Whilst I’ve been coming to Bude for most of my life and have lived here for over 5 years there are still places on my doorstop that I haven’t explored. We live in Widemouth Bay now just South of Bude and just south again, joined to ‘our’ beach at low tide, is another little beach called Wanson Mouth.
I have never attempted to head south of here along the foreshore before so a couple of evenings ago just after high tide I began a boulder hop and reached the scene of this photo, which the OS map tells me is called the ‘Saltstone’. Around the corner is another little hidden bay and the headland beyond is Foxhole Point. On a lower tide I will have to attempt the continuation beyond to Millook Haven, which is the next exit point.
The whole area made me feel very nervous as the cliffs above are in an advanced state of decay; “a tottering heap of sh*t” is how we would have described them back in my rock climbing days. The boulders one hops over are alarmingly fresh and look like they fell down yesterday.
Anyway, nothing fell on me, and in the weak winter light the Saltstone proved a decent subject for a long exposure.
Wanson Mouth, Bude, Cornwall, UK
Camera: Olympus E-M1
Lens: Olympus M 12-40 mm f/2.8
Focal Length: 22mm
Aperture: ƒ/8
Shutter Speed: 6s
ISO: 200
Very little needed to be done to this long exposure. The shadows had to be pushed a bit and the whole scene needed a contrast boost in Color Efex's Pro Contrast. I then used a preset (shock horror!) from the most excellent Flypaper Color Efex Pro presets pack called 'Old Book', which finished off the scene with another tonal lift and slight colourisation.
Leave a Reply