View From The Roadside

Pebbles And A Wave, originally uploaded by Liam O’Neill.

One consequence of the car being out of action was that I couldn’t get to Portsmouth for softball training last Saturday. It was a nice day, and I somehow had a flash of inspiration; Take the train to Bournemouth! I’ve been near Bournemouth before, I might even have driven around it before, but I’d never really gone there. As much as I like beaches, and Bournemouth is about the nearest bit of real sand around here, I prefer little coves and inlets (like Rocky Bay back home). Without a car to get me around though, a day in a closed location like a city was ideal.

With no clue where to go I headed for the only thing I knew I’d find, the beach. I’ve noticed I need to get my brain into “photo mode” before I really start seeing pictures, and the best way of doing that is to take a picture of almost anything. Some interestingly designed offices did the job, and while those shots aren’t worth a second look, they did get me thinking of pictures again. That meant my mind was on the lookout for pictures, and it was near the beach that I came across the bench.

Rest A While
Originally uploaded by Liam O’Neill.

What caught my attention was the brilliant blue colour in the lovely light of the winter sun, and the nice green lamppost beside it, strong colours like that always look good. The contrast of the newish bench with the shabby, rusty lamppost just made the picture better. The slightly lonely image of the unused bench and the neglected lamp became very poignant when I went to read the inscription on the bench. It reads “Rest A While in affectionate memory of Eleanor Wolstencroft 1925-2005″. Google suggests Mrs Wolstencroft was a local lady, chairman of the East Cliff and Town Centre Residents’ Association, and an active one at that.

After the bench I took a little walk down to the Pier and along the beach, thankfully a lot quieter than it no doubt gets in the summer, but far from deserted. Nothing on the pier really caught my eye, but some gargoyle-like decorations on a shelter along the beach did. I walked along the beach, stopping to see about a shot with the groins and the waves that really wasn’t there to take, before heading off to lunch. It was when I reached the cliff-top that the powerboat race began. I’m terrible with photographs of things that move, but couldn’t resist at least trying for a few laps, the spectacle was enjoyable if nothing else, but f22 is not a great aperture for fast action shots. I always seem to get something wrong on those shots.

Lunch also meant the rugby and a none too inspiring performance from Ireland. By now there was just about an hour till sunset, and while the clouds had closed in ruling out any spectacular sunset, I took a stroll down the main street but by now it was all in shade, and didn’t strike me as full of photographic potential anyway. I’m sure there must be more photogenic parts in Bournemouth, and if Bournemouth has an old town I didn’t find it. I just didn’t have the time to look for them either. So back to the beach it was. The obvious idea was some sort of shot of the pier, but what exactly?

Time To Go Home
Originally uploaded by Liam O’Neill.

Then I noticed the sand castles on the beach, left behind by some unknown child or family. They were just in the right place to form a foreground with the pier behind them. The whole thing was just a lovely “end of the day on the beach” shot. A nicer sunset would be great, but using what you’ve got is all part of the fun for me. I was just happy to have seen the castles and been able to imagine the shot before I ever got anywhere near them. I like it when I can do that.
With the belief that I can ’see’ pictures restored, I put the camera away and took a nice walk along the beach, listening to the waves breaking. There are no rocks on Bournemouth beach, and the groins certainly weren’t going to take the place of them in any ghost-fog style shot of the water. The only option for anything like that were the little pebbles. I took a lot of shots to try and get that fog-like effect, without too much success, but one of those shots, the one above, just caught the front of a little wave as it over-ran some of the pebbles. I love that ghostly effect of the pebbles being only half-there, but I still have a lot of practise to do before I get to being able to take those pictures with any sort of confidence.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 9:32 pm and is filed under About Pictures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.