Having spent so many years photographing the lush and richly saturated colors of the Nova Scotian coastline i find it interesting that i have lately been leaning towards a black & white treatment of the subject. Maybe it's just the time of year. It is certainly more difficult to ignore the pervasive, deeply saturated colors of this place at the height of the summer season. They douse the eye with their brilliance and permeate your retina with their illuminated insistence. This isn't to say that Nova Scotia is a colorless place in winter. Far for it indeed. But it is, perhaps, toned down to the point where form steps out a bit from behind it's gaudy dress and i can put aside my "chromist" tendencies for grayscale and structure.
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©David Sorcher 2015
Technically this is not the sea, but a barachois off Hirtle's Beach. This is a term used to describe a coastal lake that is separated from the ocean by a narrow strip or sand bar. Often at high tide this bar is breached and fresh water mixes with the salty sea.
©David Sorcher 2015
Hurtles has a greater variety of seaweeds than i have ever seen on any one beach anywhere. I don't know what this one is called, but i love the way i sometimes find it curled up into spiral formations.
©David Sorcher 2015
At the right times of tide and season these many varieties of ocean flora gather in large mounds along the shoreline creating breaks for crashing waves.
©David Sorcher 2015
The surf deposits many other gifts upon the shore. It is not uncommon to find old lobster traps washed up, especially after a good storm. This one came to rest in the grasses that divide the sea from the barachois.
©David Sorcher 2015
Sometimes this stuff reminds me of old, dried up umbilical cords discarded by the mother of the great briny blue herself.
©David Sorcher 2015
I'm not sure how i feel about this new fence that went up along the edge of one of the sandy beach cliffs. I have photographed this particular cliff many times for is natural beauty, unfettered by the intrusions of man. Certainly it has added some interesting leading line to my composition, but i still must mourn the loss of the unspoiled and pristine landscape just a little. My wife tells me i may feel differently about this in a few years once the elements have added a proper weathering to the wood. She may well be correct about that.
©David Sorcher 2015
©David Sorcher 2015
Seaweed, rocks and sand make for nice compositions of textures, form and contrast.
©David Sorcher 2015
Waves crash on mounds of seaweed piled as high as a person... active, fierce and alive in the dead of winter.
©David Sorcher 2015
