In Plain Sight
It's fascinating that you can go to a place so many times, think that you've seen it all and know it so well, and yet it can still hold surprises and reveal something completely new.
When we're in Pembrokeshire we like to stay at Leet Cottage in Little Haven, it's a lovely cottage for two people that I can highly recommend. We often go down to the beach for a walk and to watch the ocean. On this day, we timed it with the low tide and went a little further. We walked across the beach from Little Haven to Broad Haven, but at the point where we would usually turn around and return to the cottage, either by the road or beach, we didn't. As the tide was lower than we were used to, we could keep going further than we had before, and I'm glad that we did.
The first image is from the far end of Broad Haven beach, looking back towards Little Haven. The rocks here are huge. There was nothing around that I could get into the composition that would give some reference to the size though. I decided to go with the 1:1 crop because I felt that it brought balance to the structural similarity of the rocks and the light and shadows in the clouds.
The second image was taken in the same area just a little further along. I was surprised by the milky turquoise colour of the pool contrasting against the pale colour of the rocks. I wanted to smooth the surface of the water; as it was bright and there was a slight breeze, I opted for long exposure using a filter. I also wanted to freeze the plants in place so it couldn't be too long.
I took a few shots to get the setting exactly as I wanted them, and quite a few more to get a shot in between the gusts of wind.
The next two images were taken from the Little Haven side of the beach, to be more precise from the rocks below the viewing point that you can reach by walking up past the Swan Inn.
This one was taken with a 24-70 mm and cropped on height to bring it to 1:1.
I loved the effect of the water running off of the rocks in the previous shot and wanted to get closer, so I shot the next image at 840mm, using a 150-600mm lens with a 1.5x adapter.
I took a lot of images of this composition too. There were two main reasons for this approach; firstly, every time a new wave came in, there was a new picture. The second reason is that shooting at this length and speed is not recommended. The wind wasn't helping either! The slightest of camera movements will be exaggerated.
All of the images in this post were taken in a place that I thought I knew well, but each of them was captured because I took a step further, took a slightly different path or looked over another rock.
You don't have to go far from home to find a new subject, just take a different path and see things from a new perspective.
