A seaside amble

Capturing the wonder of waves.

When I realised twenty years ago that photography was becoming a long term interest, I took the plunge and spent a good chunk of my savings on my first DSLR, a Canon 350d along with a couple of lenses, bag and tripod.

These went everywhere with me, I wanted to be ready for whatever opportunity came my way, regardless of the learning curve that was needed.

Even some years into my photographic odyssey, I was carrying too much gear, giving myself unnecessary decisions to make and perhaps losing the moment.

These days, I try to travel as light as possible, admittedly there are mostly two cameras, a digicam and one other with a prime lens but I rarely bother with tripods, often enjoying the challenge of finding improvised platforms to keep the camera steady for any exposure that cannot be done hand held.

As much as I prefer not carrying surplus gear, there are times when I enjoy the methodical approach of setting up a long exposure scene, it slows me down and allows me to observe my surroundings in a calm manner and become fully immersed in the scene.

Saturday was such a day, my venue was Dawlish Warren, a twenty minute train ride from home, with dry weather and a brisk wind forecast, I wanted to create a few long exposure scenes so packed the tripod and filters.

I love the simplicity that long exposure photography creates, calming rough waves to a silky white foam, finessing the scene to a minimalist image that I seem to be enjoying creating these days.

My walk from Dawlish Warren takes me along the sea wall path to Dawlish, where the incoming tide was making some rather big waves as they crashed brutally against the sea wall, my photography would take a polar opposite turn.

From serenity to drama as the roar of the incoming waves came back and forth, I wanted to capture the raw power of nature against the man made.
From a twenty second exposure to to 1/1000, no tripod needed here, just a good vantage point and a little patience.

In keeping with my rekindled passion for black and white photography, there was never a question of how these images would be edited, monochrome would capture the drama of the scene so much better.