A friend gave us another Minimoon as a wedding present – most kind, I’m sure you will agree. The location of this Minimoon was once again in Devon, this time at Seaton, at the estuary of the River Axe. Now, however, it was early November, and the days were getting much shorter.
One of the advantages of being in Seaton, and at the mouth of the Axe, is that there is a good chance of seeing a wide variety of birds. We saw many birds, but most were too distant to make for interesting photographs. Probably my favourite bird photograph of this short trip was of starlings arrayed on wires, shown at the head of this post.
Otherwise, the photographs from the weekend were mainly of landscapes and seascapes. When we arrived, the night was clear. I went to Seaton beach hoping for a moonset over the sea; however, I had left it slightly too late, and the moon had set behind a headland. Instead, I experimented with night-photographs that incorporated the lights of the town and the stars; this one shows Orion clearly, as well as the lights on the rods of some night-anglers:
Seaton at Night, with Orion and Beach Fishermen
The next day, after checking out the birds along the estuary, we walked around the beach and town, photographing seascapes and landscapes. This photograph was taken with my Vivitar Series 1 19-35mm; this lens is very wide on my full-frame Sony A850:
Very Wide Over the Sea at Seaton
The Vivitar (based on a Cosina) is not the sharpest lens I own, and it’s aberrations can be… interesting… nonetheless, it is my widest lens, and it has a certain quality. The day was short, and ended quickly. Here is sunset over the sea at Seaton, again with the Vivitar 19-35…
Sunset at Seaton
The next day, our stay in the delightful Blue Waters B + B was over, and we decided to drive back from Devon slowly, as usual, popping in and out of the coastal villages of Devon and Dorset as we did so. West Bay and Lyme Regis were surprisingly busy, so we ended up at the little village and beach of Seatown. Yes, Seaton and Seatown, separated by only 15 miles or so… The cliffs at Seatown were higher than at Seaton, although the shingle beach, characteristic of this part of the south coast, had followed us from Seaton.
I like the way the cliff in the following photograph looms into the frame, and adds a solidity to it. The photograph was taken with another old lens — a bit of a golden oldie, in this case, I feel — the Minolta 100-200mm zoom.
Cliff at Seatown
The final part of our journey, when we arrived back in Wiltshire, included a short jaunt along The Old Coach Road and the Ridgeway. The light was assuredly failing by this time, yet bonfire smoke, a copse, and the surrounding autumn colours caught my eye:
Twilight Smoke and Autumn Leaves
