I’ve been focusing on my new pet business in recent months which means I’m behind with blog posts for this photgraphy website. In an effort to catch up and report on some of the events I’ve attended I wanted to write about The Whitby Goth Weekend which I attended in early November 2024.
Whitby Goth Weekend Accommodation
In recent years the popularity of this event has meant that accommodation prices in Whitby have become ridiculous. As such I found myself booking a basic room in Scarborough where the prices seem more sensible. It means I have to drive to Whitby both Saturday and Sunday morning but that’s a small price to pay if I’m saving hundreds of pounds.
I suspect that the accommodation costs has put off many Goths from attending this event. Many of those I speak to at the event have decided to either seek out rooms in towns outside Whitby, or alternatively they use campsites to try and save money.
Whitby Goth Weekend Gallery
Having been to this event a number of years now I know many of the faces who attend, both those who I ask to photograph as well as other photographers. For this particular weekend I spent a lot of time with another photographer called Keith Henderson who lives in the North East and is a regular at Whitby Goth. Working with another photographer has some benefits as we can ossist one another by holding a reflector or an LED panel to help improve the lighting on the model’s face when required.
The following is just a small selection of the images I took over the weekend. To see more examples from the weekend you can find my album on my Facebook page. I also upload images to a very popular Facebook group called Whitby Goth Weekend Pics which is where most who attend the event seem to go looking for photos of themselves.
Whitby Goth Weekend 2025
I was unable to make the April Whitby Goth Weekend in 2025 but I hope to make the one later in the year, which again falls in early November. I’d like to try and take my street portraits to a different level, mostly by introducing off camera flash. In such crowded streets it might not be practical using a light stand but if I can work with another photographer it would be possible to handhold the flash and small softbox which could be controlled by triggers. With my Godox AD 200 Pro you could even fire the flash from two different branded cameras, as long as each had a Godox trigger that was on the same group and channel as the flash.
The other area where I feel I can improve my street portraits is in posing the models. Some people you meet are very confident and pose naturally but I know I can do more to communicate small details to improve the final result.
