This sequence of four shots shows one of the surfers at Runswick Bay building up to and executing a flip. I could see that he was building up to something so I was really pleased when he pulled it off and I managed to capture the move.
At this point in the day the tide had started to come in and there were pretty big waves and a big swell further out to sea and you can see other surfers waiting for the next big one in the background. It's funny how from the beach the sea looks fairly flat but when you watch these guys disappearing behind the waves you realise just how much motion there is.
I like pictures three and four as he completes the move. This guy had a camera mounted to the side of his head (unlike the mouth held go pro from the pictures the other day), I would be interested to see how the move looked from his point of view.
There's quite a lot to see in today's post with a variety of birds spotted on my walk along the beaches at Runswick Bay and Staithes.
The first shot is of a pair of loved up Fulmar. While I was watching them they engaged in a bit of courtship behaviour unfortunately the shots I got of that were not very clear, given the light and the distance and the fact that I was shooting against a dark background it was quite tricky getting a sharp image. These birds are not gulls but a species of Petrel and they have a distinctive channel on top of their beak. I tried to get some shots of them in flight and they are really skilled fliers, they move so fast so I didn't get the shots I had hoped. I was amazed how they could fly directly at the cliff face at speed and then at the very last moment brake and land safely on the smallest of ledges.
The next three pictures are of Oyster Catchers, three in flight and then others wading in the shallow pools and silt. These seem really gentle birds and they allowed me to get quite close.
The next picture is of a Herring Gull, I think these are quite beautiful birds although they have a bit of a reputation as thugs and thieves. They're quite fearless around people and are known to steal food from peoples' hands. This particular bird was patrolling the car park at Staithes looking for handouts, he didn't get anything from me.
The final pictures are my favourite from today, not necessarily because they are great photos but more because they are of a bird I had never seen before, a Turnstone. These lovely little birds were scavenging among the debris along the shoreline in the harbour at Staithes. They were quite gregarious and seemed quite at ease with my presence taking pictures. The first of these shots shows the bird living up to its' name.
The first of today's pictures is a view of Runswick Bay, I took this shot because I liked the way the village is reflected in the wet sand in the foreground. I had originally intended to get down onto the beach a little further along the coast at Kettleness. I was looking for a path down the cliffs and was told by a local fisherman that the path was very poor and quite dangerous in places and that the final 100 feet was via a rope. I did not fancy that loaded up with my camera gear so I was directed to Runswick Bay which fortunately has easy access to the beach and the shoreline beneath the cliffs.
Further north from this spot is Staithes a quaint little fishing village and location for (Captain) James Cook's first job in a merchants office. In the summer season the place is a hive of activity with lots of tourists but on a cold February day it was anything but. Most of the shops were closed and the few people brave enough to face the steep streets down to the harbour and then the arduous climb back up didn't stay very long.
The second shot is of a few of the small fishing boats at anchor in the small harbour taking shelter from the incoming tide and heavy seas. All of the boats were very colourful but look quite sad.
The last two shots are by far my favourite. I think they are really evocative and full of character. The lobster pots were, like the boats, quite colourful with brightly coloured tags and floats but having taken both colour and black and white shots I think the black and white are the stronger images.
While taking these pictures I spotted a local lobsterman, checking on his pots and making sure everything was in order. He took some time to answer my questions too which was really nice. He explained that these pots/traps are for both lobsters and crabs depending on the time of year and that they set them up to three miles offshore and would go out everyday in order to make a living. He was frustrated because the weather and sea conditions had not allowed him to get out to sea and so he was not making any money for that day.
As the tide turned and started to come back in at Runswick Bay several surfers went out to take advantage of the waves.
These four pictures were my first attempt at capturing a surfer in action. This guy seemed to be doing really well riding the edge of the wave but as he turned he fell and there's a look of half surprise on his face but I realised when I looked closer at the last shot that he had a GoPro clenched in his teeth.
I have some better shots than these which I will post in a day or so but I thought I would show these first and hopefully you will see that I got better with the action shots as the day went on, after all practice makes perfect (I'm not there yet).
A couple more shots from the beach at Runswick Bay. They're just simple images of pebbles and sea coal glistening in the morning sun, and footprints in the sand. As you can see in the second image the sand is mixed with fine grains of coal
Even on a cold day the beach is a great place to visit and there are some interesting things to photograph if you keep your eyes open.
Today's shots were taken one day last week at Runswick Bay on the North Yorkshire coast, near Whitby. There was a lot of sea coal being washed up on the beach and I had seen a number of people apparently scouring the beach for something. I was curious about this and so I stopped to ask a couple who were walking on the beach what it was that people were searching for. It turns out that this beach is one of three along the east coast where Jet can be found. It is becoming increasingly rare and difficult to find and as the tide was about to turn and come back in I was told that it was unlikely that I would find any if I tried. The gentleman I spoke to explained how you can tell the difference between Jet and coal and he said that if he was lucky enough to find any he would show me how to identify Jet.
After an hour or so, after I had given up looking and had gone back to photographing the surfers and the seabirds, the couple approached me to show me the one small piece of Jet they had found and very kindly they gave it to me as a souvenir. I was really grateful for this wonderfully kind gesture and now that piece of jet is on display at home next to a fossilised leaf that I found last year in Sherwood Forest.
Anyway back to the photos. The first is a shot of two limpet shells which caught me eye as the waves pulled back down the beach.
The second is of the lines left again as the water receded around the large rock in the third picture. It looks very much like a river delta in miniature.
I like the simplicity and the detail in these images and the fact that within minutes of my taking the shot the picture would have been completely different.
