Bertram Greenhough's iPhone photo of a lifeguard shelter on a crowded Brighton beach has been hailed as his best phone picture. The image, titled 'Lifeguard' and shot on an iPhone 13 Pro, shows a calm, minimalist scene suspended above thousands of beachgoers.
The story behind the shot
On a warm June day, Greenhough was walking along the beach with his six-year-old daughter Audrey, heading towards the Palace Pier to buy an ice-cream. They had just visited an upside-down house near the i360 observation tower. Passing a lifeguard shelter, Greenhough noticed the scene and immediately felt compelled to capture it.
“I often walk around Brighton with my SLR film camera – very hipster of me. However, that day I only had my phone,” he recalls. “But, as the adage goes, the best camera is the one you have with you. I saw this calm, minimalist scene suspended above thousands of people and I remember saying to my daughter, ‘Oh, look at that, I need to take a picture!’ She had no idea what I was talking about!”
A decisive moment
A second later, the lifeguard moved, and the composition and harmony were gone. For Greenhough, it was a “decisive moment”.
That evening, after enjoying a Mr Whippy with a flake, he edited the photo using presets in Lightroom. “I tend to use them as a starting point,” he says. “I often find how I see a scene and what the camera actually records can be quite different, so I increased the vibrancy of the yellows and reds, and adjusted the hue of the blue sky to complement the other two colours.”
Sense of peace
Greenhough hopes the image conveys a feeling of tranquility. “I hope it gives people a sense of peace and security,” he adds. “Perhaps, like me, they can feel the warmth of the sun.”
