Low tide, Arnside

Two buoys at low tide, Arnside, originally uploaded by Bay Photographic.

These mooring buoys, used by yachts in the summer, are attached to 'sinkers' made from concrete filled car wheels, which embed themselves in the sand, and become completely immovable after two or three passes of the tide.
As a highly effective and decidedly low tech solution to the problem of anchoring a yacht permanently, enabling it to ride out the wildest storms and the highest tides, this appeals to my Luddite instincts enormously. Despite making my living in IT, and having little fear of computers, applications or operating systems (except DNS), I have always admired the utilitarian and the functional. My million pound dream garage even includes a series one Land Rover and a Willy's Jeep.
In fact, I think that the Technology Resistance Movement at work probably have a point when they tell me that the world would be a better place without computers, that the IT industry deliberately sets out to make itself inaccessible and that people who work with computers should get out more (and not waste their time filling imaginary garages).
So, even though I am upgrading my computer this week so I can use Photoshop without making the lights go dim, I still harbour a wish that I worked as a lamplighter or a wheeltapper, and that the tools of my trade lasted a lifetime rather than being rendered obsolete by a new version of Windows.

A Matter of Time

CD Cover 1, originally uploaded by Bay Photographic.

James is a friend and colleague, who recently asked me to photograph him for the cover of his new CD. He is unsigned at present, but we may have to face the possibility of losing him to the music industry if he achieves the recognition he deserves in the future. His music can be heard at www.myspace.com/jamesgormanmusic
I felt that the cove near Silverdale where I photographed the rocks a couple of months ago might provide a good location, but I am a long way outside my comfort zone when it comes to photographing people, so I wasn't too sure if the outcome would hit the mark.
I shot this with my S2 pro and the Tokina 11-24 with a Nikon SB 28 flash on a tripod as a single exposure, and processed it in Fineview, Photomatix, Photoshop CS2 and Digital Image Pro. (I have to say that the impressive range of software is not the result of my competence, but the fact that I can only do certain things with certain programs).
I was quite pleasantly surprised with this one, and I felt that the glimpse of the Bay behind gave it an appropriately barren feel.
Perhaps I should consider a career change.
Yeah, right.

The Posh Sardine, Arnside.

The Posh Sardine, Arnside, originally uploaded by Bay Photographic.

This rather Dickensian scene was taken in Arnside this week as a record of the Christmas window display for the owners. It also served to remind me that the festive season is rapidly approaching. I know I should be starting to think about writing cards, buying presents and ordering the turkey, but I am still doing my level best to pretend that it is still summer.
To be honest, it's becoming a bit of an uphill struggle, but I am determined to carry on taking photographs despite the present cold and rainy spell.
I should be good at it by now, I had plenty of practice in August...

The Shifting Sands

Low Tide in Arnside, originally uploaded by Bay Photographic.

The silt that shifts around in the Bay with the ebb and flow of every tide is largely alluvium left from the glacial erosion of the Lakeland Hills. The artist Turner, who visited the area on his tours in 1816 and 1825, observed to his companions as he crossed the sands 'Look at Morecambe Bay when the tide is out and you are looking at the mountains and hills brought low'.
One of my small pleasures in life is watching the channel of the River Kent change course after every tide on my way to work, but I am at a loss as to why a similar channel in the Thames Estuary that runs past the cockle sheds in Leigh on sea has never changed in the forty five years I have known it.
It is probably to do with the power of the tidal flow in the Bay and the nature of the sand that shapes it.
A research grant and a five year longitudinal study should sort it out.