Sunny Mother's Day in Weston-Super-Mare

Another day, and totally different weather. Beautiful sunny Saturday with over 15 degrees, sun and a bit of mist on the sea. We planned a trip to Burnham-on-sea and a meetup with Catalin, a Romanian guy working in the area. Always nice to meet people and exchange opinions. We arrived there before noon, almost at the lowest tide, because we wanted to shoot the shipwreck on Berrow beach, quite a few kilometers from Burnham pier. The beach is so wide at low tide, alternating muddy areas with long slices of dry sands.

It looks like everything is dry in the whole channel and you could easily walk past it to Wales. Wales is there, in the mist like a chimera. Interesting textures are left on the sand, especially some black powder on the perfectly smooth sand. Lots of people are walking their dogs, and we made a friend: a cute cocker bringing us a ball to throw it away. The owner, an old lady keeps moving in the other direction, while the cute dog gets back to out feet, again and again with his wet ball. The shipwreck is laying on a portion of sticky mud that leaves a large yellow dirty patch on our shoes. Some dog takes a bath in the small amount of water next to the boat. I take 2 shots and I feel I am sinking a bit in the mud with every minutes. Weird feeling. Carmen is safely waiting 20 meters away. When seeing the images on the camera screen, it seems the zoom creeped when placing the filters. Damn it! I need to get there again for another shot. Couple of minutes later its is done and I am happy with the outcome. I would have preferred a more dramatic sky but anyway, it turned out quite ok.

After shooting the shipwreck we are back to Burnham for lunch as there are couple more hours till the high tide, and the lighthouse is way out of the water. The afternoon came with an almost clear sky with moving stripes of clouds and same mist at horizon. The lighthouse is slowly getting sink and after some lazy waiting period, we are ready again for shooting. We take a couple of more shots from various angles and we figure out that we just missed the last bus back to Weston. We have to walk almost 4km till Highbridge&Burnham station to catch a train. We arrive at the hotel totally exhausted and we close the day with a Guinness in the crowded hotel pub.

Next day is a relaxing day, a sunny Sunday which is also Mother Day. We plan to shoot at the morning high tide, but we mess up the change of time, so we wake up and we figure out its too late. We go out anyway attracted by the beautiful view we saw from our hotel room. With the camera on the tripod, I thought I am missing the remote control so Carmen is taking a sprint back to the room. 2 minutes later I figure out that the remote is in one of my many large pockets so I fire a 2:30 mins exposure, before calling Carmen who was unable to find the remote in the hotel. The light is great as the sun just rose from behind, putting a gentle light on the Knighstone Harbour. After that, we move away to the marina lake. The small bridge separating the lake from the sea is still under water, so we need to wait 30 more minutes. Slowly the water is getting away and the chains of the bridge are getting visible, one by one. Its time for action, so we get 2-3 shots, while the water is gently washing the stairs steps I am sitting on. The early shooting makes us very hungry so we stop the photographic activities for a breakfast.

The day seems to be a very nice one and with the tide getting lower and lower, we can take a break until the evening. Tons of people are coming to Weston, filling the restaurants. Its mother day, so they are arriving from everywhere, eager to spend some fun day in the sea resort. There are fish and chips everywhere and long queues to the kiosks selling it. Now we figured out why the local football team is called Weston-super-Mare FC. Can you guess? Weston-super-mare Fish&Chips.

Joking aside, we are amazed by the amount of obese people. Never seen so many before, its like an exhibition. Everybody is enjoying the sunny day especially the dogs that love a bath in the sea or in the mud and the kids who are populating the Arcade games. After two days of walking a lot, now its time for us to chill a bit and enjoy the weather, so we watched Liverpool-Tottenham in a pub. I was really happy to see the reds playing well and getting a 4-0 victory. Time for shooting again as the tide is growing. Last shots in Weston-super-mare as  tomorrow we move to Torquay, so we are excited to see what surprises is English riviera preparing for us. We are a bit sad to leave Weston and Somerset, after 4 exciting days; the last evening is blessing us with beautiful light. A cute golden retriever is sprawling next to out tripod and I don’t miss the chance to take him a portrait; luckily the camera was not on the tripod during a long exposure.

The beach is a bit dirty after the day activities. People are starting to leave Weston, back to their homes. We are also preparing to leave Weston, but not to home. We are packing for the next stage of our trip: Torquay.