 |
|
|
|
Westward Ho! (Outdoor Photography December 2008) |
|
At first glance you would be forgiven for thinking Westward Ho!, with its
caravan parks and new holiday apartments on the seafront, was not the ideal
location for a landscape photographer. But if you ignore the gift shops, arcades
and new developments, and venture onto the beach at low-tide in winter, you will
discover an unspoilt world. |
||
|
My family and I regularly visit Westward Ho! and we were enjoying a typical winter’s day on the Devon coast - an argument was raging about how many apartments my wife had really located on Pall Mall, and my daughter claimed she hadn’t collected £200 for passing ‘Go’ - when I noticed that the rain had stopped - time for the family to pack away the board games and cool off outside. At the beach, the tide was out, so the kids decided to head on to the rocks to look for crabs in the pools. The overcast sky and muted colours made me think of the work of photographer, Andrew Nadolski. So, inspired, out came my camera. The kids soon tired and with Mum’s promise of a hot chocolate back at the flat, they were quickly scrambling back over the rocks. I noticed the light was changing and the cloud was starting to break up, so I said I would follow on behind them. Long exposureIt was still quite stormy, and with the diminishing light I made a few pictures of the incoming tide spilling over the rocks, using increasingly longer exposures. Colour began to form on the clouds exposed to the warm light of the setting sun. At this time of year the sun sets behind high ground, but it was not the setting sun I was interested in. The colour in the sky in front of me had my attention. |
|
|
|
There is a swimming pool cut out of the rocks at Westward Ho! and ugly as it is, the concrete path around it made a perfect vantage point to place my tripod. I always keep my ISO low for the best image quality and use a small aperture to keep everything in focus. The dim light gave me a long exposure in which the fierce waves became a gentle mist. While looking for my composition, I noticed that the waves were causing a circular motion in a rock pool. Realising that a long exposure would emphasise this motion, I decided it would make an interesting foreground. The sunlit sky was much brighter than at the rocks, so, with the aid of my handheld spotmeter, I calculated that a 3-stop ND graduated filter would be sufficient to balance out the light. I had to hold my nerve as the waves crept up the beach and washed over the concrete path and my feet, but finally my image was made. On the way back, I wondered if they had left me any of that hot
chocolate. They hadn’t, but the Monopoly game had amicably been declared a draw
in my absence! |
||