Welcombe Mouth

My other photo excursion, whilst in Devon, was to Welcombe Mouth. This is a small bay located at the end of a road that is narrow, even by Devon standards. The most striking feature is the bands of rock that run out to sea. These make for superb lead lines. It was a grey day, so I chose to concentrate on the rocks and water, with longish exposures to capture the movement. Most of the images suited a strong mono treatment. But, the green of the seaweed, in the foreground of one shot, was too good to waste. The same was true of a little waterfall, cascading over the rocks at the back of the bay.

 

Dorset Selection

It's rather late, but here is a selection of images from other places that I visited during my week in Dorset. 

Man O' War Beach

 

Durdle Door

Swanage, old and new piers

 

 

 

St Aldhelm’s Chapel

Lulworth Cove

I spent Christmas in a cottage in West Lulworth, Dorset.  This was about a 15 minute walk from Lulworth cove, and I was easily able to visit the cove each day.  Sadly, the grey dull misty weather, that dominated December, continued, with only a couple of decent days. At least it made slow shutter pans easy. Dawn was at a civilised time, but that meant I didn't get the beach to myself. There were a lot of swimmers braving the water each day, mostly women.  I wasn't comfortable photographing them, but a paddle boarder and a local fisherman were fair game.

Seascale

A few weeks ago, I had a week's break in the Lake District.  It was mainly a hillwalking holiday, and the hill days were fairly foggy.  So no interesting photos there.  But on our rest days we did spend a couple of high tides at Seascale.  The beach had a small jetty and enough rocks to keep us interested.  The second tide was higher than the first.  Both times the sky was pretty grey, and all interest was in tide, which was fast and choppy.  I played around with exposure duration, but found that 1 or 2 seconds gave the most pleasing result.

Porlock Saltmarsh

I don't normally post just one image.  Three is normally my minimum for a blog post.  But, we live in 'interesting' times, and must make do with what we have.  In this case just one shot of the saltmarshes at Porlock.

Having been to Cornwall the previous day, we decided to cross over the other border into Somerset, to explore Porlock.  It was a calmer and greyer day than the previous one, and, as anyone who read the story of the 'Overland Launch' will know, Porlock Weir is a very sheltered harbour.  This all meant that the sea offered little in the way of interesting wave motion images.  But the main focus of our visit were the salt marshes and in particular a patch of petrified trees. These proved a little tricky to find and even trickier to get to.  By the time we reach the trees, there was little time available to get some shots.  This was the best shot I managed.

Bude Sea Pool

These images were taken at the start of the month, before all the current restrictions.

I was in Devon for a few days visiting my friend Vic.  Sea pools always make good subjects for long exposure and we knew there was a good example in Bude, so that was the first mission.  We were on site a few hours before high tide and were able to track the tide as it came in and topped the pool.

We had chosen a day of 'challenging' weather, a strong, and frankly bitter, wind with alternating sun and 'sharp' showers.  Despite doing my best to hold down my tripod, the wind proved too much for most the of the >30 second exposures.  I had a lot more success with exposures of around 1 to 2 seconds.  I particularly enjoyed capturing the movement of the water over the broad pool wall.

 

 

One day in Devon

My first post of the new year is about the penultimate day of last year.  New year, but just as slow as ever on the posts.  I was down in Devon for a few days to celebrate the new year with my friend Vic.  It was a quick visit, with only time for one day out with the cameras.  We decided to scout out  Blackchurch Rock, near Hartland, a location neither of us had been to before.  It was a very sunny day, and we had to wait for the sun to move around to a position where it would light the rock.  We passed the time with some slow shutter work on a stream that crossed the bay.  Sadly, it became clear that sun wouldn't hit the rock before it set.  Wrong time of year.  So we took a couple of record shots and added this location to the pile marked 'unfinished business'.
 

Speaking of 'unfinished business', we ended the day at Hartland Quay.  My relationship with this location is long documented on this blog.  I love it, yet never manage to do it justice photographically.  This visit was no exception.  Still, it means I will just have to go again.
 

Happisburgh

A couple of weeks ago I visited Happisburgh (for those who don't speak Norfolk, that's pronounced Haze-bruh).  This is an area where the power of coastal erosion is on clear display.  The soft cliffs are in full retreat, many houses have been lost to the sea and it's a matter of when, not if, for the others.  We arrived at high tide and couldn't get near the old wooden sea defences that we were hoping to 10-stop.  Whilst trying to find other routes down to the beach, we walked over what had once been a static caravan park.  The satellite view on Google maps showed dozens of vans and a u-shaped service road.  All that remained was the odd broken caravan and two stubby sections of road, each ending at the cliff.

At least the Lighthouse is still there. And easy to get to.  I had seen many images of it shot from a field.  The field typically containing ripe wheat or barley.  I was expecting a bit of a hike to find that viewpoint, but it was actually right by the carpark.  What Will Cheung calls a Cavalier shot, because you can take it out of the window of your Vauxhall Cavalier. 

This year's crop was sugarbeat.  Less interesting than wheat or barley for normal shots, but superb for IR

 

Sunrise at Cromer

After finishing at Hunstanton, I thought that I might as well make a night of it.  So I drove to Cromer, had three uncomfortable hours of non-sleep in the back of my car, and was ready with my camera an hour before sunrise.  It was high tide.  I started off by taking advantage of the low light for some minimalist long exposure shots.  As the sun started to rise, I used what little beach was accessible to take slow shutter shots of the waves.  Sadly - and despite the overnight wind that had helped keep me awake - the low cloud had persisted, so the sunrise was not exactly spectacular.  By 5.30 the sun was too high and harsh to make interesting shots, so it was time for home and breakfast.