Shoreline Abstraction

I am aware that, given the winter we've had, I am failing my blog! Christmas was rightly spent on family activity but I have built up some photos to share. They just need some time spent on them in Photoshop. Here is one taken down at West Wemyss. I pick up all sorts of things from the beach hoping to involve them in pictures at some point - old signs, boots, rusty cans, etc - but I thought I'd try and make something on site.

Quick on the draw: testing the Nikon D90

Out walking the dog last week, I went through the short tunnel that links the east of the bay with Dysart Harbour and was met with a fly past of pigeons. When disturbed, they were swooping in circles around the harbour and returning to a spot where someone had left them some food. I took a few pictures, attempting to follow them. This early one came out the best, which in retrospect seemed to work out nicely as it captured the immediacy and surprise of seeing them. Most of the wings make nice shapes. In the other pictures too many of them are caught looking contorted or like tins of flying beans.

Dysart Harbour

View from Dysart over the Forth

This was one of those moments when the mist, light and sea all open up in front of you AND you have a camera to hand loaded with film. I've seen views similar to this a number of times from my bedroom window. A point exists where there is a thin slice of light between land and sky but it is fleeting, usually just after dawn. I've taken quick snaps and used them as a basis for painting.

This was later in the morning. The fog was breaking up and the sun breaking through, again offering a scene lasting only a couple of minutes. From down at sea level I also got a good profile of the ship.

Punta la Nau, Mallorca

No, I didn't lean out over the cliff face with my camera to take this. Not with my partner making spontaneous and shrill panic calls and holding the kids's arms so tight that their hands were starved of blood. With the retreating calls of a certain and spectacular death echoing in my my ear (she went back to the car) I held the Rolleiflex over the edge at 180 degrees and pointed it down, composing through the viewfinder in front of me. This is one of the many advantages that TLR cameras have. The idea originated from German army photographic observers in the first world war who wanted to be able to take photos without having their heads shot off, so a man named Reindold Heidecke designed a camera based on the principles of the periscope. (Info courtesy of Ian Parker's Complete Rollei TLR User's Manual)

Barry Island Baby

I love out of season seaside towns - I grew up in one, although it was sometimes in season - and Barry Island met my need for that dirty realist charm very nicely. Seaside towns speak to me, whispering in my ear “I am what you could have been” along with the sea breeze.

Sunrise

Here are 3 images taken a couple of weeks ago. The sunrise over the Firth of Forth was spectacular. I just marvelled at it until a little voice inside my head said "go and get you camera you idiot, it'll be gone soon". Or was that my son talking from under the duvet? I got some straight shots and then my youngest son wanted to take one so I let him. The weight of the camera meant the image was blurred, but we liked the result and I had a go, slowly panning the camera from side to side.

Watching the firth flow

I've often wondered about what a firth is and now I know

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firth

The Firth of Forth is a bit of a tongue twister at times but not as good as the East Fife Four, Forfar Five football result. This picture was taken at West Wemyss just along the coast and quite what they were gathering for was a mystery, which is nice.

Aerosol

Having posted up a number of black and white images I felt the need for a splash of colour. I found this old aerosol can, weathered beyond product recognition, on Pettycur Bay. When I began taking photos of 'found objects' from the beach I had a tendency to think that these things - old shoes, cans, bottles, cardigans - had been washed ashore, but the more I scan the beach the more it becomes apparent that they left there. Beach parties, picnics, rough sleepers, local boat owners all leave or lose things that become part of the shoreline.

A view from Dysart

Sandscapes

I took a few images at Pettycur Bay this afternoon. This is a place I keep returning to as I always find interesting views and I love just being by the sea. My only concern in that my dog doesn't charge across the area I'm showing an interest in and ruin the ground. He nearly always does, so I've developed an elaborate play of encouraging him elsewhere with biscuits and other treats. If that fails I pretend to be interested in some other part of the beach and he just goes and digs there.

breaking the waves

I can stand for ages at the shoreline, just looking and listening to the waves come in and out. Some days the sea finds a rhythm that I like and the waves break better on the stones.

Clarence Pier

This is a kind of memory scene from my youth. I went to school in Portsmouth and spent many lunchtimes down at the Sally port and Clarence Pier. I live by the sea again, at long last, and I never tire of the feeling that out of season seaside resorts bring. Kind of like a blues for the sunny soul, if you understand what I mean.

the end of night

the December sky above the sea from my bedroom window shortly before sunrise, with the faint cut of the fingernail moon just visible

Sea dances

seaweed and beach ball

two images from the beach

more waves

facing the waves

here are a few more from the afternoon spent on Kirkcaldy prom getting soaked

A wild sea

Saturday afternoon, and I was driving the family home along Kirkcaldy seafront and we are met by waves throwing themselves at the sea wall. I had to return with my camera. It's like this every so often but the light was great which made it extra special. I don't know about you, but this kind of confrontational weather gets me very excited. For some it's the full moon. For me, a sea storm.

Fisherman's Store