Gethin Thomas
- May 14, 2022

See Level

OK yes it's a pun, but a very apt one and I'll explain why. I was walking along the beach the other day and this is a shingle beach so it feels like walking in slow motion with twice the effort. Like going for a stroll in a mile long ball pool.

This beach is very wide and if you start at the water's edge and walk away from the water you see shelves of shingle, rising up, left by different tides, made of graded stones of different sizes, like a nightmarish set of giant steps that subside like liquefaction as you try to mount them, like walking up a down escalator.

Above the reach of the worst of the tides it flattens out and the first plants appear, purple Sea Kale amidst larger stones and tiny Euphorbia peeping out, seemingly growing from nothing. Keep walking and a whole garden appears with hundreds of flowering plants that vary as you get further from the sea and nearer to the cliffs.

About half way there are many smoothed off and rounded shale stones which tend to gather in the same rough line along the beach, selected by the forces of nature. Here the regular beach goers over time have laid a path using these stones, which makes walking easier, a bit like a long line of snow shoes laid out in front of you making a path across deep snow.

When I was walking this path and looking down so as not to lose my balance I noticed a whole world of different objects which magically appeared out of the monotone beige beach which one normally experiences, a bit like those magic 3D pictures which are there only if you focus in the right spot. It struck me that I should return with that new focus and take a series of photos from way down there where my toes live.

These are a selection of those photos from a careful meander along the path and back along the fresh tide line. A microcosm of shapes, materials, colours and textures.

I gave myself one rule. Do not touch, do not move or arrange or pose anything. Everything had to be as it lay when and where I found it. The only input from me was the distance from the object and the composition in the frame.

After a lot of requests to buy prints of my photos, I have taken the decision to offer some selected images for sale, here on my blog. Initially, to keep things simple I am just offering one size, in matt finish,15 X 10 inches, at a price of £35 per print or £60 for two, including different images. Square images will be 10X10. This will include delivery, either by hand locally, or by mail within the UK mainland.

To place your order, please email me with your name, the unique print code or codes and the titles. I will also need a contact telephone number and full delivery address. I will send you an invoice for payment by bank transfer. Delivery is 1-2 weeks after payment is received, usually the lower end of this estimate.

You can either use my email address or the contact form.

By mail, the prints will be delivered rolled in a tube. Where the image format does not fit the standard size paper, I have taken the decision to shrink the image to fit, so that no part of it is lost. This means that when that happens there may be blank paper strips on two of the sides. This also applies to square images.

If you do have any requests not met by the above framework, email me the details and I will try to help. In theory I should be able to provide any photo available on the blog so use the search facility to find other South Hams locations you may be interested in. I will gradually be adding other specific sales pages for other locations over time.

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