Winter Wonderland it isn't

It's thirty-seven days to Christmas, and at this time of year my local town gardens are traditionally festooned with seasonal trappings designed to draw in visitors (and their wallets), and generally get people 'in the Yuletide mood'. Today, I decide to pay a visit for some twilight photography to capture the colour and excitement.

My arrival is greeted with neither. Okay, it's late Monday afternoon and the place is deserted; most people are still at work, but this year's light show is rather dismal by comparison with recent years. Clearly, council budget restraints are biting hard. Composition wise, the helter-skelter and Observation Wheel is the best I can come up with. 

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Out on the weekend

The final stages of wooden groyne replacements along the length of Poole Bay have been underway for a few weeks, and are scheduled to be completed by March next year. So far, any winter storms arriving in the UK have largely missed the south coast, and the team doing the work is able to take weekends off.

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Open for debate

 

I hadn't expected to photograph anything on this morning's walk. I even debated whether or not to take my camera bag, such was the weather forecast for early part of the day. At the last moment I opted to do so, and I'm glad I did.

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Not thinking

It's on days like this that I have the beach to myself. Okay, there is the periodic dog walker, or hardy early morning fitness enthusiast that passes by, but that's it; there's nobody trying to work on their suntan. 

It also looks like rain.

From time to time I get enquiries: "Just what are you photographing?" is a common probe from the bemused, clearly of the thinking that such drab conditions are likely to produce anything worthwhile. I gesture towards the scudding clouds and rolling surf, and more often than not they walk on none the wiser.

But then again they're not thinking in monochrome.

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Coincidence, or just the truth?

No doubt it's purely coincidence, but it seems that the best skies for early morning photography can be found a few miles along the coast; in this case at Branksome Chine beach. Maybe there's some truth in that, and the shape of the bay does have a significant effect on cloud formations. All I know is that this morning it didn't disappoint.

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Seeing double

Good landscape photography is mostly all about waiting for something to happen. If at all. When it does, then there usually follows a frantic few moments as I try to make good images before the light changes and the mood is lost.

But there are times when it's quite possible to walk into a picture that's just waiting to be photographed, as with the gorgeous light and double rainbow that formed as I arrived on a local pier.

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On the prowl

During the winter months I'm often prowling the local seafront well before first light, in the hope that something out of the ordinary will materialise to produce a good photograph. Today looked promising as overnight rain gave way to the cold light of dawn, but there was no dazzling display of colours this time.

Cloud and wave patterns saved the day.

© 2025