Spring, and spring tide

It's Spring in the northern hemisphere (the vernal equinox was yesterday), and a spring tide - they have nothing to do with the season; they happen every month - at sunrise lures me to the beach. For the most part I try to avoid contrails in images, but this morning they add some much needed detail to the sky.

© 2026

Making it work

The visual transition into spring is well established now, but winter appears to be doing its best to reprise its role. The wind is gusting, and temperatures are just a couple of degrees celsius above freezing as I leave home in the pre-dawn gloom.

There's no cloud whatsoever this morning when I arrive at the beach. Photographing the sun rising into a clear blue sky never really works it for me, so today I look to shoot something that's more evocative than depictive.

© 2026

Seasonal change

It's just under three weeks until the clocks are put forward an hour, and British Summer Time (BST) begins. I'm already beginning to lose the sunrise over the sea as the seasons change - as well as the event happening earlier and earlier. Soon, seascape photography for me will be over until the autumn.

On the plus side the beaches are virtually deserted at this time of day, so I don't have to worry about any unwanted elements drifting into shot.

© 2026

Ad nauseum (well, not strictly true)

Every sky you see is unique; the sea never looks the same two days running. I will never get tired of photographing such mornings. 

 © 2026

Yesterday's weather, today

I missed my vocation in life: I should have been a meteorologist. A cushy number (and decent money, I would guess), with potential candidates for such an occupation needing (I suspect) to be in possession of the unswerving ability to fashion unrestrained speculation as to what the weather might be for any given day, then simply pass those approximations on to the general public. What could be easier?

Yes, hyperbole, of course (and said with tongue firmly lodged in cheek) as the Met Office does a sterling job most of the time, but when forecasts are more than twenty-four hours out it does make the advance planning of photo shoots difficult. 

What I got this morning should have happened yesterday, but clear conditions and the gorgeous light fifteen minutes before sunrise - and all on a falling tide, more than made up for any inaccuracies incurred by the UK's national weather and climate service.

© 2026

Alluring light

A sea haze, and the pastel shades created by the soft pre-dawn light lure me on to a local pier eleven minutes before sunrise. The swimmers in the middle distance are there at 7 a.m. every day of the year, come what may.

© 2026

Am I bothered?

Even in the depths of a UK winter there are signs that Spring is not far off. Snowdrops have been in bloom for a couple of weeks, while crocus and daffodils are putting in early appearances in local parks because it has been so mild in the south. 

I've been lucky this season compared to most of the country, which is still being disrupted by storms and flooding through heavy rain, but leaden skies are still very much the norm when it comes to outdoor photography. Not that it bothers me much, as long as there's the occasional thinning of the cloud base to make things interesting.

© 2026