Getting intimate

One of the advantages of regularly shooting locally is becoming intimately acquainted with certain landscapes. Seeing them at different times of the year and in different lights means that after a few months you tend to accumulate a portfolio; even if you never intended to! Knowing where to park and where to walk to, and which paths provide favourite views means that you can quickly get to a vista that lends itself to the conditions that are forecast.

And regularly revisiting locations is a great way of appreciating just how mutable landscape photography opportunities are, even when the seasons are out of the equation. By that, I mean changing weather does significant things to the countryside but not so much the coast. From full blown spring colour and summer greenery, through warm autumnal hues to barren, skeletal, wintry scenes, the countryside experiences a massive visual transformation with the changing seasons; the coast remains for the most part pretty stable.

Notwithstanding the arrival of rough seas in the stormy season, changes at the coast are all about the tides and the movement of the sun, and the light it offers throughout the year, in different conditions and times of day.

I have been going to Pagham for a couple of years now and here is a selection of images that illustrate what I'm waffling about.