Tag Archives: seascape

Tides and Tempests

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I had a great time at Patchings Art Festival earlier this month.  I had been asked by Outdoor Photography Magazine to give a talk. The Festival clashed with my prior commitment to Surrey Artists Open Studios so I could only make the last day, but I am glad I made the effort.  It was a lovely event, despite the relentless rain (where has summer gone?). I wasn’t nervous about talking as I am accustomed to giving presentations but I did wonder if anyone would bother to attend. I needn’t have worried – it was standing room only!  I have now published the introductory slideshow from my talk on YouTube and it can be viewed below or here.

I would like to thank Crywolf for giving me permission to use his epic music and Outdoor Photography Magazine for inviting me to talk.

 

 

 

Back to normal

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spotlight

After all the excitement of Surrey Artists Open Studios and my talk at Patchings Festival last weekend, it’s been good to get back to the normal business of fulfilling print orders, organising workshops and, last but most definitely not least, a couple of much-needed coastal trips. The light wasn’t especially awesome this week, certainly nothing as dramatic as I had on my last trip before Open Studios (above) but, as I said at my talk on Sunday, even if you come home with nothing very special on your memory card, a day by the sea is never wasted. Psychological batteries recharged.

Below are a couple of pictures of our studio in action.

About Waves and Imogen

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wave

Poseidon Rising

Last month I published a collection of ‘wave monsters’. I have been down to the South Coast almost every week all through the winter, working mainly on fast-shutter captures of high seas. That’s a round trip of 140 miles at least once every week, usually getting down there in time for dawn. Often, my efforts have been rewarded with poor light or even driving rain. But it has still been one of my most exhilarating projects so far. Finally, my patience paid off, when Storm Imogen hit the coast earlier this month. Epic surf met great light, and I was one very happy, wave-obsessed photographer. So, I hope you will forgive me for one more surf-orientated post.  If, like me, you are addicted to seascapes, there are more on my website.

wave

Raptor

wave

Leviathan

wave

Thetis

wave

Panther

wave

Kraken

wave

Methuselah

wave

Landfall

Wave monsters

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newhaven waves 2

Curly

This winter, I have managed to make it down to the coast at least once almost every week. We’ve had some big seas and interesting light, but not at the same time. Until this Tuesday, that is…

wave monsters-8

Horned monster

High tide and winds whipped up the surf, creating wave monsters backlit by rays bursting through low clouds.

wave monsters-6

No hands!

What a thrill! One of the best photoshoots I’ve had for a while.

wave monsters-5

White horses

Like most Brits, I am half-obsessed with the sea; if I could only photograph one thing for the rest of my life, it would be the sea.

wave monsters-11

Frills

I live in a landlocked county but, happily, the coast is an easy day trip away.  Back again next Tuesday!

wave monsters-4

Giant

For the curious, these images were all taken in Newhaven, East Sussex with a shutter speed of 1/800 to freeze the waves.

wave monsters-2

Phantom

I hope you enjoy meeting my wave creatures.

wave monsters-3

Whip

“My soul is full of longing
for the secret of the sea,
and the heart of the great ocean
sends a thrilling pulse through me.”

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

Perros-Guirec

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Brittany

I am just back from an excellent adventure photographing lighthouses along the rugged coast of Brittany, France. The trip was organised by Jonathan Critchley of Ocean Capture. Some may remember that I had a few days in France with Ocean Capture this time last year.  There will be more from Brittany soon, but this picture might be my favourite.

Silky waves, sometimes

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I have been promising a post about shutter speeds and sea photography for a while. It seems I am going to do two; this is the first. Long exposure photography, achieved with ND (neutral density) filters, has become ever more popular in recent years. I enjoy it too. Adjusting the length of the exposure, even during the brightest time of day, is one way to expand the creativity of my image making. Over time, I have found that I have begun instinctively to know roughly what shutter speeds are going to achieve the effect I am after. The following pictures were all taken within an hour of each other earlier this month, at one location, Climping beach on the West Sussex coast.

Sussex coast

20″, f/16, ISO 100, 200mm, Big Stopper

The ‘Big stopper’ is a 10-stop ND filter. That is, it reduces the light getting to the sensor by 10 stops, so an exposure of 1/250th of a second becomes four seconds. The first two images here were taken using a Big Stopper. Note how in the top image, at 20″, breaking waves have become an ethereal mist, really not like water at all. Reduce the time by a half and there is more of a hint of wateriness, but not much.

sussex surf

10″, f/22, ISO 50, 140mm

At four seconds (below), some of the movement of the waves is beginning to appear.

sussex surf

4″, f/22, ISO 50, 200mm

This increases as the exposure time gets shorter.

sussex surf

1.6″, f/7.1, ISO 100, 120mm

And then (below) we begin to reach my favourite zone for capturing breaking waves, something between half a second to 1/5 usually seems to suit me – I like to capture some sense of the form and energy of the waves, but without ‘freezing’ them.

sussex surf

0.5″, f/11, ISO 100, 200mm

My favourite picture from the morning is this one, at 0.3″. I am fascinated by the way the water splashes, scattering into different directions, and this shutter speed seems to be good at capturing that with an almost painterly effect.

sussex surf

0.3″, f/11, ISO 100, 135mm

The exact shutter speed will vary with the force of the surf. My second post on this topic will be from a very different set of conditions experienced at the coast in Norfolk last week.

Finally, not every shot of the sea has to be a long exposure! Sometimes you just have to go faster. Turning round from my chosen breakwater, I saw these gulls playing chicken with the waves:

gulls and sea

1/800, f/10, ISO 200, 200mm

gulls and sea

1/1000, f/10, ISO 200, 200mm

* * * * *

A backlog of 365s: 365/59 is from 2010, taken at RHS Wisley.

leaf macro

365/59

365/58 is from 2009, when I was at my daughter’s school gathering images for their new prospectus. This one was a bit of fun, experimenting with shutter speed during a PE lesson.

gym lesson

365/58

365/57 is from 2014, taken in my garden as I started to flex my macro muscles for the forthcoming bug season. It always takes a while each year to get my macro ‘eye in’ after the winter when I tend to concentrate on the landscape.

midge macro

365/57

There may be a hiatus for a few days as I am off on an adventure. More anon.

Turbulence

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surf

200mm, f4.5, 0.6″

I am currently working on a presentation that I have agreed to give at a group exhibition in Lyme Regis later this month.  The topic is the coast.  I thought I might share ideas here as I go. I have always had an ambivalent relationship with the sea.  I was brought up in a seafaring family and a large chunk of the first eleven years of my life was spent at sea.   Unfortunately, I never got over my chronic sea sickness.  Without wanting to labour the point, this meant that I spent quite a lot of time staring over the side of the boat!  I have found the sea’s motion fascinating ever since (but I still prefer to observe it from the shore).

waves crashing on rocks

200mm, f/16, 1/40

‘Dark-heaving – boundless, endless, and sublime,

The image of eternity.’

– Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

 

Jade Pool

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Cornwall

f/11, ISO 50, 133secs, 16mm. 0.6 ND hard grad, Big Stopper, and circ. polariser.

We spent the Easter weekend in Newquay, on Cornwall’s wild Atlantic coast.  While the others surfed, I explored the rocks on Fistral Beach. Although the day we had set aside for exploring further afield was rained off, I had two lovely afternoons with my camera and long exposure filters.  Fun.