Crash Bang Wallop What a Picture! - a photo on Flickriver

            I couldn’t move on to the next season without returning to at least one more photograph from last month’s stormy shenanigans at Portreath.  So far together we’ve visited the view from the Pepperpot and the “will he or won’t he” moment as the bodyboarder takes a long enigmatic pause on the beach, but it would be remiss of me not to include a moment from the classic viewpoint in among the scrum of spectators at the Dead Man’s Hut.  “Winter’s last hurrah,” if you will.  You can guarantee the moment there’s a storm in the air that the tight space here will be packed with humanity right to the edge of the steep and narrow steps.  I’m amazed the local council hasn't started a ticketing system for togs - you know the kind of thing.  Arrive with a brand new mirrorless set up, and you’ll be charged a fiver, but if you’ve got an old DSLR it’s half price.  If you’ve got a brand new iPhone that’ll be ten pounds please.  Can you imagine the uproar?

Storm Kathleen didn’t rank amongst the biggest monster storms we’ve witnessed here - not by a long way she didn’t.  But even on quieter days where the sea is in a busy kind of mood, it can be a lot of fun here at high tide.  And today was delivering conditions that were close to ideal for taking shots.  Lots of action at the Monkey Hut, but barely any spray plaguing front elements, and no rain either - at least no rain for well over an hour during our visit.  It was only later on, down by the beach that we were sent scuttling for the car by a heavy curtain of freezing water from the sky.  But for now it was dry, and at the top of the steps I waited patiently, hoping someone would get bored, leave in search of the cafe, and present me with a front row space.  

Soon I had my moment.  The long lens was already on the camera, and I’d dialled in my settings before leaving home.  Burst mode, auto ISO and a nice fast shutter time - a recipe for headaches later as we sift through our images, trying to pick the few that will make it into the shortlist for the editing suite.  Looking around me, the council could have cleaned up today.  A number of full price entry fees would have been due, although I’d have only been coughing up two pounds fifty in small change, just to annoy them.  

I wasn’t here very long in fact.  I was trying to be economical, especially as I’d already taken over four hundred shots from the top, which had been my main objective that day.  But I couldn’t resist having a look from this most well known vantage point, and then the camera couldn’t help sneaking its way out of the bag and into my mitts.  And it’s frightening how quickly the card can start buffering when the excitement kicks in.  In just eleven minutes, I added nearly a hundred and fifty exposures to the confusion.  A hundred and fifty moments of crash bang wallop over the top of the poor maligned monkey hut - which has only been here for ten years after the original was washed away in a far bigger storm - a few months before I took up landscape photography as a hobby.  It’s obviously made of stern stuff.  

This stoical bastion at the end of the long breakwater was originally constructed for the harbour pilots to shelter in while they sent signals to ships, saying “Don’t bother trying to come in at the moment.  Bleddy epic it is.  ‘ad fourteen cold baths already.  You’ll be smashed to pieces against the cliffs.  ‘Seen that lot clicking away on their box brownies up there?  Dunno why they ‘ave them expensive cameras - I could do better on my bit of chalkboard.  Parish clerk ought to charge them ‘alf a sixpence each to be up there at all.  That’ll pay for a new monkey hut when this one gets washed away in a hundred years from now.  A big wave’s going to come in and wash the bleddy lot of them away to sea in a minute……”  

Well they probably didn’t say all that, but can you imagine getting the gig and being told it’s your turn to dodge the incoming crash bang wallop of water and race along the slippery jetty in your hobnail boots to flash your storm lantern at approaching ships?  No, me neither.  It’s tasty enough from this viewpoint at times.

Taken in: UK / England / Portreath / Portreath (show map)

Taken on: April 6, 2024

Tags:

Portreath

waves

storm

Storm Kathleen

Water

water_shots

water_captures

Sea

seascape

Monkey Hut

Ocean

Atlantic

telephoto

Canon 100-400 Mk2

Canon

Cornwall

Coast

ukcoast

British Coast

cornish coast

Kernow

Kernowfornia

England

Great Britain

Britain

breakwater

jetty « less

Sets appears in: • Storm • Portreath

Groups appears in: • Cornwall • Sea & Ocean ( invite your contacts ) more » • Atlantic Ocean • South West England • Cornwall Flickr Users • "SEASCAPE" • Photography Week « less

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, f/6.3, 1/1600 sec, 135mm, ISO 800 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Lens:	EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM
Aperture:	f/6.3
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/1600)
Focal Length:	135mm
ISO:	800
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 13.2 (Windows)
Show full info

Stats: 902 views / 29 comments