The Power of the Waves

I've always been fascinated by the sea. Perhaps it's the inner crab in me and the pull of it's sign the moon, exerting a strong tidal force over me as well as the water. The ridged wave lines left in the sand, retreating water exposing vast sandy beaches (Sand Sculpture is part of my list of active activities / indulgences.) Not forgetting my all time favourite place, the humble Rockpool.

Before the SeaWall

Imagine, in the not too distant past, this part of Devon which sits along the English Channel, which is connected to the powerful Atlantic Ocean, was battered daily until they put a seawall in. Part of the wall which carries (the only) railway line from London down through Devon to Cornwall was destroyed in the storms of 2015 rendering this part of the country stranded for a while. The sound of the waves as they hit at high tide is like the biggest bass drum and the power of the water is magnificent to experience and exciting, especially for a city type like myself.

Evening Tide

It was high tide and the light was fading. I had a lightweight aluminium travel tripod with me and I risked getting my camera salty wet in search of a freeze frame wave. It could have proved fatal for the camera.. I got wet, the camera wasn't too bothered. In this case, my trusty mirrorless, micro 4/3rds Panasonic Lumix DMC Gf2 won the day again.

The Result

Like molten glass or hot, sticky sugar toffee the waves freeze out like fingers reaching for the land. It took quite a few shots to catch the big ones and you have to count the sets. The light was against me and I ended up stopping with the sun quickly retreating beyond the horizon.

fingers reach for the land in a desperate clutch 1/2000th @ f4.5 ISO 200

Handrail takes a daily battering from the ocean 1/2000th @ f6 ISO 200

crashing over the wall like molten glass 1/2000th @f4 ISO 200

invert process to capture the dynamic range of light passing through water 1/250th @f5.6 ISO 100

technical

Simple for these images. Tripod is a must. The light was on it's way out behind the images so 1/2000th was stretching it but the soft light was coming through the back of the shot. The lens wasn't that fast and to expose the images, ISO was 200. I was kind of experimenting to get the freeze and as the light faded, I slightly overexposed in image two. The wave in this shot was a monster and the way I caught it as it fell was just the shape I was looking for so it was a trade off for the time of day, kit I had in my bag and the height of the tide. It was opportunistic.

Live & Learn

If I were to do this again, I'd study the tide tables for a better time of day but the weather could easily be against me ! That's the magic. take your chances. Using Burst mode just isn't accurate enough, so a good sense of timing, quick fingers and a bit practice helps catch the full height of the wave which is in the 1/100ths to 1/000ths of a second range.. All that playing computer games as a kid eventually paid off. It was physically hard work. I got quite wet as you'd imagine being that close to the water's edge.