The Power of a Walk.

The other day I went for an amble.  I love the fairer weather.  I am a fair weather walker, you could say.  

Living on the seafront is wonderful in the winter with the gales and gusts and the sea in the storms, but those aren't the days the car is left somewhere after the school run and a saunter home is taken. The time has come for burning the midnight oil and mooching in the mornings in the sun. Spring brings a fresh wind and it's invigorating to let go for an hour and just be.  

In fact, it's the best thing on earth.  No matter how overwhelmed I'm feeling, no matter how many times I've been woken by the students / kids / dustmen refuse collectors / seagulls / next door's pigeons / dogs / cats / a mouse in the house / a random beeping from a car or a handset somewhere - there really is light at the end of some tunnels!    

I'll get right up close and personal with the water's edge and breathe and all will be well with the world.  It gives me a feeling of coming home.  I love the bright sky, the expanse of space, the smells, the sounds of the waves rolling in, the peace yet the noise.  The salt in the air makes me smile.  I feel part of something special - something big, something beautiful and something better.

Little things get perspective, big ones come to the forefront of my mind as I wander and I just listen - to them come and go, come and go, as the tide comes and goes, comes and goes.  It is wonderful and I rejoice in being able to do this.  It is probably the singular thing that prevents me looking for an office job.  I would hate to give this up.  I would miss it.  

This is where my heart is.  Where's yours?  

Thank you to all of you who nominated me in the #Bibs 2015 Best Writer Category.  I'm thrilled to have made it to the shortlist and it would be awesome to make it into the final five.  If you can find it in your heart to vote me through, then please click HERE.  (Thank you very, very much!).  

Clueless Comes Good - The Story of a Stroll in the Storms.

In my last post I promised to expand further on one of the tips my Turkish professional film maker language student gave me - using the HDR option to take better photos on our phones.    

I shall keep it quick and in simple language for clueless folk like me, because I want to be getting on with showing you pictures of the sea in the recent windy weather.  Those who know what they're doing can pass right on by this bit.

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range.  There are plenty of websites that go into the finer details, but the upshot is that your camera takes three different photographs of the same thing and superimposes them all so that you get the best bit of each to make the best possible one.  Here are a couple of examples:

Normal setting.

HDR setting.

Normal setting.

HDR setting.

It's to do with the different exposures - where the light is brought in better in different areas and it's brilliant for these outdoor ones where I'd previously found it frustrating that those of the sea appeared rather more gloomy than had actually seemed the case at the time.  My kindly teacher has gone on to explain about shutter speeds and how he uses three sources of light - including a flash during daylight sometimes to avoid a shadow like the one he took in this one, for example - 

Without flash.

With flash, using the sea and sky as the other two sources of light.

- but, to be honest, I'm happy with just pointing and shooting with the tips he's already given me and in one of these photographs below - where the details of the spray (which my sons refer to as 'fireworks') were lost against the light of the sky it has been better to keep the original picture rather than the HDR one for contrast.  The phone gives both versions of photographs magically (see 'Settings' otherwise, but you know better than to ask me).  

There endeth our lesson.  However, here's another tip that I discovered for myself after taking these and you won't get this on any posh photography sites (!) - when your phone gets stuck on its 'headphones' setting, even though you haven't used it and you can't get it to switch back to work normally, this will be because it has come into contact with water and you'll need to take a hairdryer to it.  If you're very lucky, once you've indulged in plenty of self-pitying panicking and learned your lesson sufficiently, it might sort itself out.  *Blushes*   

So without further ado, here is the story of a stroll I took when the tide was OUT but coming in.  In almost twenty years of living in and close to Brighton I have never seen the sea anywhere near as high.  Half an hour later, walking back along the cliff top, I could see it would have been downright dangerous to be down there still. Those high waves are carrying pebbles and those concourses are usually clear for walkers, cyclists, roller bladers and maniacal kids on scooters, not least and namely mine.  

Although it was awesome, I felt scared for those suffering in the floods.  The power of the water was incredible.

The tide is out, but coming in. 

I'm not the only one fascinated.

The morning after the night before.    

Walking further along. 

Can you see those pebbles?

The non-HDR.

'Fireworks.'

I got soaked!

My favourite.

Past the worst.

There's been no scooting since, but at least we're safe, warm and dry.

Continuing my walk.

Still very deep.

Heading up to the cliff top.

I'm aware these photos could be better.  I am not professing to be an expert.  On the contrary - they're just casually captured by a numpty with an iphone.   A proper camera, an additional lens even, could improve on them no end, but I do love this walk by the sea and take it regularly.  It's never before been remotely like this and the opportunity might never present itself again, so I hope you've enjoyed sharing my stroll with me.      

Don't forget to pop over to the Love All Blogs Better Photos Project for ideas and inspiration and tips and stuff from proper photography people! 

And I'm linking this up with Cas at Mummy Never Sleeps who helps us celebrate the small things in life.

The Sea Today #Brighton

Autumn is such a scenic time and, as anyone who follows my Instagram feed can tell you, they'll get regular pictures of the sea that day. I always have people in mind who don't live near the coast and rarely get to see her - and people do say they enjoy them.

For me she is a daily delight - always different.  Here, she has some tough competition from the sky stealing her show, but it so deserves a look in!  Linking up with Older Mum's now famous seasonal #OneWeek - here's a selection of stuff - some of which has been seen before and some of which hasn't.

Others will have been saving up some other glorious sights or sounds which represent Autumn to them, so do head over to check them out if you possibly get a chance to.  

[Oh and if you don't mind a lovely little click voting for me in the Candis Magazine's Blogging Awards who've nominated me in the Parenting Category (no need to laugh!) then I'd really appreciate it, thank you!].