Christmas Day!! But in actual fact I really enjoyed the atmosphere at Budleigh and Exmouth beaches at 10.00 in the morning. I had a previsualisation of reaching the pebbled beach only to find a few hardened veterans wading out to sea and not a minced pie in sight! It couldn't have been further away from that. Budleigh had about 50 or so visitors just dying to test the water. Even my Group Editor Phil was brave enough to don a pair of Spedos and race to the water line! In fact, I was so busy snapping away that I didn't realise quite how close to the waves I was...until it was to late! Yes, I got drenched by a big breaker. Phil came to my rescue and took my bag off me while I found my feet again.
Once Budleigh swim was over I jumped in my car and shot over to Exmouth. I had been warned by Simon and Terry to expect a lot of festive waders and to get there early. I thought to myself "yeah right, how could most of Exmouth be daft enough to dress up on Christmas day and take a morning plunge?" I was of course proved quite a few hundred were! I was the only press photographer in shorts and sandals standing in the freezing water up to my knees. Thankfully Andy from a rival paper warned me in the nick of time not to stand where I was standing unless I wanted to be the ant amongst the stamping buffalo herd that roamed that particular spot during this time of year! Apparantly he knows guys lose their Canons to the depths of the ocean by doing just what I was doing!
Thank you to the kind couple who saw my sandals outside my car just as I was about to pull off and flagged me down in time!
Pic spread: http://www.exmouthjournal.co.uk/exmouthjournal/flatfiles/features/2007/exmouthswim/exmouthswim.aspx