Tag Archives: beach

Welcome to Welcombe!

11 Jul

– – – Exploring The Countryside and Lanes of Dorset – – –

One of the other places I visited in Devon was Welcombe Mouth, and it was something of an adventure!

Welcombe Mouth

Welcombe Mouth

I set out in the early morning driving down narrow, single track country lanes, often with grass growing down the middle giving the feeling that you are in some lost civilisation, to reach the small village of Welcombe.

From here, I took an even narrower road signposted Welombe Mouth – I say ‘road’ but I use the term loosely! In fact the ‘road’ became a track that became rougher and more overgrown the farther I went down, so much so that I began to wonder if I had taken a wrong turn and that this was just a footpath. Then, just as I was thinking about reversing all the way back up it, the way opened out and the bay came into view with a rough area of flat ground that could be described as a car park 🙂 ! After the drive, the view that presented itself was a revelation, almost as if I had passed through some portal into another world!

Welcombe Mouth

A Revelation of Rock Strata and Rock Pools

Although not the easiest place to get to, Welcombe Mouth is a truly delightful spot. It is a secluded cove sheltering between high headlands where a stream makes its way into the sea having snaked its way down the valley. Here, the rock strata has been crumpled and turned up on end causing jagged rocks to line the beach running from the land to the shoreline. In between are rock pools, shingle and sand, and much to explore.

Rock Pool

Pools Aplenty

Jelly

Jelly

Where the stream meets the coast, it tumbles and dances joyously down the rocks in a beautiful waterfall that just shimmers and sparkles delightfully in the morning sunshine. It chatters cheerfully as if it is pleased to see you. A series of stepping stones just above the waterfall carry the South West Coast Path across the stream for grateful walkers.

Welcombe Mouth Waterfall

A Dancing Waterfall

Welcombe Mouth is a place where you could happily spend a day as there is so much to explore and its seclusion makes it special. One could just sit for hours and soak in the atmosphere of this lovely place, and feel completely detached from the real world. Apparently it is popular with experienced surfers but there were none here on this day. In fact there was no-one else on the beach.

Limpet Campsite

Limpit Camp Site

The only sounds are the sounds of the sea as the Atlantic rollers endlessly arrive at the beach like some perpetual motion machine, dispensing their energy as if spent from the efforts of reaching the cove. Despite their endless power, the sound is gentle and relaxing and it is amazing to think that long after I have gone home, the waves will still continue to wash the sand…….for centuries to come. This is one of the wonders of nature and one that I never tire of watching.

Welcombe Mouth

Welcombe Mouth from Above

Eventually of course I did have to go home, but not before climbing one of the headlands to reach a lofty perch from which to view the bay. Then, I made my way back up the rough track with the sound of the waves diminishing and fading behind me. The memories of this place will linger though!

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time,
Your friend The Dorset Rambler

If you would like to contact me, my email address is terry.yarrow@gmail.com – comments and feedback are always welcomed.

 

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At Hartland Quay Again!

6 Jul

– – – Exploring The Countryside and Lanes of Dorset – – –

Continuing yesterday’s post, we are back at Hartland Quay again but this is really just a photographic post. I mentioned in yesterday’s blog entry that the rock strata and colours are amazing if we can just spend time simply looking at the detail, and here are a few pictures to highlight this.

Orange

Orange

Colours

Red Amongst the Grey

One of the amazing things is that although the rock is grey on the outside, when it splits, it reveals a whole rainbow of beautiful colours.

Rainbow Colours

Rainbow Colours

And its not only the rocks but the creatures that live on them too.

Patterns

Camp Site for Limpets

There is an infinitesimal range of compositions for the camera, almost too many to take in. Often it is the simple way things relate to each other that makes the picture rather than anything extreme.

Rocks

The Circle

The rock strata is just awesome. The earth has crumpled at this point, creating vertical rather than horizontal strata like someone has just crumpled up a newly ironed sheet.

Strata

Crumpled Strata

And when you really look, you can see pictures in the rocks. I call the picture below, ‘Rock Tree’ 🙂 !

Rock Tree

Rock Tree

I must say, I really enjoyed just spending time wandering in and out of the rocks that were littered along the beach. For me, this was all about looking for the detail rather than the grand panorama, and maybe we could all benefit from spending time like this. It is certainly an engaging and rewarding practice.

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time,
Your friend The Dorset Rambler

If you would like to contact me, my email address is terry.yarrow@gmail.com – comments and feedback are always welcomed.

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Theme for the Week – Quirky Dorset Part 9

13 Apr

– – – Exploring The Countryside and Lanes of Dorset – – –

My ninth quirky thing about Dorset is in fact a natural phenomenon that occurs in various places and in various conditions throughout the world, and we have one such place right here in Dorset. This phenomenon is known as Beach Cusps.

Beach Cusps

Beach cusps occur in places along the coast and are patterns on the beach consisting of regularly shaped small ‘bays’ separated by horns of higher sand or shingle which point out to sea. They are most noticeable as the tide washes in and out with the surf separating into tongues as it washes up into the ‘bays’. This gives the appearance of cog wheel teeth. On the Dorset coast, Man o’ War Bay is a good place to spot them.

Man o' War Bay

Beach Cusps

The cause of Beach Cusps is something that has been debated for 50 years with no definite resolution. There are two main schools of thought. One suggests that they are caused by the action of two sets of waves coming together, the main waves coming into shore and secondary waves that are created and run across the shoreline. It is the meeting of these two opposing forces that creates the cusps. The second school of thought suggests that any beach has natural undulations and the effect of the waves on these exaggerates and evens out these undulations, making them more regular.

Man o' War Bay

Man o’ War Bay with St Oswald’s Bay Beyond

Whichever theory is right, the phenomenon tends to occur on steeper beaches of coarser material such as shingle and grit, and where the waves are reasonably sizeable. Usually the cusps are a few meters long as in these at Man o’ War Bay, but they can be much larger. And once they are there, they become self sustaining as the waves continue to drive the coarser material onto the horns and then erode the finer material of the ‘bays’ as they flow out again. I think the picture below gives a fairly clear illustration of this.

Man o' War Bay

Horns and Bays Clearly Defined at Man o’ War Bay

I find the effect of these Beach Cusps fascinating. It is not something that you see everywhere and even along this part of the Dorset coast they are not evident in many bays. It seems almost as if Man o’ War Bay has something unique about it which allows these to form. As you can see in the middle picture, even the next bay along, St Oswald’s Bay, doesn’t have them.

Now that’s quirky 🙂 !

Thanks for stopping by.

Until tomorrow,
Your friend The Dorset Rambler

If you would like to contact me, my email address is terry.yarrow@gmail.com – comments and feedback are always welcomed.

All photographs, poems and words in this blog are the copyright of The Dorset Rambler and must not be reproduced without permission.

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At the Seaside

27 Jul

Anyone who regularly reads my blog will know that I love to walk in the countryside with the grass under my feet and greenery all around, or in the mountains or coast where there are rocks, ruggedness and remoteness. There are times though when I love to walk the more ‘cultivated’ parts of our coast, the seaside, where there are characters and much to occupy my camera.

This is just a selection of alternative seaside shots and these are my attempt to capture something of a different view.

Most of these shots have been taken with the same lens, a very old Tamron SP 500mm Cat Lens. This manual focus, fixed aperture lens has the effect of separating the subject from the background because of its shallow depth of field and also throws some ‘marmite’ doughnut shaped highlights – ‘marmite’ because you either love them or hate them :)!

Focus on Blue

Focus on Blue

A simple shot of a row of beach huts.

Gormley

Gormley

I called this ‘Gormley’ because this paddler just reminded me of the Gormley statues that were placed at the seaside.

Ducks and Drakes

Ducks and Drakes

An action shot grabbed just as the stone was about to fly.

On a Lonely Shore

On a Lonely Shore

I felt this shot needed a romantic feel so processed it appropriately.

Through the Fence

Through the Fence

A different view, using the fence as an unusual frame.

On Board!

On Board!

Another action shot although the action didn’t last long as the surfer ended up in the water shortly after.

Forever

Forever

A beach wedding.

Watching

Watching

Just a watcher watching waves.

The Bench

The Bench

I tried a different approach by focussing on the bench and also by using some different processing.

Sitting Pretty

Sitting Pretty

What caught my eye with this one was the lovely rust colour of the groyne top.

Wheee!

Wheee!

I would have normally got the kite in as well but it was way too high so I just focussed on the surfer silhouetted against the sea.

Rocks 'n' surf in the sun

Rocks ‘n’ Surf in the Sun

An abstract shot that illustrates well the doughnut shaped highlights. I was trying to create a very summer sunshine feel with this.

Resting

Resting

Two young runners take a break whilst people walk by on the promenade.

Waiting!

Waiting

A young bather watches the waves. I felt this had an air of threat about it with the young girl picked out by the late afternoon sun against the darkness of the waves.

Journey to the Unknown

Journey to the Unknown

A tall ship rounds Old Harry Rocks having just left Poole Harbour.

A Helping Hand

A Helping Hand

A young cyclist gets a helping hand as they cycle into a stiff wind.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have enjoyed this little trip to the beach.

Until next time,
Your friend The Dorset Rambler

I HAVE NOW SET UP A FACEBOOK PAGE FOR THE DORSET RAMBLER AND THERE IS A LINK ABOVE. THIS IS TO BRING TOGETHER MY THREE PASSIONS OF DORSET, WALKING/THE OUTDOORS, AND PHOTOGRAPHY. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THESE OR YOU ENJOY MY BLOG, PLEASE DO ‘LIKE’ MY FACEBOOK PAGE.

If you would like to contact me, my email address is terry.yarrow@gmail.com – comments and feedback are welcomed.

All photographs, poems and words in this blog are the copyright of The Dorset Rambler and must not be reproduced without permission.

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Daily Picture

24 Sep

This was a shot I took on a recent walk along the sea front. There were lots of children running around and playing but this little girl was just stood watching the sea and the waves. It was late afternoon and warm light from the low sun was striking the girl making her stand out from the darker sea.

Waiting!

Waiting!

The contrast between the frail child’s body and the powerful sea just struck me and it seemed like she was just waiting for the sea to swallow her up. I processed the picture to try to bring out this feeling of threat and the inevitable frailty of human life in its physical form. Fortunately of course, the physical life is not all there is…….!

A couple of days after I took this picture, the body of a 3 year old boy was washed up on a Hungarian beach as the family tried unsuccessfully to sail across to Europe. This sad event that was reported world wide just seemed to make this picture more poignant so I thought I would share it on my blog.

On a technical note, it was taken using a 500mm lens that has the effect of compressing the perspective which adds to the feeling that I was trying to convey.

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time,

Your friend
The Dorset Rambler.

If you would like to contact me, my details are on my website which is http://www.yarrowphotography.com – comments and feedback are welcomed.

All photographs, poems and words in this blog are the copyright of The Dorset Rambler and must not be reproduced without permission.

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Daily Picture

27 Aug

As you probably know, it takes quite a long time to prepare a full blog entry with photographs and I walk an awful lot so have limited time to spend at my computer. This means that there is often quite a long gap between posts. I thought therefore that I would occasionally post a ‘Daily Picture’ in between my full walk blog posts – this is the first of those and I hope you like it.

A Helping Hand

A Helping Hand

This picture which I called ‘Helping Hand’ was taken yesterday on a gentle walk along the sea front. These two cycled past me and the little girl, who I think is probably the granddaughter of the man in the picture, was struggling against a stiff head wind so he put his hand on her shoulder to give her a helping hand. I found it quite a moving scene because it made me think about my own grandson and the privilege we have as grandparents, along with the parents, to have an input into the lives of our grandchildren, helping them to grow into fine adults. This responsibility and privilege is something that I really treasure and I thought I would share this picture with you.

On a technical note, the picture was taken with a modern digital camera but the lens I used is a 40 year old manual focus 500mm Cat lens. This pre-dates autofocus and is a difficult lens to focus manually – in fact its a difficult lens to just hand hold – but it has a lovely shallow depth of field and separates out the subject beautifully from the background. When they passed me, I had to quickly grab my camera and run into a position where I could capture the shot. There was very little time because they were disappearing into the distance so I was really pleased with the way the shot came out. Incidentally, the light colour on the road is sand being blown along the road by the wind.

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time,

Your friend The Dorset Rambler.

Comments and feedback on this blog are welcome. If you would like to contact me, my details are on my website which is http://www.yarrowphotography.com.

If you would like to join me on my walks, my Twitter feed is http://twitter.com/adorsetrambler.

All photographs, poems and words in this blog are the copyright of The Dorset Rambler and must not be reproduced without permission.

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The WOW Factor

17 Dec

A couple of months ago I made a conscious decision to walk every day, even if it was just for a few miles.  Prior to that, I walked several days a week but on the other days, work and other commitments tended to eat away at the available time and I missed out.  With retirement came more freedom to shape my own day, despite somehow becoming even busier with grandparent ‘duties’ etc 🙂 – in fact sometimes I wonder how I had the time to work 🙂 !

I still do my full day walks several days a week throughout Dorset but on the other days I have been able to focus on local walks which has led me to explore the various pockets of countryside that exist within easy reach of home.  These include small nature reserves, woodland, heath, river banks etc, oases in the urban sprawl that makes up our town.  As part of this, I set myself a challenge to look for the WOW factor on my doorstep, to notice the small details that we so often miss when walking.  These ‘WOW’s’ are there in abundance although when it comes to photographing them, it can be a real challenge!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
WOW – Amazing, tiny fungi on a newly sawn tree

If you walk the Grand Canyon, Niagara, Machu Pichu, the Everest foothills, or even my local Durdle Door (below), there is a strong chance that that ‘WOW’ is going to escape your lips without even thinking about it simply because of the grandeur of the scene before you.  One author put is this way, ‘Beauty is cheap if you point a camera at a grand phenomenon of nature’.  But what about the local, perhaps smaller, phenomenons of nature that are equally ‘wow’ albeit maybe with a small W – these are all around us.  The challenge is to notice them and capture them in the camera.

Awaiting the sunrise
WOW – Durdle Door

Just yesterday I went for a local walk with my son, Paul.  We followed a narrow ribbon of woodland that wound through various housing developments, it was urban and yet at times it felt like we were in the depths of the countryside.  The views were amazing and there was a myriad historic features, the site of an old mill, the remains of an old steam railway, relics of a long gone pottery works, majestic pines, a lovely clear mirror-like stream that I didn’t know existed, views across the harbour, and much more.  It was both fascinating and rewarding, and of course all the more special for sharing it with my son, my favourite walking companion.

The picture below was taken on a gentle stroll along the local promenade – hardly a wild wilderness but when this scene presented itself, I could not help but say ‘WOW’ to myself.  The view across the bay was magnificent but with that awesome stormy sky, the eerie amber light on the horizon and the sudden, and short lived, burst sunlight on the water, it just came alive.

Sunlight on Sea
WOW – Awesome light across the bay

Be it a walk along the coast or a walk across just a small patch of heathland, there are always wonderful sights if we are alert and aware of our surroundings.  Even the tiniest of leaves in the woodland with the last vestiges of the sun streaming through them makes me say “WOW’!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
WOW – Amazing texture and colours of nature

You can tell that I am passionate about the ‘ordinary’ although in fact there is no ordinary because the whole of nature is extraordinary.  My quest in my walks and my photography is to show the seemingly ordinary for the extraordinary that it is, and that is less about photography and more about seeing what is there.

You may have seen in the press that the most expensive photograph ever sold, taken in Antelope Canyon, Arizona, changed hands at $6.5M recently.  I wonder what made it worth that much.  That canyon is undoubtedly beautiful and there are thousands of pictures on the web to show all its beauty – but $6.5M???  The reality in my book is that you don’t need to spend a fortune jetting around the world in search of outstanding beauty, just look on your doorstep, its there if you will see it!

City Silhouettes
WOW – There are magnificent sights even in town!

Photography, and indeed, what we see as beauty, is of course a very personal thing – ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ as the well known saying goes, so what makes me say ‘WOW’ may not be the same thing that stirs others.  But the fact is, there is beauty and interest all around us just where we are so take the time to walk your local walks and search out that ‘WOW’ factor, whatever that means to you.

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time,

Your friend
The Dorset Rambler.

If you would like to contact me, my details are on my website which ishttp://www.yarrowphotography.com – comments and feedback are welcomed.

All photographs, poems and words in this blog are the copyright of The Dorset Rambler and must not be reproduced without permission.

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