Blue skies and starfish

click photo to enlarge
I've made no secret in the posts of this blog that blue, cloudless skies do not constitute my idea of good photographic weather. Azure skies are great in spring as a sign of the changing seasons and a marker of the warmer weather to come: they undoubtedly lift the spirits. In winter they give deep shadows and strong colours, and can break the monotony of a long run of dark, overcast days. But for the most part, to my mind, and especially in the British Isles, they more often than not present a photographic problem. When the sky is unbroken blue you have to compose your shots much more carefully to avoid filling a large area with blank "nothing".

I usually overcome this challenge in one of two ways. If trees are to hand I try to place some in the area of blue: that way I don't have to point the camera down more than I want to do. And that, of course, is the other technique - tilting the camera down to minimise (or remove) the area of blue. This isn't always desirable, or possible, particularly if you're trying to keep some verticals - say the edges of building - parallel. But with some subjects it works fine, and has the added bonus of prompting you to seek out more unusual compositions.

The other day, when I knew that the weather was going to be cloudless for my journey home from Norfolk, I was a little disappointed, because that was the weather I experienced the last time I drove along the county's beautiful north coast, and a little cloud in the sky would have helped me come up with some different landscapes. However, I tilted the camera down, and mined a different seam of snaps. Today's is one such, a starfish stranded on the beach at Salthouse. For this image I was fortunate to have a couple of distant fishermen who had strolled higher up the beach and were chatting. I was able to put the starfish slightly left and balance it with the men on the right, and also include a little sea, a touch of horizon, and enough clear blue sky to be interesting but not boring!

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 5.1mm (24mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/800
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation: -0.66 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Pebbles paused

click photo to enlarge

"Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in."
from "Dover Beach", Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), English poet, writer and school inspector

Not Dover Beach, but Walcott beach, Norfolk. The shape of these pebbles shows that they have made many a "grating roar". However, their noise is now silenced, for the moment, jammed as they are in the gaps between the planks of a groyne. Yet, the next storm may well free them to continue their life of attrition, and their descent into sand.

When I was taking this photograph a couple of children were collecting pebbles in their small buckets. They scanned the beach carefully, selecting only those that appealed by colour, or banding, or distinctive shape. A man, presumably their father, was accompanying them, also intently selecting the pebbles that caught his eye. Perhaps they would be studied then returned to the beach. More likely they travelled home at the end of the afternoon and found a drier resting place decorating a garden, a backyard or a plant pot. Children are instinctively drawn to pebbles, finding the smooth shape and multi-colours attractive. Like flowers, sticks, insects and leaves a child sees them as abundant, attractive and hence, collectable. Interestingly, and almost uniquely, the childhood fascination with pebbles continues into adulthood, perhaps being driven by a primeval attraction based on a long-forgotten utility as well as their intrinsic beauty.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 45mm (90mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f8.0
Shutter Speed: 1/250
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: Off