Intimate seascapes...

During the summer months - and particularly during the holiday season of a seaside town - it is next to impossible to get shots like this. There is far too much human traffic on the sands of Poole Bay, Dorset, to allow time for wind-blown sand to make interesting patterns, even if I did shoot at either end of the day. The fact that these beaches are now largely deserted is a boon from my point of view.

A medium focal length macro lens is a useful asset for such photography, as I can fill the frame with small subjects but still keep a respectful distance (read: not grovelling around on my knees), or grovelling around on my knees (as I did for this shot) to get in close and exclude unwanted elements. It also still pleasantly warm, making the photography a relaxing and therapeutic exercise.

Such photography has been described as the 'intimate landscape', where instead of trying to fill the frame with as much information as possible with a wide angle lens, the idea is to isolate small features within the vista presented by nature, more often than not overlooked by the vast majority of people (and photographers).

With today's photograph I'm taken by the weathered feather and the undulations of the sand thrown into relief by the late afternoon sun, and although there are hundreds of such little still life shots in situ to be had, each one is unique, and therefore worth capturing.


105mm f/2.8D EX Macro Sigma lens. 1/320 second at f/11. ISO 320


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