About Waves and Imogen

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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.

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Raptor

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Leviathan

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Thetis

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Panther

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Kraken

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Methuselah

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Landfall

Wave monsters

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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…

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Horned monster

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

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No hands!

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

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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.

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Frills

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

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Giant

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

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Phantom

I hope you enjoy meeting my wave creatures.

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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 

Turbulence

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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