Explore Landscapes #55

I need to spend more time on the coast taking photographs, as I always enjoy it when I do. But the desert. The desert always seems to call my name and get my attention.

For someone who’s lived just 15 miles away from the Pacific Coast for the last ten years, I have surprisingly few images of seascapes. I need to spend more time on the coast taking photographs, as I always enjoy it when I do. But the desert. The desert always seems to call my name and get my attention.

The only photography workshop I attended as a student was back in 2011 when I participated in a seascape/landscape photography workshop on the south coast of the UK in Dorset. The workshop was led by a fantastic photographer, Helen Rushton (read more here).

When I first visited the US for work, I always stayed in Huntington Beach and spent many happy hours walking up and down the beach looking for images. I was so surprised to see oil rigs just a short distance offshore. It was also the first time that I’d seen the nodding-donkey oil pumps dotted along the coast.

I have to confess to spending hours underneath various piers in different locations in the US (and elsewhere) trying to catch the light and the waves just right. The photo above is probably one of my favorites.

And where there are waves, there are plenty of opportunities to use ND (Neutral Density) filters to slow down your shutter speed, smooth out the waves, and give your images a more painterly feel.

The beaches of Sylt (an island off the North Sea coast of Germany) were perfect for this type of photography. We holidayed on Sylt several times while we lived in Hamburg.

Another seascape that I have visited regularly is Montauk Point, NY. This is at the very East end of Long Island and looks out across the North Atlantic Ocean. Early twilight and sunrise at Montauk Point are beautiful in the summer, but I imagine it’s not so warm and inviting during the winter.

There are some great coastal walks in Orange County, and we’ve visited San Clemente and Dana Point frequently, but I rarely take my camera. When I take my camera, I’m seldom disappointed. I seem to have a blind spot with the coast and photography. I don’t know why.

I need to start a project (at least one) that involves photographing the coast on my doorstep. Maybe this will be my way of breaking the cycle and not always driving ‘inland towards the desert’ whenever I leave home.