The word prompt for Friday Foto Fun from Kate at Aroused: Texture
Many days have been spent at the wonderful beaches on the North Coast of New South Wales. There have been photos of sea birds, the coast line, waves, rock formations or the fabulous sunrises that we get when the sun rises from the sea. I am sure you have seen lots of this type of photo in many of my previous blogs or other peoples publications.
I am hoping that what I have seen is something that you may have not seen before with photos of the beach or seaside. I often just see something that catches my eye that I find is quite wondrous or perhaps has shape, form or texture that I find interesting.
Want to come to the seaside with me? You won’t need sunscreen, a hat or other sun protective wear but maybe get a cool drink, settle back and let’s go….
Perhaps I should start with the obvious which you probably seen in many photos. Many of Australias beaches the sand is the shoreline but occasionally the beach is rocks. To me the endless rocks are fascinating and to see the colours, forms and textures is unusual. So let’s begin with the rocks, some rough but mostly worn smooth by the sand and water.
The Sand Crabs like to create their own art with shapes, textures and placement of the small balls of sand they excavate from their sandy holes where they wait for a snack to stroll past.
The water has it’s own way of creating art with the way the water flows back to the ocean leaving patterns on the sand. Can you see a fish or maybe a bird in the patterns? What do you see that perhaps I don’t?
Sometimes these patterns include shells to create parallel lines as they look as if they are zooming across the sand.
Shell are another source of wonder at the beach. How many shells have you picked up just to look at their colours and feel their textures?
Even a broken shell can seemingly form its own mini sand dune.
Part of beach life are the things that get washed onto the beach. Sometimes these can be the result of a storm where seaweed has been torn from its anchorage ending up on the beach with its branches resisting the sands intrusion.
Bits and pieces on the sand.that show the life that is on the beach. From the terrestrial to the marine. The leaf from a mangrove, an excavation spread from a hole in the sand and other bits and pieces of marine vegetation. Each has it’s own place on the beach decorating the sand with artistic expression until the incoming tide changes the art installation.
The orange leaf contrasts with the sand and other items that are washed in by the incoming waves.
I love the way the colour of the sea-grass falls away leading to the blackness of the rock.
The interaction of colours and textures between the sea-grass and jellyfish with some bubbles added for more interest.
The entanglement of grasses and other bits of seaweed almost look like a bit of calligraphy. The imprint of some toes add a human element into the abstract art that nature has constructed.
Sometimes the art that can be of natural construct includes the intrusion of humans or in this case, a child whose toy jet ski washed upon the sand. The impact of human detritus cannot be understated on marine life.
Sometimes a simple stick can seem like a stick. Look at the textures and the added colour of the coastal plants makes the stick more than a stick.
Speaking of making a stick more than a stick, it’s time we moved onto the imagination of two people who see possibilities of making life at the beach different. The things we do we leave behind and perhaps someone may smile as they come across the ideas that we enjoy to make together. When we find something on the coast as we walk about the beaches, dunes or the littoral rainforests and vegetated parts of the the hind dunes. The following is the combined effort of the imagination of two people who can see the ridiculous in nature that just needs a bit of enhancement to make the natural world a bit of fun.
We found some driftwood on the sand. The artist said “Look at the little man I found” and placed the stick on the sand. The photographer took a couple of photos and thought there needs to be more. Then the “footprints” were added.
When you walk along the sand and find some pumice that you would like to take home to use, well don’t you make a small basket to carry it in?
We both saw the vegetation beside the track and saw a shape. Add a few other things that were found nearby and a bit of modification, a bit of art was made. Do you see what the artist and the photographer saw?
A grass tree that had died provided a lot of amusement. I hope someone walking the track in the hind dunes had a laugh as much as we did making our hairy friend.
A Pandanus seed, a bit of red seaweed and gales of mirth led to this little bloke being placed in a paperbark tree beside the track.
Did you enjoy having a stroll along the Australian coastline with me?
As you know I love to get about when I can, discovering new things or rediscovering stuff. I love living in a bio-diverse region where the trip to the mountains or to the coast always sends a surprise encounter. Over the month so far I have seen so many wonderful things this world has, sometimes it may just be something that I saw that I found to be wonderous whereas others have just walked by probably thinking what the hell is that bloke doing with that camera.
So…..this wander through my days I hope fills you with a bit of love for our nature and environment in which we inhabit as it does for me.
I do find butterflies amazing creatures, as you probably have noticed as a lot of my blogs seem to have a butterfly or two. This small butterfly, about 17mm in size, has been whizzing around my besties garden and mine as well – a Small Green-banded Blue butterfly.
I was wading through the water at Taylor Lagoon when all bout there were dragonflies zipping here, zipping there on their mission to do…..waht do dragonflies do when they zip about like that. Well after a while some settled on the sticks poking out of the water. Their irridecence was amazing to see. Unfortunately the dragonfly isn’t quite in focus but I love the effect of the water, don’t you?
This dragonfly has a great grip on the stick.
While wading in the shallows I looked at the water and the reflections of the over-hanging bottlebrush and sedges around the edge. I think it was facinating the way the image always changed as the water rippled and moved with the wind. This photo was my favourite of the couple I took.
The shadow of the tree looked like it was walking across the rock face. What do you see?
I love the contrast of colours, the shadows and where the rock landed (or was put by my bestie lol)
Shells. I love seeing the shells and stuff that is on the beach. The light shining through the shell caught my eye form a distance.
I wonder how the small creatures can survive when the tide is out or is it how do they survive when the tide is in? This one found a nice little niche in the rocks. Aren’t the colours subtle but striking at the same time?
The number of tiny sand balls that were spread all along the shore was incredible. Some of the patterns made were so artistic.
And here is the little bloke who spend a large amount of its life making those tiny sand balls.
“OK fella…..how about a bit of privacy. I didn’t come down to the beach to sit in the shade of my lovely green umbrella just to have you come along taking your photos….”
“If you are going to hang around with that camera, I’m off….”
As I was walking along the shore, all of a sudden there was a whoosh and a couple of Pelicans came flying along looking for a place to land. They are so big up close.
As we walked along the beach, we were discussing how we hadn’t seen any White-bellied Sea Eagles or Brahminy Kites, which are nearly always here. All of a sudden, at the other end of the beach, there was a commotion with Seagulls wheeling about and then appeared the Sea Eagle with a fish. Even with the lens at full stretch they were still a long way a way.
Here is a close up as best as I could manage. The image is heavily cropped just to show the size of the fish.
There was also another White-bellied Sea Eagle just soaring around the sky looking for it’s own fish.
Meanwhile at the waters edge, a group of Crested Terns were having a bath and preening themselves trying to get their “hair” in order.
I have no idea what this plant is but the spots of white among the rocks certainly stood out.
Even the Eastern Spinebill was too heavy for the Pentas making hanging on a bit of a chore.
The Whipbirds are always pocking around in the garden, flicking over leaves and bits of bark to try and find some insects and bugs to snack on.
Over the past few weeks the Eastern Yellow Robins have seemed to appear in numbers in the garden. This one was sitting out front on the warm gravel early one morning. They are such sweet little birds.
Heading into town early one misty morning, I spotted this Black-necked Stork (I really prefer Jabiru) stalking about the small pond where the “Tyre Turtle” lives. It was one of a pair. The other one was further back in the paddock in the ffog.
Aren’t the colours great. I never noticed their red cap before either.
The Water Dragon has set up home in my besties garden. Such a lovely prehistoric looking creature.
But they still enjoy a good laugh. Not really. He really enjoys a few bits of apple. The inside of his mouth is so pink.
That’s the end of what I have found in April so far. Hope you enjoyed seeing what I have seen.
I really enjoy going to the beach. There is always so much to see and do. From swimming or riding the waves to walking along the shore, exploring the rock pools or just sitting on the headland watching the world go by.
Early morning is so good. Sometimes you have the beach to yourself to watch the sunrise and take in the beauty of the morning
If there are some good waves, there will always be someone carrying a board heading out to where the waves are best.
At other times, you have to share the sand with someone else
or there are crabs scuttling about
making their own patterns on the sand with perfectly round sand balls
I love the patterns that the water makes as the waves sweep up the beach and recede leaving tiny rivulets in the sand
When my girls were small we always had to have a shell collection, making sure that every different shell was represented. I still walk along the beach but instead of picking them up to make an arrangement of some sort, I just grab a picture as the shape, forms and textures are so different from shell to shell. Here is a few of my favourites.
A deeply furrowed purple shell….almost like a claw.
An almost black shell
The ridges and valleys sweep forward
The creams and reds caught my eye with this shell
The darker bands running around makes this shell a distinctive
This shell was like finding gold
Concentric rings that have a wave and a deeper yellow section made this one stand out
OK…it’s time to look out to sea again. Enough of looking at the sand and the wonders it holds.
Storms at the beach are always spectacular
The storm makes the sea surge and swell and crash upon the rocks…
which washes up interesting bits of wood…..
or other ocean-going craft…..
It doesn’t take much to put the gulls and terns to flight
When the wind blows, I like to get back up the beach and into the dunes to explore, discover and to have a bit of fun with my fabulous artist bestie……
until it’s almost time to head off after an enjoyable day after watching the sunset
How do you spend your day at the beach?
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