Summer time, good times.
Posts Tagged ‘Coast’
The Watch Tower
03 Aug 2010 | Coast, Landscape, Somerset | No comments added... »
A last minute decision to head out in search of a sunset lead me to this location on the West Somerset coast. I managed to find myself an original take on an oft-photographed subject but had to settle for soft light in the absence of the hoped-for colourful sunset. Moments after this was made the wind carved ripples were torn apart by an inattentive dog owner’s “he’s-just-being-friendly” mutt come over to investigate the curious person lying on the sand with a box that clicks…which subsequently got a showering of sand. Thank you.
Unset
22 Jul 2010 | Coast, Devon, Landscape | 1 Comment »
Sometimes you get lucky, other times not so lucky. I took a trip out to the West Devon coast with a few other like-minded photographers with the prospect a nice sunset and a dramatic coastline to shoot around…we got it half right. The coastline was spectacular but the sunset just didn’t happen, there’s always next time.
In other news the website re-design is almost complete and will be rolling out – with a bit of luck in the not too distant future – so keep your eyes peeled for that one when it comes.
Porth Nanven
30 May 2010 | Coast, Cornwall, Landscape, Sunset | 1 Comment »
Sunset across the rocks at Porth Nanven, Cornwall, looking out across Sennen Cove to Land’s End and the Long Ships, Meinek, Carn Bras and Tal-y-Maen in the distance.
Volcanic Sunset
24 Apr 2010 | Coast, Landscape, Somerset | 2 Comments »
It might be something to do with the dust thrown up by the barely pronounceable Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull but the sunsets over recent days have been spectacular. So, despite the knee-jerk air travel doom-mongers out there who crippled the travel plans of thousands, lets make the most of it back on home turf and enjoy one of nature’s little wonders.
Wedged!
25 Mar 2010 | Coast, Intimate, Landscape, nature | 1 Comment »
Just a test shot from a location down on the coast, I spotted these stones caught between the branches of a tree washed up on the rocks, they were firmly wedged in there and wouldn’t budge when I went in for a closer inspection. I waited for the sun to drop below the clouds that were hovering over the horizon to add just a splash of colour and light to the proceedings. I’ve made a note of the place with the intention of returning and to spend more time exploring the fascinating shapes the rest of the driftwood made
Dorset Coast; Durdle Door
05 Dec 2009 | Coast, Dorset, Landscape | No comments added... »
A few weekends ago I met up with a few other brave souls on one very windy morning and ventured out to Durdle Door, the destination for many school geography day trips and tourists alike thanks to the unique geology and resulting shapes carved out of the rocks over thousands of years. If you perform a search you’ll find thousands of shots from this popular location so it is a bit of a challenge to avoid the cliches and come up with something a bit different…Personally I found it’s the bay the other side of the spit of land from ‘the door’ is on that’s much more interesting. A semi-circular cove protected by a bank of sharp rocks some 100m out, at the time huge waves were crashing over the tops of their dark peaks creating a big swell in the bay. Each wash up the shore was followed by long fingers as the surf was dragged back down the beach again, rather mesmeric if you watched it for too long! We stayed until the sun was too high and contrasty – and all our filters had become completely gummed up with salt spray and smears – I broke off from shooting the crashing waves and headed off for lunch with everyone. Later on we braved the waves yet again down at Portland Bill where I had been before, and how different it was. Being some way off the mainland the seas carried much more power in their waves, as deep waves slammed into the straight sided slabs of Portland Bill huge plumes of spray doused the entire headland in a fine – and sometimes heavy! – spray. One miscalculated wave almost soaked all my gear but thankfully it was still safe in the bag…though it filled my wellies somewhat!
Lessons learned this time: take a good cleaning cloth with you into the field and don’t underestimate the size of the wave approaching…
Blown Away (almost)
20 Nov 2009 | Coast, Dorset, Landscape | 1 Comment »
I nipped down to the Dorset coast to see what’s what at Lyme Regis. The light was superb, the movement of the water was brilliant for what I wanted, the clouds were all lining up ready for the final bit of colour in the day…but the wind was unbelievably strong. The camera almost toppled over on the tripod a few times, between me frantically trying to wipe off the salt water from my filters – which incidentally I failed spectacularly at, succeeding in only smearing the salty residue round the filter to make a misty view – and trying to sort out a cable release that, well, kept releasing itself from the connection port… very helpful.
I tried a few into the sun, as it really was something spectacular but that was also where the spray was coming from so despite my best efforts, waiting for the right moment and so on, there was just too much spray. It was just in the air all around me, everything got a fine coating of salt. It reminded me of the sort of salt covering you might find on a cross-channel ferry where the decks glisten and the handrails seem sticky with the stuff, it builds up and seems never to dry. You couldn’t see it, or feel it (unless a big wave hit = soaking!) but my filter was steadily getting spattered by salty droplets and I noticed a fine build-up accumulating around the joins of my tripod. I gave up on the filter, I turned my back to the spray and sun and what you see is above ‘vanilla’, just the processed raw, smidge of burning in places but no filters. Included below show everything I didn’t bin. So, not an entire disaster but not the sort of conditions I was expecting!
Portland Bill, Not without time
21 Oct 2009 | Coast, Dorset, Landscape | No comments added... »
I’ll be spreading out my Scotland posts, with luck between posts from Hong Kong whilst I’m there but this first punctuation is from a little closer to home. Given the previous post was more a [nicely] illustrated travelogue, without the time to sit, set up and compose photographs carefully, the following posts I plan to return to the expected form! After a seeming insurmountable bout of rain a clear day appeared, seizing the chance I headed to somewhere I’d not yet visited; Portland Bill where a lighthouse sits and this particular feature; the Puplit Rock. Although this looks like an interesting geological feature, it was in fact created by quarry workers in the 1870′s. Portland is the ‘almost an island’ bit of land at the south eastern end of Chesil Beach and directly to the south of Weymouth, connected to the mainland by a spindly causeway with a road across it, which is great – until they decide to have road works on it (!). I sat in a queue of traffic for ages watching the sun sink lower in the sky as I remained motionless with that sinking feeling I’d miss the light entirely. Finally I got through and arrived to find I was the only one around! It pays to go places out of the tourist season – the vast car park gives an indication of quite how busy it can get…
I almost ran out of time getting here to create this image though curiously it shows the importance of time and its relation to photography in creating quite different images to those seen by our eyes. The period the shutter opened for in this image, a 15 second exposure, has given the water a smooth and misty appearance around the rocks where all its movements over the time period have been captured and compressed into a single image. The lack of detail in the water contrasts with the rocks around which it flows. I dare say an image taken over just a fraction of a second would not elicit any great response yet extend the reality beyond the natural view and the results can be stunning. Obviously this is quite unlike how our real-time vision would see it and although no photoshoppery has occurred it is a simple demonstration of how a photographer, whilst not expressly telling them how to feel about an image, may certainly influence or guide what the viewer sees steering them towards sympathetic responses. The following images range in exposure length from a couple of seconds through to 30 or more…can you guess which?
