In Camera ... Another Good Evening at Another Place

The clear skies of Monday 11th October saw me down on the beach again before sunset. This time I went to the Hall Road end around 18.15, the sun was already a huge red orb close to the horizon and sinking into the sea behind the wind farm. Many people around, lots of photographers on the beach but I selected a spot which included good reflections from the band of wet mud that seems to have invaded the beach. The sun went down perfectly into the cloudless horizon, just a slight haze to give it colour then the sky was pale and uniform, just a slight patch of orange fading to pink then green and blue out to the west. Returning to the car I noticed the moon, a waxing crescent low over the Wirral peninsula and I walked back onto the beach past the mile marker to take photographs looking south west along the beach, capturing the moon’s reflection in still water.

The air was filled with the cries of geese, huge formations flying westward out to sea. Now the sky out west over the horizon was deepening in colour, the grey haziness taking on intense rainbow hues reflecting their warm pinkish glow on the beach, the air still and quiet, the distant throbbing of a passing ship’s engines carrying across the water. The moon was slowly sinking into the purple haze, taking on a warm golden colour as I finally turned away, exposures now too long to capture the moon sharply.