I had the awesome opportunity to photograph the crew at the Royal National Lifeboat Institution Hastings station last month for the HastingsVoice magazine. I was invited to one of their Wednesday training sessions.
I had a long chat with Caine, who volunteers there, and got a very interesting insight into their work and training, as well as a tour on the lifeboat and in the station. Little did I know, the crew were all volunteers.
The stories were amazing and just shows how dedicated and brave these people are. Can you just imagine being called in the middle of the night to save someone from the stormy? Obviously such heroism also needs discipline and technical skills. These guys train all the time despite the calm and peaceful sea. I watched them launch the dingy in minutes. (I had to run after them to get these shots).
Whilst some of the crew had got out to the sea for drills, the other guys were learning navigations upstairs in the office. It was pretty interesting and the terminologies used reminded me of my goof old windsurfing days! (arrr.. how I have missed whizzing up and down on the sea)
Just before the sun went down, the crew kitted up in their gear for the shoot in front of the lifeboat. This photo of Steve, the coxswain reminded me of something from TopGun.
In the final shot for the magazine front cover, what I wanted to show was unity and discipline. These guys will brave their life for you at any moment and I wanted to show just that. This is the outcome and my favorite shot of the day which is now the front cover of HastingVoice magazine June issue.
Thank you to all the crew at the lifeboat station for such warm welcome, and for all you hard work for this city.
For more information about the RNLI Hastings Lifeboat station, please go to: http://www.hastingslifeboat.org.uk