Kathleen's Fury - a photo on Flickriver

Kathleen's Fury

            Portreath was predictably busy when Kathleen arrived on a torrent of white ocean fury yesterday.  The unnamed hut where we togs like to set up on days like these was also predictably busy, a cluster of colourful anoraks filling the viewing gallery as wave after wave crashed over the Monkey Hut and swept along the breakwater.  On the beach, half a dozen intrepid souls played chicken with the incoming carpets of glowing foam that swept their way to the wall of the walkway below the car park and then slewed from left to right on the way back down the sand towards the waiting sea.  On the water, a knot of hardy surfers bobbed about on their boards, waiting for the moment they’d catch a monster and ride it to Wipeout City, Kernowfornia.  Cornwall in a storm is always something to behold, and although Kathleen wasn’t a beast of epic proportions, there was enough going on to draw a crowd and let us know she was in a playful mood.  

I was thinking of going to Porthleven, where the predicted swells were considerably higher - maybe as much as eight metres.  But that involved an extra half hour on the road, and I like Portreath.  It’s my “go to” for storms.  In fact, the last time I came here to take pictures was in a storm, and that was two years ago.  As the crow flies, I live just four miles away, but it only really comes to mind for photography when Kathleen and her friends are in town and the Monkey Hut’s in for another thrashing.  Ali surprised me by announcing she was coming with me.  Admittedly it was dry, but storms aren’t usually her thing - although I do remember an evening nearly twenty years ago when we came down after work to see what all the fuss on the local news was about.  Everyone had been advised to stay indoors, but red rags, bulls and all of that.  The waves were pouring over the edge of the car park that evening.  Too dark for photos though.

Some years later, once I’d splashed out on a shiny new DSLR and found the elderly telephoto lens from my film days, I came here again; quite often in fact.  It was an exhilarating place to take images in those early days.  It still can be of course, although I just had a quick run through my Portreath album and it’s mostly storms that have been the subject here - Erik, Freya, Alex, Arwen and Brian are all recorded in the annals.  Not that Brian.  When Freya came to visit, I took over seven hundred shots, which took a lot of time to whittle down to twenty-eight.  I wouldn’t do that today.  I’d just take a handful in burst mode and then sit back to enjoy the show along with everyone else.  Besides which, that trawl through the archive had given me an idea.  And nowadays I have a much newer and sharper telephoto lens that’s almost always in the bag, wherever I go.

So here we were at the Pepperpot, the stoical white bastion that stands sentinel on the clifftop above the village and watches over the ocean.  Only now and again have I taken shots from here.  Once I won a local photography competition I didn’t even realise I’d entered with a shot from this position.  Bizarre that was.  Apparently the tag I’d used had been the entry in itself.  No brand new mirrorless set up or a holiday in The Maldives sadly - but even so, the modest prize I was sent was unexpected.  The photo itself never made it onto Flickr because I didn’t think that much of it, but apparently it’s now on the wall of a hotel further up the coast somewhere.  A friend of mine who lives in that direction has seen it, although she thinks I should have held out for a bigger prize.  But today my mission was clear.  Fast shutter, big wave action, and no competitions.  And no way was I taking seven hundred shots this time.

Ten minutes later I checked how many times I’d hit the shutter.  I was already up to a hundred and ninety-six.  I carried on.  It’s like those younger days when you said “just one more pint,” even though you knew where it was leading.  I ended up taking over four hundred from up here alone, and by the time the rain came in hard down at the beach, I’d racked up seven hundred and nine on the SD card.  Another cull was waiting for later at home, once we’d dried off a bit.  

There are four folders waiting, each of them packed with action shots from different viewpoints. So many to choose from, although the surfer won this one for me.  Best viewed large - don’t just look on your phone or you won’t see his fins pointing up towards the sky as the moment he’s been waiting for arrives.  Kathleen may not be back, but I’ve more to share from here, and folder number four was especially entertaining.  I’ll just leave that there then……….

Taken in: UK / England / Portreath / Portreath (show map)

Taken on: April 6, 2024

Tags:

storm

Kathleen

Portreath

Monkey Hut

breakwater

waves

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Atlantic

Cornwall

Coast

ukcoast

British Coast

cornish coast

Kernow

Kernowfornia

surfer

bodyboarder

bodyboarding

bodyboard

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100-400

Canon 100-400 Mk2

telephoto

Water

water_shots

water_captures

fury

white water

stormy

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Sets appears in: • Portreath

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Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, f/5.0, 1/1600 sec, 100mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Lens:	EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM
Aperture:	f/5.0
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/1600)
Focal Length:	100mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 13.2 (Windows)
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