A dusting of snow at the coast

With a surprise few days of snow recently—even settling here at the coast—I jumped on the opportunity for a quick 10 minute dash with the camera one morning along with the school run.

The snow was relatively light, but had settled enough to create a few opportunities for photos. I only gave myself around 10 minutes before getting back to start work for the day, so it was a bit of a dash to a location I know well close to home: a cliff path just north of St Mary’s lighthouse.

There’s a small out-of-the-way car park by the cliff, with the path leading along south towards the lighthouse and giving a few nice views.

The morning was bright, with darker clouds inland where the snow showers had moved onto.

The snow had thankfully settled on the cliff walls as well as up top, though the beach itself was unsurprisingly clear. It was interesting to see how directional the snow had been however: once I got to the other end of the cliff and looked back the way I’d come, the view was far, far sparser in terms of snow on the cliffs—something hard to imagine looking south and seeing what felt like quite full coverage.

There’s a lovely set of stairs down onto the beach that always looks really interesting from above and has a stand-out red life ring towards the bottom. The problem photographically is that the path has been moved back away from the edge (presumably due to erosion making it unsafe) and so without climbing over the fence it’s impossible to get the whole staircase in.

In a rush and not wanting to do anything silly, I didn’t take that chance.

This final portrait image shows the frame as close as I could get it. The second, older fence impinges quite a bit on the foreground, though I don’t think it ruins the shot here: it’s honest about my positioning and adds a little extra depth and scale to the frame.

All in all, not too bad for jumping out of the car and taking images within a few minutes. It captured the event of the snow and most importantly, got me out with the camera.

I’ve got out of the habit in the past year or so of just getting out there, even for short periods, so this is a good reminder that even a few short minutes can be enough to get the creativity going (and a bit of fresh air!).