a gift from the sea gods

At the time of writing (20 September) we're experiencing a lovely Indian Summer here in South Wales, so one evening last week we went out for a spur of the moment drive down to the marina in Swansea and then on to Mumbles.

We arrived just after the sun had set and I wasn't even going to bother taking a photograph until I looked down onto Limeslade Bay from road above it and saw a huge piece of driftwood washed up on the still high tide.

This was too good an opportunity to miss so I joined the large flock of seagulls bobbing on the water and the pesky sand flies that populated the beach in their millions to capture this image.

It was quite tricky to get as the light was fading but I didn't want a super long exposure which would have rendered the sea as flat calm and the waves lapping the huge lump of wood as a mist, but instead wanted a more realistic image.  

Another problem was that I didn't have my remote release with me which meant I had to use my camera's in-built 2 second timer (to avoid camera shake with the slow shutter speed) and try to time the shutter to coincide with an incoming wave.

Who said landscape photography was relaxing?

Whatever, this is the result.

Fujifilm GFX50R, Fujinon GF 23mm f4

1.6 seconds @f8, ISO 100

tripod, self timer release