This long exposure image shows the breakwater at Bude at dawn during the first January storm this year whilst the whole of the South West coast was on a severe flood alert. It is part of the same series as Bude Breakwater Storm Surge; here I am looking to create an even darker mean and moody atmospheric image.
After the long winter the Breakwater has taken quite a battering and has lost a few of its stones in places; a repair operation looks to be beginning shortly. The access path down to it from the down has lost a fair amount of its tarmac, no doubt as a result of being battered with stones as mentioned in the previous post. The constant action of the waves appears to have shifted large amounts of sand from the sea side where the small beach has all but disappeard to the land side where I have never seen so much before; yet, just across the outflow of the River Neet, Summerleaze Beach is as denuded as I have ever seen it too, with vast amounts of pebbles exposed.
Rocks just off the lido are visible as are The Wrangles below Maer Cliff left of the houses at Crooklets Beach. Beyond you can see up the coast up to Lower Sharpnose Point.
This remains the only time I have seen the breakwater being consistently overtopped along its entire length.
Breakwater, Bude, Cornwal, UK
Camera: Olympus E-M1
Lens: Olympus M 12-40 mm f/2.8
Focal Length: 12mm
Aperture: ƒ/6.3
Shutter Speed: 30s
ISO: 100
The monochrome conversion here, if you can call it that when there was so little colour in the image to begin with, was done in Silver Efex Pro. Contrast and structure were increased and brightness decreased, a red filter was applied, cyanotype toning and an Ilford Pan F Plus 50 film effect was applied.
2 Comments
Good work. Congratulations!
What stunning photography.