The early morning sun and a low tide can combine to create fantastical shadow play. Admittedly, one has to walk the tide line with an imaginative eye.
Model Chinese Junk: Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery. http://www.plymouth.gov.uk
Tag Archives: morning light
Sail On
“The sea is so big, and my ship is so small.”
Those of you who have been here before know that I do not arrange any objects in these photographs. The still lifes are created by the wash of the tide, the wind, and also the light, as is the case in this photograph. Morning light here on the eastern US coast often creates wonderful and surprising shadows like this one.
Sail on.
A Study in Translucency
As you may know, I love jingle shells. Their simplicity and fragility belies their origin in the tumbling, violent ocean. That any of them make it to the tide line is a point of amazement. This particular shell had just arrived with the last wave, hence the small bubbles within. The morning light spotlighted this tiny shell’s translucency, shining through to the sand beneath. The shell’s placement beside the opaque shell fragment makes this quality even more stunning.
Two, In the Process of Becoming
The sea continually creates new from old. Here, the small bit of shell is becoming sand, and the piece of broken glass is slowly becoming something beautiful, sea glass.
A Tough Climb
The tide line is absolutely littered with carcasses of sand crabs at this time of the year. Some seem to have had a more difficult time than others.
Klee-ish
This still life looks as if it was pulled from a painting by Paul Klee.
Comedy, by Paul Klee
Still Warm (Ember)
The early morning light still mesmerizes me. Its early morning angle transformed the very corner of this ordinary mussel shell into a warm ember.
Wrinkled
Feather and Fragments
The tide line is full to overflowing with splashes of color and jumbles of shells and pebbles, yet it is interesting to me how often I come across balanced, monochromatic still lifes, such as this one.
Also of growing interest is the effect the early morning light has on the opacity of the items that I photograph. Here, the light is hitting the bit of down feather just perfectly to give the illusion of transparency. Now that fall is coming, the sun is lower and rising later, so I may have a chance to work with this a bit more.
Tide Line Still Life 