Original Image

So a dark image tonight, shot at Lepe about 2 weeks ago, when the storms had passed, but the rain hadn’t stopped, the winds had been blowing in from the west with gusts of about 75mph and it was no different on this day. I pulled up in the car park and I’ll post an image of the view through the window as an addendum to this shot, but to be honest, with a mile left to go to get to where I wanted to shoot and to be honest not much inclination it was an effort to drag my sorry backside out of the warmth of the car, put down my coffee, put on waterproofs and on the Lowepro and head up the coastal path. But I’m glad I did. All be it that it was ‘blowing a hoolie’ (in the words of me old mate Al) I was able to get some of the shots I was after. This was a 1/2 exposure resting on a broken tree stump with a ND2 Grad (in the driving rain). The rain is lost by the length of the exposure.

Its a notorious coast line, and whilst alone on the beach, I felt something that I hadn’t felt before, and that it was the sea was trying to reach me, I know this sounds strange, and It might have been my paranoia, but I definately felt something, and it wasn’t until I returned to the carpark, and got chatting to another passerby that I was told of the recent death of a man swept away by the sea at high tide. Well in hindsight had I known that I might have not gone, I had gone a little beyond my reach and turned round to sea that the tide had crept in, I’d watched the tide and thought it was going out, but it wasn’t. Anyway I made it back ok, just a little wet (very wet) and with a few more frames to work on. And a little more appreciation for mother natures’ power.

• taken|29/03/2008 15:42
• camera|Canon EOS 20D
• lens|17 – 40mm L
• focal length|17mm
• aperture|f/22
• shutter speed|1/2 sec
• shooting mode|Program
• exposure bias|0
• metering mode|pattern
• iso|100
• flash fired|no
• image quality|RAW
• raw converter|Photoshop CS2
• cropped|3×2

• location|New Forest, United Kingdom