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

Brief, but spectacular

Today's weather forecast - although largely accurate in predicting heavily overcast skies and rain, missed out the bit where there would be roughly twenty minutes of colour, followed by about four minutes of sunshine.

© 2026

At the ready...

Photographed in the early morning light, the stone arches at the western end of Bournemouth's Undercliff Drive date from November 1907; the year it opened. The spaces in between were available for use to the public at large, but in recent times they have become enclosed to serve the paying customers of a UK fast food restaurant chain.

© 2026

Urban crawl

There are some areas of towns and cities that can change considerably over a short period of time, while other aspects change almost imperceptibly. Many of those smaller changes are often masked by another business that replaces a previous one, but some are abandoned and left to decay, bearing testament to advancements in  technology. 

The increasing popularity of smartphones in the early 2010s had a major impact of the longevity of the above establishment, and those like it worldwide.

 

© 2026

Letting nature decide

The very idea of rain showers around dawn at this time of year has me out of the house well before first light. Rapidly changing weather is my idea of photographic fun, so I head for the beach. I have no particular subject in mind, so I just keep walking in the hope that something interesting will begin to happen. When it does, then the location chooses itself.

  © 2026