Southport Pier in Winter

Posted by Ian Bramham (Manchester, United Kingdom) on 15 January 2008 in Landscape & Rural and Portfolio.

I've been posting a lot of photos recently that were taken during my trip to France over Christmas but didn't want to ignore this photo of Southport Pier on the NW coast of England that I took recently near where I grew up.

It's from the weekend before last, about an hour and a half before sunset, with the low winter sun casting long shadows and a mellow golden light across the beach.

The tide is out as you can see, but I searched out the wettest part of the sand that I could find to get some reflections of that great sky.

HOT TIP FOR ALL AM3 CONTRIBUTORS :
I've been having problems for ages with my uploaded landscape orientated images looking fuzzy and not as sharp as they should be....well I finally found the answer recently in an answer by Jason Kravitz to a query in the forums .....if you too have been having this problem the answer is to make sure you resize your photos to a maximum horizontal dimension of 800 pixels (vertical size is not limited). Anything greater than 800pixels and AM3 will automatically resize it leading to the reduction in sharpness.

Please feel free to copy and paste this advice into your own AM3 blogs as I'm sure there are lots of our fellow AM3ers out there having this same frustrating problem...it would be great to sort the problem out for as many of us as possible.

If you have any other burning queries about Aminus3 or just a great suggestion you want to make, why not try the forum here :Aminus3 Forum.
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Like what you see here and are interested in photographic composition?.....the blog section of my website now has a complete set of 5 articles covering my personal approach to the subject: Ian Bramham Photography - Blog

For purchasing high quality archival prints of any of these photos you can send me an email by clicking here or by going to my website Ian Bramham - Fine Art Photography where prices are listed in the gallery sections under each individual photo.

Comments (29)

sangram from Mumbai, India

thats a superb shot.. dividing the photo into 2 halfs with the bridge in between...gr8 one..

15 Jan 2008 7:08am

@sangram: Thanks very much Sangram!

Chinky from Manila, Philippines

absolutely breathtaking

15 Jan 2008 7:45am

@Chinky: Thanks ...what a nice thing to say!

One Way from London, United Kingdom

Wow, that sky is amazing! A really special seascape...

15 Jan 2008 9:54am

@One Way: Thanks ......I'm pleased you liked it!

GJC from Kyoto, Japan

A remarkable image. You were right to catch that reflection, but I think without the long diagonal of the bridge running (pier?) through you'd have had a less interesting photo. Nice composition.

15 Jan 2008 10:46am

@GJC: Thanks GJC.....it was just one of those chance lucky shots as I hadn't planned to take a photo of the Pier that day!

Guillermina from Buenos Aires, Argentina

What a wonderful job you've done with perspectives! There's obviously a vanishing point for the clouds and their reflections in the watery sand. But there's also the line of the pier that is lost to the right... And then there's the interplay of both. Simply masterful.

15 Jan 2008 12:05pm

@Guillermina: Thanks Guillermina....I took a number of photos but knew that with the reflections in the water that this would be the best one of the bunch. I was still surprised though by how well it turned out!

MOHAMMAD from BANDAR ABBAS, Iran

nice sky

15 Jan 2008 1:18pm

@MOHAMMAD: Thanks Mohammad!

Kaddy from Mumbai, India

Lovely shot... nice tip!!!

15 Jan 2008 1:27pm

@Kaddy: Cheers Kaddy.....great news as well that the tip about resizing was useful.

Lorraine from Gatineau, Canada

O God Ian, this is...welll I don't have the words, gasp, sigh...

15 Jan 2008 2:42pm

@Lorraine: I'll take it that you liked it then! :-)

Sandrine from Cincinnati, United States

Stunning and beautiful!

15 Jan 2008 3:19pm

@Sandrine: Thanks very much Sandrine!

marc from granby, Canada

très belle profondeur bonne composition
bravo.....

15 Jan 2008 3:28pm

@marc: Merci beaucoup Marc!

Laurie from Lincoln, United States

wow! Now that is breath-taking! Wonderful job! =-)

15 Jan 2008 6:47pm

@Laurie: Thanks very much Laurie!

danthro from Davis, United States

Beautiful sky! It would be nice to see it bigger.

15 Jan 2008 7:44pm

@danthro: Thanks...there's a larger version here..http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2190022541&size=o

See The Light from Newcastle, United States

Just the most beautiful image.

15 Jan 2008 8:20pm

@See The Light: Thanks very much Mary....I take that as a big compliment coming from you!

tom from Germany

Wow, wow, ..... Stunning landscape shot. The light and sky are gorgeous.

15 Jan 2008 9:13pm

@tom: Thanks very much Tom!

amy from Rocky Mountain House, Canada

Ian!! Absolutely brilliant and outstanding!! Such excellent motion because of that sky reflecting in the wet sand/water. Wow!

15 Jan 2008 10:39pm

@amy: Thanks very much Amy...I'm really pleased that you liked it!

«miguel.peixeiro» from Coimbra, Portugal

...great!

15 Jan 2008 11:05pm

@«miguel.peixeiro»: ....thanks very much!

Oswegan from Lake Oswego, United States

This one certainly is sharp. Nice shot.

16 Jan 2008 12:13am

@Oswegan: Thanks Oswegan!

Nick Passantino from Bronx, United States

this is an absolutely stunning image.

16 Jan 2008 5:30am

@Nick Passantino: Thanks very much Nick!

Izad from Sheffield, United Kingdom

wow...i'm speechless...really want to capture the British Island shores but haven't got the time yet..hopefully someday in the coming months

16 Jan 2008 11:20pm

@Izad: Hi.....surprisingly photogenic aren't they. I think it comes from the simplicity and lack of clutter that naturally seems to be a part of most shoreline photos....have you seen the Chromasia (no connection to me!) photoblog based in Blackpool yet...I'm sure you'd like it.

Katie from Land of a 1000 palms..., United States

Outstanding shot!

18 Jan 2008 7:51pm

@Katie: Thanks very much Katie!

danthro from Suburbia, United States

i tried the link to the bigger shot but i got a message from flickr (after logging in) that i didn't have permission to view it 'cause it's private.

18 Jan 2008 9:58pm

@danthro: I've changed the permissions ....give it a try again, it should work now!

SPunkt from -, Germany

Wow! *stunned*

20 Jan 2008 12:56pm

@SPunkt: Thanks very much!

Damon Schreiber from Toronto, Canada

Breathtaking!

20 Jan 2008 6:07pm

@Damon Schreiber: Thanks Damon....that's a great compliment coming from you as I really love your photography!

Momo from Montpellier, France

man oh man, this is just stunning Ian...

21 Jan 2008 12:13am

@Momo: Thanks very much Momo!

danthro from Suburbia, United States

Thanks. it's even more beautiful in larger size!

21 Jan 2008 8:10pm

@danthro: no problem...thanks for letting me know that the flickr link wasn't working!

Ian Bramham from Manchester, United Kingdom

no problem...thanks for letting me know that the flickr link wasn't working!

21 Jan 2008 10:41pm

Herbert from Singapore

Wow- I like the skies, the clouds, the reflections, the colours and the composition. Amazing.......wonderfully breathless.

4 Mar 2008 1:55pm

Richard from Duns, United Kingdom

I'd probably give up after a shot like that. . .nothing left to do! It's wonderful

20 Jun 2010 7:19am

Richard from Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Fantastic shot, clouds and peir sweep you to the right!

21 Sep 2010 1:57pm

next day →

Nikon D40
1/640 second
F/8.0
ISO 200
15 mm (35mm equiv.)