Patterns in the sand. Mawgan Porth, Cornwall. Photo: Vivien Blackburn
I really enjoyed the slide shows of Gesa's beachcombing and thought I'd show something similar ... but a little different :>)
I'm often attracted by strong pattern elements in the landscape (seascape) - the pattern of shining wet pools or ripples, the bands of colour, or textures and shapes of rocks. Here are a few from my files across the years. They were taken in Cornwall (Mawgan Porth, Cape Cornwall and Sennen Cove), Devon (Hele Bay and Lynmouth) and North Norfolk (Hunstanton, Holkham and Wells next the Sea).
The pictures of the sand, sculpted by the sea are near the low water mark at Mawgan Porth in Cornwall. The wild seas sculpt deep pools out of the sand and as the water evaporates it leaves miniature steps down the sides, where the water has washed against successive mini 'cliffs' in the breeze. The beach shelves fairly steeply so the tide doesn't go out too far. The pools themselves make a pattern across the beach at the seaward end. They can be over 2 feet deep and walking to the surf is a zigzag path around them.
In Norfolk in contrast, the beach shelves very gently and the tide can go out for a mile or two, moving in or out rapidly over the flat beach. Pools of water are much shallower here,and the water nowhere near as clear, as it contains silt from the rivers and drainage dykes that join the sea from the farm land around the Wash (a large bay).
You may well enjoy the work of Tony Howell who takes fantastic photos of Cornwall, I really like his close ups of rocks.
