Westcountry wanderings » Torbay

The sea and the sky

nigel — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:41:20 +0000

A short evening wander around the centre of Torbay and I found from a photographic perspective that looking down at the sea and up at the sky was the most rewarding.

At Goodrington the last light of the sun on the waves looked good. The area has some colourful buoys marking safe channels which added to the colour. I was a little surprised at the amount of swell as the Bay is sheltered from all but easterly winds and the wind was rather more northerly at the time. However the water is so often very calm that this made a change.

The above is a result of one of the buoys coming loose. The dog was having great fun playing with the rather large ball in the waves.

At the other end of the walk at Preston the sky looking back to the south was lovely. The light and colour was really beautiful. There were a few people surfing here but the light levels were really too low for any meaningful shots by this time.

Looking inland towards the sunset gave me another striking picture. I guess it would have been better had the town not obscured some of it – Dartmoor would have given me a better view of it. However it did look good.

In practice the area looks fairly quiet, however Paignton seafront was extremely busy with the weekly motorbike meeting. The whole of the seafront had motorbikes all along it of varying types and ages and there were a lot of people there. I’m no “biker” but the BMAD organisation has raised a lot for charity since it started in 2002 and they provide a good attraction.

Summer afternoon on the beach!

nigel — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 16:31:38 +0000

The weather had not been that good for a few days so despite it looking a little grey and rather thundery I decided I had to get out.

It looked a little brighter when I got to Goodrington beach. It was quite warm and rather windy – the beach had few folk on.

Given some blue skies, daytime and August the one above is unusual. It was taken wide angle and I’ve not cloned anyone out!

While the weather was not really good for the beach there were plenty of folk making the most of the water. It is regatta week and there were races going on out in the Bay and a number of people heading back into Paignton harbour. The little blue sky that there had been had gone by then and I decided to head to the pier before turning back and heading home.

Although there was some evidence of lightness in the sky and there were a few folk around on Paignton beach (though not many as can be seen) there was also some rain in the air and I headed home.

A tale of two lenses

nigel — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:37:46 +0000

I’ve been thinking about changing my camera for a while now and not for another Sony for a few reasons. Given this I’d not looked at getting any other lenses as I’d not be using them on a new camera. However conversations with a couple of friends made me rethink my plans a little. As one friend pointed out “a good lens will still be worth quite a bit in a few years time, a camera body less so”. Given that I realised the issue was as much about considering which lenses I really wanted, I decided to try out a couple of other lenses on the Sony and put off the camera change for a while.

The two new lenses I’ve now got are at opposite ends of the photography spectrum so I’m into a rather large learning curve again. Macro photography has always interested me so buying one of those was fairly obvious. Given the short term nature of the purchase maybe I decided not to go for a top end lens but I am impressed with the Sigma 50mm f2.8 DG lens.

The ones above were taken on the day I got the lens so are far from perfect but I was impressed with the possibilities. I quickly realised that I’ll be using the tripod more but I found bumble bees less than co-operative!

The other lens which I’ve had for a week or so now is at the other end of the spectrum. Anyone looking at my images will see that wide open spaces and landscapes are at the heart of my photography so an ultra wide angle lens has been something I’ve thought about since I got the dslr. I’ve used the word “ultra” as the ordinary lens I use is technically “wide angle” at 18mm at the end of its range. The new one goes significantly further – it is Tamron 10-24 f3.5-4.5 lens. As with my existing Tamron it is rather prone to chromatic aberration but I’ve got used to dealing with that.

At the “ultra” end of these lenses a rather different approach of composition is required. It is not simply about getting everything in the shot in general.

Both these (taken on the same evening) are at ultra wide angle. The sandcastle is taken at 10mm and shows the “distortion” that occurs with such photography. However it catches some sense of space (I hope!). The light a little later in the field was striking as was the barn in the distance. I was lucky with sky here and the gate – wide open – along the hedge provides a good edge to the image.

I’m certainly pleased with both lenses and hopefully there will be more examples of both types of photography in the future.

Fishing for photos…

nigel — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:59:53 +0000

For a variety of reasons I’ve not been out much recently and certainly not as much as I would have liked. The evening looked promising so I headed for Brixham hoping for some good sunlight. As is so often the case it didn’t quite work out like that but I still found some scenes that appealed.

Brixham is a working sea port and there is quite a bit of development going on on the fish quay. These pots stacked on the wall with the sky behind looked interesting.

I remember when the outer harbour at Brixham was relatively empty but now it is a marina. The boats and their masts with the sunlight behind and dramatic clouds created a contrast.

Given it was a good evening and the tide was fairly high the number of people fishing is not at all surprising. In the upper picture the colours of the “vests” being worn by the fishermen in the boat (father & son?) added extra colour to the scene. At the end of the breakwater the sole fisherman (on that side) created a good visual scene with the light going behind him.

Walking back to the car the sky looked great. The effect is almost monotone but it has an appeal. While not strictly “sunset” it is liquid gold.

Speed and peace on the southern arm of the Bay

nigel — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 14:33:36 +0000

Another evening out walking the local area. The weather was not good and there were odd showers. However walking around Berry Head was pleasant. The old fort there is being cleaned up up/renovated and the sea bird colony just to the south of it had a lot of birds in in. There were auks and fulmars easily spotted with any binoculars.

Some canoeists were out at sea but another vessel was moving far faster.

Walking back down to Brixham the sun was going down and giving some good light and effects. The sea water pool at Brixham had also had a makeover and was looking like a genuine attraction now.

Nearly back at the car the light over the breakwater was particularly appealing.

On the beach

nigel — Fri, 21 May 2010 17:04:48 +0000

The title of a Neville Shute novel that I loved about a post apocalyptic world – while the scenario is different now maybe there are some echos – but I digress

I found this while wandering the beach the other evening. It was obviously carefully sculpted by someone who had done this sort of thing before. They had gone but it was left.

Around the northern arm of the Bay

nigel — Sun, 16 May 2010 10:41:39 +0000

I’d not been out around the Bay for a while and so I decided to take a look around the northern arm of the Bay wandering from Torquay around to Hope’s Nose and beyond.

One of the iconic sites of Torbay is Thatcher Rock. As seen above from Meadfoot beach (& from quite a bit of the Bay) the “thatcher” can be clearly seen going up the “roof” with a bundle of thatch on his back.

Moving on a little towards Hope’s Nose a different view of Thatcher Rock can be seen. This is looking back into the Bay and from this angle the thatcher cannot be seen. Brixham is to the left of Thatcher Rock and Paignton to the right.

Almost at Hope’s Nose some guys on jetskis went by. This shows the Ore Stone (the other main island in the Bay) behind them.

At Hope’s Nose there were quite a few people fishing. This scene caught my eye with the fishermen on the edge and the Ore Stone in the background. The smaller rock in between had quite a colony of gulls on and is known as the Lead Stone or Flat Rock.

Finally wandering around the Babbacombe area of Torquay I came across a scene that made headlines locally when a large section of the cliff face collapsed in February. This is Oddicombe Beach and was reported as a 5000 ton rockfall.

Evening storm

nigel — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:55:36 +0000

On a Wednesday night I will often walk with friends on Dartmoor however it has rained quite a lot recently so we decided to take a shorter walk in the Bay.

This shows the storm approaching.

There was a fairly brief storm, rain, hail, sleet (which we did not shelter for!) and this shows the storm having just passed us heading out to sea.

The aftermath of the storm clouds out at sea, in the dusk, can be seen here.

Dawn and an easterly wind

nigel — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:22:26 +0000

Given the fact that Summer time will start soon making dawn earlier I thought I’d try and catch one before having to get out of bed very early. The forecast was for clear skies (right this time) but I’d missed the forecasted temperatures.

It was pretty close to zero with a strong easterly wind blowing into the bay (it is sheltered from all other directions). the tripod was not quite heavy enough to keep the sharpness on some shots. Equally the gloves & rather numb hands made the camera work less than easy.

I did get one or two shots and then went home to thaw out.

Having seen the seas that were running I decided to go back later to get some further shots of the surf. Easterlies are not that common in the area and, as said above, the bay is sheltered from other directions. If there is a reasonable swell when they do blow then the surf can get quite interesting.

I’ve certainly seen it far higher than this but this is the first such surf I’ve been able to catch recently.

The beaches in the bay are good for surfing but only when there is a good sea running. I saw no surfers but was not the only one taking advantage of the conditions.

The opportunities of Spring tides

nigel — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:00:51 +0000

The weather was quite good and it was the last of the really low Spring tides of the season. It seemed worthwhile exploring the shoreline to see what might be exposed that would not be on normal low tides.

The low tide made the sign on Paignton harbour wall unnecessary for a while at least.

However it also allowed maintenance work on the anchorages on the harbour floor after a winter of storms and bad weather. The lattice work of chains on the harbour floor where being tested and replaced where it was needed.

The very low tide gave a clear view of the spring that comes up through the sand on Paignton beach. Depending on the flow of water the effect of it can been seen at high tide but getting close enough to see it properly requires a low tide. The flow depends on the recent rainfall and there has been quite a bit recently so the spring was bubbling up strongly.

At the pier the shellfish and barnacles on the supports were very evident.

At Preston (the north end of Paignton seafront) there were many shellfish exposed both in large groups and singly.

In pools there were anemones (though not quite as colourful as elsewhere in the Bay), urchins and a variety of seaweed. I did avoid as much disturbance as possibly preferring to leave flora and fauna undisturbed. As can be seen above I did see starfish, there were a few around. I am fairly certain this is a Common Starfish (Asterias rubens) . There were a few around that were almost out of water however they were close to the edge of the sea at the point it was turning so would have been immersed again shortly after I took the picture.