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An early morning drive down to Sussex left me with some spare time before a rehearsal so I took a stroll along the quayside at Bosham. I’ve rarely seen the tide so high and the road along the foreshore was completely flooded.
Photos taken 8 March 2024
Although we’re now firmly into 2023 I still haven’t share all my photos from 2022. This final set is a collection of pinhole images from a visit to West Wittering beach on the afternoon of Christmas Eve.
Having spent the morning in the dark confines of the yew trees at Kingley Vale it was great to be out on the open beach, with more light to play with. I’d come armed with my wellies so I could be fairly brave in how close I got to the waves, and I just avoided the water overtopping by boots.
A closer look at the structure of the groynes
This flag warns off would be swimmers but I don’t think there would have been too many that day!
Getting down low among the marram grass.
I’ve often wondered what these posts set into the beach are for - I’m no closer to finding the answer!
Click on any image to see them enlarged.
Photos taken 24 December 2022
We enjoyed a short pre-Christmas break in Suffolk last week and the lure of the beautiful sunset colours over Southwold were too good to resist.
Playing with slower shutter speeds and the waves breaking on the shore.
Photos taken 21 December 2022
In my last post I shared some digital images from my birthday wander along the beach at West Wittering. While I was there I also spent some time taking pinhole photos to bring out some of the movement in the waves. Pinhole photography is so good at this - you can capture whole chunks of time in a longer exposure.
The following morning I drove down to Aldwick, arriving just in time for low tide. I wanted to photography the chunk of the D-Day Mulberry Harbour which lies on the beach but the only time you can get close is when the sea is out. This enormous chunk of concrete escaped en-route to Normandy back in 1944 and has sat here ever since.
On this particular occasion the tide wasn’t especially low and the blustery wind was whipping up the waves. Sometimes you can walk right around it, but this time I had to keep a sensible distance so as not to get swamped!
With a couple of frames left on my film I used them to catch a couple of other watery scenes before retreating to my car to avoid getting soaked by the incoming rainstorm!
Photos taken 9 & 10 March 2022
Back in March I happened to be travelling to Sussex on my birthday, ready for a music course the next day. I never pass up the opportunity to visit the seaside so I decided to take a birthday stroll along the beach at West Wittering.
While I was there I spent some time taking pinhole photos, which I’ll share in a separate post, but I fancied some instant gratification too, for which my little Fuji X100 was perfect!
Photos taken on 9 March 2022
I love to visit the sea whenever I’m able to so when I had some time to while away on Christmas Eve I made a beeline for the coast with one of my pinhole cameras.
I started off at Bracklesham Bay with a warming bowl of soup in the beachside café then headed down onto the pebbly beach. It was a case of dodging the waves as the slope of the beach made it difficult to predict how far the water would advance. After a while I’d had enough of wading through the shingle and moved on to West Wittering.
Although West Wittering is just a few miles along the coast from Bracklesham the beach couldn’t be more different, with a wide expanse of sand. Here I found lots of potential for pinhole photos, both on the shoreline and by the sand dunes.
Further along the beach I found an abandoned child’s spade and spent some time capturing the water as it lapped up around the groynes.
11 January 2022
Naturally, a pinhole camera came to Lyme Regis with me, along with my digital one. More often than not I choose to shoot in monochrome but on this occasion I plumped for a roll of Kodak Portra 160 and it turned out to be a good choice.
My first few frames were taken at the eastern end of the town, exploring the beach and rock formations. You never know how things will work out when shooting into the sun with a pinhole camera and on this occasion I caught some beautiful rainbow coloured flare in one photo.
With a decent sunrise predicted for one morning I headed down to the Cobb with the intention to try and create one of my ghostly self portraits. With hindsight I should have positioned my camera so my silhouette didn’t overlap the headland in the distance, but I can always try again another time!
The colours were as beautiful as I’d hoped and my final shot that morning even caught a hint of flare.
Walking back to my car I stopped to shoot the Lydia Eve, a fishing trawler which was in harbour ready to be used in filming for the new Willy Wonka movie. This early in the morning there was no activity but its vivid green colour worked beautifully against the deep blues of the sky.
This week brought me to Lyme Regis for a few days so I grabbed the opportunity to do some photography while I had the chance, exploring the sea and its effect on the landscape.
My first day in Lyme was pretty blustery so I decided against venturing up onto the Cobb – I didn’t much fancy being blown off into the sea! Instead, I walked along the seawall, capturing the power of the waves breaking as the tide came in.
The following morning the tide was out so I spent some time exploring the rock formations at the eastern end of the beach, using both my pinhole and digital cameras. I’ll share the pinhole photos in a separate post, but these were my favourites from my little Fuji X100V.
Later in the week there was the promise of some dawn colour so I headed down to the Cobb for sunrise. I used my pinhole camera to catch some wide shots, but focused once again on the movement of the waves with my digital camera. Naturally, I had to keep the colour for these shots – it would have been a crime to go for monochrome and lose that golden glow!
A boardwalk leading down onto the beach
We headed to the coast today, to Britain's most easterly island - Mersea Island. The island is accessible via a low lying causeway most of the time but cut off at high tide. Fortunately high time occurred well before and after our visit today so we sailed across with ease.
I couldn't help feeling this small boat, stranded high on the beach, was yearning to be in the water!
After yesterday's snow and leaden skies it was wonderful to see some bright sunshine, albeit accompanied by a biting wind. Fishing is an important part of the island's economy so it was only natural we should have fish and chips for lunch, which fuelled us nicely for a purposeful walk along the beach afterwards to keep warm.
The remains of an old breakwater on the beach
