Page 10 – by Peter Holloway

A Wide View of the Beach

Post author By Dune Prints
Post date September 14, 2012

I’m still fascinated by the interplay of marram, sand, sea & sky that presents itself at Ainsdale Beach near Southport. On a good day the sky is cloudy, the tide is in, and the beach is empty. The heavy clouds seem to balance the foreground marram and the sand and sea sit neatly in between.

This photo was taken a while ago using my preferred technique of ETTR (expose to the right). This generally gives my a light and airy starting point for processing the image. On this shot I decided to push the contrast a little more than usual to give a more punchy feel to the image.

Landscapes

Wind in the Marram

Post author By Dune Prints
Post date September 12, 2012

One of the things that I love about Ainsdale beach is the space! I love wide places, I love the wind in my face. This coast is lined with marram grass that fringes the beach and provides the perfect foreground for the beach, sea and sky.

Landscapes

Along the Grassy Verge – Marshland and Water

Post author By Dune Prints
Post date September 7, 2012

Due to its proximity to home sweet home I’ve been out again along the big bank towards Banks just to the north of Southport. It’s a vast landscape, with sweeping views across to Blackpool: you can see the tower and the roller coaster clearly against the skyline. But it’s the detail and the light which make this such a fascinating spot for photography. As I’ve often mentioned, there’s not a lot of foreground interest along the north Sefton/Lancashire coast. It’s flat and quite featureless. So, it’s necessary to make use of every little thing (and a long depth of field) to get a striking shot.

This is the same drop of water as seen in the previous shot, but looking along the near edge away from the sunset. I hope you enjoy it…

Landscapes

A Soft and Gentle Sunset on the Southport Coast

Post author By Dune Prints
Post date September 5, 2012

In the hope of bagging a bright and colourful sunset full of spectacular reds and golds I tramped off along the big bank that runs from The Plough roudabout around the village of Banks and off towards Hesketh Bank. Running along the edge of this bank, in parts, is a low lying area that fills with water, mainly tidal as this area is all close to sea level. Although fairly small in terms of area, as a foreground element it works really well for my sort of minimal landscapes. I generally use a medium ND graduated filter to balance the sky, but in the case of this image I also took multiple exposures.

It’s an HDR, using 3 shots to slightly improve the dynamic range. I’ve finally bitten the bullet and got CS6 to go with Lightroom, so I can merge to HDR in PS and then drop the 32 bit file back into LR for processing. Rather than ramp up the contrast on this image I’ve actually lowered the contrast significantly to try and produce a softer view of the sunset – this is probably more like what I actually saw than some of the other images that I will post later on… 😉

Tags banks, coast, copyright, dune, dune prints, duneprints, holloway, landscape, peter, peter holloway, photography, prints, southport, waterscape

Landscapes

Marshside Sunset, Southport

Post author By Dune Prints
Post date June 30, 2012

Along the coast road that runs from the north of Southport right through to Ainsdale in the south and beyond runs a broad stretch of land that comprises marshland to the north, Marshside, and marram to the south towards Ainsdale. At the very top of this stretch of marshland lies a small pool of water alongside a fence. It’s quite bland in normal circumstances, but, with the right light reflecting off the water quite stunning results are possible.

This image was taken at sunset, through the fence, with the sunlight reflecting off the surface of the water. A long exposure was used to smooth the water.

Tags dune, dune prints, holloway, landscape, marshside, peter, peter holloway, photography, prints, southport

Landscapes

Through the Marram Grass, Ainsdale

Post author By Dune Prints
Post date June 11, 2012

The wide open spaces of the Southport to Ainsdale coast are wonderful for a brisk walk, or for horse riding, kite flying/racing and many other pursuits, but for the photographer it can present its own problems. How do you hide all the cars and vans parked along the beach? What do you use for foreground interest. How do you get close enough to the sea? Really, the tide goes out so far that it’s vital to know when the tide is in if you want water in shot!

One solution I have discovered is to use a slightly longer zoom and bring the grass to the sea…

Tags ainsdale, beach, dune, dune prints, dunes, grass, holloway, marram, peter, photo, photography, photos, prints, sand, sea, southport

Landscapes

Southport Pier

Post author By Dune Prints
Post date January 9, 2012

The one feature of the Southport coast is its pier! Along the miles of beach and marram, this solitary structure dares to stretch out towards the ever receding tide. It is the second longest pier in Britain, and it needs to be as the tide goes out much further than even the pier can reach. But, of course, everything looks great in the right light. Pick a night with a wonderful sunset and watch the pier glow with colour.

Landscapes

Tidal Pools at Ainsdale Beach

Post author By Dune Prints
Post date September 26, 2011

The beaches along the Sefton coast are typically very broad and very flat. Occasionally there is sufficient dip in the beach to leave very shallow pools of water. On such a featureless stretch of sand a photographer must take what he can get in the foreground interest stakes. So, a bit of water, a few ripples and we’re good to go!

Landscapes

Welsh Hills in Purple

Post author By Dune Prints
Post date September 12, 2011

On a good day you can see the Welsh hills from Ainsdale beach, on a great day they can be seen under spectacular clouds! The sky was purple, the tide was out, the hills were visible along the skyline…

Landscapes

Marram, Sea, Sky

Post author By Dune Prints
Post date September 5, 2011

As you leave the car park and head for Ainsdale beach you climb up over a narrow ridge of dunes. This fringe of marram stretches all along the Sefton coast providing a wonderful backdrop to the sea and beach. Looking from the crest of the dunes with the tide in gives a wonderful view of marram, sea & sky!