North Somerset

Explore #3 - 30/05/17

On the way down to Cornwall I decided to try and break the journey up by rail and was looking for a place to spend the night and get a few shots, Weston-Super-Mare was the place I decided to stop the night as there was a shot I wanted to try and get at Knightstone Marina at high tide. As it happens that didn't work out as at high tide it was lashing it down, absolutely no chance of a shot at all.

After spending most of the day getting soaked in Weston, and realising exactly why £1 umbrellas are £1 (lasted all of 5 minutes before turning into a ball of metal and material! - whizzed it into a skip) visited a couple of pubs lugging the stuff around to keep out of the rain I decided to have a go at sunset as it looked to be easing up about 7pm.

A rejig of the plans and the closed Birnbeck Pier was chosen for tonights shoot looking out to South Wales across the Bristol channel, having never been there before I didn't know what to expect or where to shoot from so it was just a case of rocking up and seeing what was what, if there was to be decent a sunset, the sun should by my reckoning be right over the old pier.

You can never predict how things are going to go but again a truly featureless grey rainy horrible day thankfully turned into a superb sunset from nowhere, instead of going for the side view I decided to go straight into the sun to try and catch the sun on the old timberwork and pick out the detail of the crumbling metalwork on the right (see collapsed section) The exposure balancing was a challenge to say the least. If you click on the image you can see the state it is in a lot clearer..

The Pier, built in 1867, shut to the public in 1994 and has been the subject of several failed attempts to restore it, it now lies fenced off and in a bad way as you can see from the illuminated boardwalk, the little building on the left was an RNLI lifeboat station, again abandoned due to safety issues and moved closer into the town at a temporary base.

Nobody knows what the future holds for the Pier but it doesn't look good, just glad I managed to get a shot of it for the record.

More info can be found here along with info on the people who are trying to save it for future generations:

www.birnbeck-pier.co.uk/

Visit my Website

Taken on my World Tour of the UK last July and August, this wonderful old pier (which incidentally happens to be the only pier to link an island to...

Another from a wild and stormy day on the Somerset coast, and my first ever visit to Weston Super Mare!
The remains of Birnbeck Pier catch a brief glimpse of the sun as a right royal hailstorm approaches from across the Bristol Channel. It's the only pier on the country that links the mainland to an island don't you know - it's a shame it is falling to bits.

Grand Pier, Weston-super-Mare North Somerset, England

Making the most of a three-day long weekend, I decided to go on a roadtrip to Wells, Cheddar Gorge and Weston-super-Mare with a few friends. Having been living away from the beach for quite some time, it was nice to experience the smell of the sea and feel of the sand. Unfortunately, the tide was out and what's left was a few hundred meters of slushy mudflats. The wind was also picking up as the sun started to set.

With a band of dark clouds on the horizon, I was uncertain about the prospect of a good sunset. Thankfully, there was still a gap above that band of clouds to allow the warm sunlight through. I tried capturing a sun star framed between the pillars of the pier with mixed success. The higher level clouds started to catch the light too, creating an interesting pattern of orange and blues in the sky. Due to the large dynamic range and complicated foreground, I had to blend two exposure in post-process as graduated filters were useless in this scenario. Overall, it was a really enjoyable day out exploring new places with friends.

2 exp shot, edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.