Just got back from a week in Devon. Half rest & recuperation and half stock shooting. Mid August, England in the height of summertime. You’d expect blue skies, birds tweeting, ice creams, beaches packed, the smell of fish and chips, extortionate car-park charges…… and you’d be wrong (apart from the car park charges).
I landed down in Devon on Saturday the 18th and it was raining. Sunday was no better and was one of those days where the sky looked like it was falling in. That’s when this image was made. Went looking for the light (I know….never works does it..) down on the south coast. Ended up on a stretch of the ‘Jurassic Coast’ - so named because lots of prehistoric fossils are found there. For mid-summer the beach was pretty deserted, save for about a dozen others. Some who were just walking the beach and one brave family who were battling with an unruly windbreak, clothed in wet weather gear but still, it would seem, determined to have their picnic…
I didn’t find any fossils……
But sometimes light (or lack of it) and a moody sky can be played to your advantage. For this image I wanted to convey both the heaviness in the sky and the solitude of the sea - yet at the same time, the softness and greyness of it all. I spent about an hour on the beach before it started to rain again. Much better weather later in the week (thankfully) but for one day, it could have been February all over again..
You can see a larger version of the final in the “water” gallery on my website portfolio
Until later….
J
