Storm Ciarán on the UK South Coast

Last week I spent a couple of days on the south coast to stay with friends. The chief reason was to go to a couple of gigs in Bexhill-on-Sea (Calexico and Stornoway, since you ask). This was arranged weeks ago and it all coincided with the arrival of Storm Ciarán; our area had a Met Office Anber alert, but other regions on either side of the channel had it worse. The storm even struck Tuscany.

My friends live a few minutes from Newhaven, and it was grand to catch a few minutes there.

I went to see ...



... big waves hitting the harbour wall, and I wasn't disappointed.

But how to present the results on this forum? I came back with over 250 frames captured, and the animation above came from a 5-second spray-and-pray of 51 frames (which I've converted to a single Gif).

1


#1 shows all the individual frames, and a selection is in #2 below,

2


From these perhaps #3

3



is the closest to one of the choices made by The Guardian picture editor, see #16 at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/gallery/2023/nov/02/storm-ciaran-batters-the-british-isles-in-pictures from Reuters photographer Peter Cziborra.

The photo is 'newsy' and shows the storm hitting one of the iconic if clichéd sites for the storm-hit UK South Coast, Newhaven Harbour.

But I didn't go there to be a stringer for the Guardian ... I wanted to see what else I could get from 20 or 30 minutes next to the water.

First of all, I wasn't the only photographer there - up to a dozen were braving the elements:

4


5


6


On to a selection of wave-crashing photos:

7


I arrived on Wednesday morning and I had the Minolta Reflex AF 500mm F8 attached to my A7 III. The light was odd and the colours seem out, but I like the string of streamers along the wall of the harbour. Cleaning up the doughnut-shaped dust bunnies was fun.

8


I switched to black and white and cropped in closer to the main subject. From this angle (the beach at the west end of Seaford) you can see the lettering on the lighthouse, just, and the 'MAX SPEED 8 KNOTS' warning. The interplay of light and shadow, seagulls and spray, appeals to me too.

9


Here I have cropped in closer to the lighthouse and my eye is drawn to the lone seagull just off the end of the wall.

10


On Thursday I went to the Newhaven harbour area (West Beach is the name, I think) armed with the FE 70-300mm F4.5-5.6 G OSS on the A7 III. A nice big wave struck for this one, rising along a substantial stretch of wall.

#7-#10 also show the light of the lighthouse - further into dusk this might play well in any future storms that coincide with my visits.

And two more from this vantage point:

11


12


#12 has a pleasing and explosive spray of wave water.

Finally, a selection with a different focus:

13


14


15


16


Thanks for looking!



Edited by Howard_S - 05 November 2023 at 10:35

A serious amount of wind.
Daredevil sounds appropriate.
Besides #7 (spectacular), I love the color shots #12 and #14.

Those are serious waves! And nicely captured!

For some reason, I cannot see the pictures 1-3...

You timed that trip well - great shots.

Great shots, would love to have been there!! Saw it on the news here and the aftermath in Jersey, Spain and Italy. That was a once in a lifetime hopefully??

Howard,
Spectacular footage and stills, of which I like the monochromes best, particularly #9, that in my opinion represent the atmosphere of this ominous storm.
I agree that such events are becoming more commonplace, and that coastal environs are going to be under significant threat into the future.

Fabulous reportage, Howard. We were untouched by the storm, only a slight breeze here. I like Calexico, will have to look up Stornoway, the De La Warr Pavilion is one venue I'd like to visit but a long way from me.