LONG TIME NO SEA.

The coast. It marks a beginning and an end. Neatly sums up where we are with the COVID-19 pandemic.

I’m at Sully on the South Wales coast this morning and an 04:00 alarm gets me to my chosen spot an hour before sunrise. It’s an ebbing tide this morning with low water 4 hours away. Not ideal, because it means I’ll have to shift position if I’m going to maintain a decent amount of water in my composition. I’ve got enough to work with for now though and the light is beginning to look really promising. A waning crescent moon casts beams above Steep Holm island, so a quick shot before I get fully set up makes the perfect start to the day.

I’ve got my composition sorted so it’s time for a coffee before the light show really begins. Time to reflect on how grateful I am to be able to travel again after lockdown and that there’s so much history here on the South Wales coast. The sun will be rising behind Lavernock Point, the place where Guglielmo Marconi transmitted the very first radio signal across open sea on 13 May 1897. An historic occasion indeed and, given my long career in telecommunications, I’m pleased to be so near to this special location.

Back to the job in hand, and we’re well into pre-dawn now and the plan is definitely coming together. I spent a couple of hours picking this exact location so that the sun rises behind the point and lights the bay. Any later in the year and the sun will be rising too far north to fit into the composition. So it’s not down to chance, but you still need a lot of luck, especially when checking weather forecasts and tide times, as you still need a few other factors to marry if you’re going to get a truly great shot. The cloud cover today is perfect - all high clouds (as forecast) so I’m hoping they light up just before the sun clears the horizon.

I’m in luck. It’s a fantastic sunrise with red and orange clouds reflecting the golden light. It’s one of those mornings when you just have to stop and take it all in. A photographer’s gift. A quick change of tripod position gets me the composition I’d had in mind and it’s not long before the light gets too harsh and it’s time to pack away. It’s just a short walk back to the car across a rocky fore shore, and it’s good to see that staff are busy getting pubs ready for limited opening. The Captain’s Wife looks very tempting but it’s far too early (even for me) although it looks the ideal pub for a late spring evening, sitting watching the sun set.

So there we are. A couple of hours planning and an hours drove for 20 minutes of photography but what a reward I got.

A beginning and an end - the beginning of more freedom and an end in sight to this terrible pandemic.