At Goodrington the last light of the sun on the waves looked good.  The area has some colourful buoys marking safe channels which added [...]]]> 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.

It has been raining quite a bit over the past few days and the ground on the moors would be very wet so, given a forecast of reasonable weather, I headed towards the coast.  The Little Egret seen above is not an uncommon species in the West Country these days but this is one [...]]]>

It has been raining quite a bit over the past few days and the ground on the moors would be very wet so, given a forecast of reasonable weather, I headed towards the coast.  The Little Egret seen above is not an uncommon species in the West Country these days but this is one of the better shots I’ve got (I am not really a wildlife photographer and patience is not a virtue of mine!).  This one was intent on fishing in the Kingsbridge estuary at low tide.

Saturday morning and a reasonable day brought out quite a few people intent on enjoying the water in various ways.  There were quite a few people sailing in the estuary by Salcombe.  While it added colour to the scene I had gone there thinking about getting panoramic shots across the water of Salcombe and stitching images together which have moving objects in is not the best thing however I did get one or two.

The above is a stitch of 8 images which shows Salcombe quite well.  Images that are quite this wide are hard to show on here but one or two should make it to Commons in due course.

It was not only the Egret that was fishing.  Plenty of people were out on both the estuary and here at Beesands which I got to a little later in the day.  Given the waves coming in to Salcombe I’d expected to find some reasonable seas on the open coast forgetting just how much shelter Start Point gives to this section of the coast.

There are times when I get it wrong as far as the weather is concerned but I think I got the best of the day.  The image above was taken turning 180 degrees from the previous image looking north up Start Bay.  It was clear that parts of Devon quite close by were getting rain.

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 [...]]]>

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

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.

Following up on the beachcombing from a few days ago we wandered the seafront in Preston and Paignton yesterday in some good winter light.  The tide was a little high for any further rock pool work but there were things happening as we walked along the beach.

The jetski activity was definitely eye [...]]]>

Following up on the beachcombing from a few days ago we wandered the seafront in Preston and Paignton yesterday in some good winter light.  The tide was a little high for any further rock pool work but there were things happening as we walked along the beach.

The jetski activity was definitely eye catching.  A number of riders were running jetskis around the bay and jumping waves.

They also came back down again too.

Given that there was not much surf the low number of surfers was not surprising.  However those that were out seemed to be doing well.

The weather forecast was for sun… Never trust weather forecasts in the Westcountry! Heading for Kingsbridge last week and planning to head down towards Hope Cove for some coastal images it became obvious that the day was not going to be as forecast. Looking at the head of the estuary at Kingsbridge [...]]]>

The weather forecast was for sun… Never trust weather forecasts in the Westcountry! Heading for Kingsbridge last week and planning to head down towards Hope Cove for some coastal images it became obvious that the day was not going to be as forecast. Looking at the head of the estuary at Kingsbridge the winter light is clearly in evidence.

Moving on with the change of plan I passed Frogmore Creek which leads into the main estuary and found a family of swans. The three young ones, while large now, show the juvenile plumage clearly and for a while there was some sun.

By the time I got to Torcross there were odd glimpses of the sun but they were brief. The light on the waves was lovely and the blue of the rock there was very attractive (I have many more shots to prove that!).

Looking back towards Start Point there is that real “winter feel” to the view, cold and a little misty with what sun there is failing to really light the scene or warm the day.

The contrasts in light and colour looking roughly west (into [...]]]> The plan last week was to go to the city to do some shopping…  The forecast looked quite good – fortunately my partner is tolerant (and likes the coast too) so we headed off for a walk in some rare late Autumn sunshine.

The contrasts in light and colour looking roughly west (into the sun) or east (away from the sun) were remarkable.  Looking east there was a good light on some quite strong colours, looking west the sun created some great light conditions which some people would call “overexposed”!  I read Michael Freeman’s book “Exposure” a while back and learned a lot from it – apart from anything else there is no such thing as correct exposure, the issue is what the photographer wishes to be seen.

The sea was not as dramatic as I had hoped but there was some good movement and colour in the water and the rocks and cliffs around had a real warmth of colour from the sandstone.  The presence (or absence) of fishermen (actually there were women there so I guess fisherpeople) introduced a further facet.

This section of the South West Coast Path has some good contrasts along it.  To the west is some quite high sandstone cliffs which come to an end just here.  Immediately after this is Dawlish Warren an area of dunes with interesting bird and wildlife much of the year.  These dunes are where the River Exe flows into the sea.