Mud

I live in Bristol these days... and very nice it is too... the one thing there is a lot of round these parts is mud... so I've been doing a project on it... here are some of the results... all K3/K3 II and mostly 55-300 WR, one or two quite high iso's (1600 ish in low light), and a couple of multiple exposures...

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All thoughts, comments, observations etc. very welcome as ever...

Best

Some good examples here. I'm particularly drawn to 14. Very nice.

like 11 but they are all well spotted and executed as usual but with that one i just want see what is living down that hole. is that Severn or Avon mud, Bill?

Mud! Mud! Glorious mud...
You've made it very attractive Bill! Its nice to get the low angle sun on some of them to enhance the 'ridges', but even those that have more even lighting you have still pulled out the textures.

3 and 14 stand out for me.
As above, the low angle sun has worked really well.

5 and 10 for me. The colours do it.
Regards,
Mike

Glorious mud, love the patterns and the light, No 7 for me i think but then why pick, i like them all.

You've managed to get a wide range of interest level into these mud pictures with so many quite different images. Abstracts, patterns and textures are all featured, and surprisingly with mud, some very pleasing colours. Well done on technique and aesthetic appeal.
David

You have proved conclusively that an apparently non photogenic subject can be made to shine. It is quite hard to think outside the box and the 'project' approach certainly appears to help in focussing one's thoughts. Thank you for the inspiration.

Thanks all for thoughts and comments on these... much appreciated as ever...

Joe... these were taken around Brean Down on the Bristol Channel, so probably a combo of both Avon and Severn mud... have been looking at various places on the Avon in Bristol, but it's about how close you can get...

David and David... the project came about by accident really (as they often do)... I'd spent a lot of time looking for water when I first came came down here, and kept bumping into mud... and started noticing how reflective it was as a surface (it being largely composed of water, I suppose)... so have been mucking about with it ever since... have been to have a look in various different lighting states to see what might happen... definitely rewards low light, both directional and indirect...

Thanks and best

Bill

Bill, some beautiful forms and lighting patterns. You have isolated some very attractive little ripples and brought out contrast, depth and colours to make very polished looking, creative images.

I must be honest and add that overall, as photographs, I find the effect of viewing to be strangely claustrophobic .... it's as if my eye is needing to pull away, look around and straining to take in a wider vista. It feels like more space is needed. I'm not sure if this is just an awareness of the sort of wider environment and a need to explore more visually, but these are an oddly constraining view of a beach with an unsettling effect when seen.

Taken as mini scenes, a micro world, then all the qualities I referred to at the start (and indeed as described by other members here) shine through.

Nigel

Thanks for this... and for your honesty... always thoughtful, and very welcome... yes, I take your point... I know what you mean about seeing the wider context here, and whether it might be useful... I do have a number of shots of the area around Brean Down, which I took whilst I was taking the mud shots above (and on days when the mud shots didn't work) which funnily enough I was considering posting in a few weeks...

I suppose the reason I didn't post them along with these, is I just wanted to put the "mud" itself in the spotlight as it were... I was surprised by how beautiful it was of itself, so thought I'd do a project on concentrating on the mud, and only the mud, as the hero... so a deliberate choice, I suppose...

Having spent a fair bit of (extremely rewarding) time down the "wide vista" route over the years, I've also recently been having a closer look at the more "intimate landscape" end of the spectrum... not exclusively, just interested in it (focussing on the details, as opposed to the context, of things eg water, logs etc.)... and the effect that has in terms of heading more towards the abstract... so I suppose there is also an element of that in these too...

It's a valid point you make, though... I hadn't thought of looking at the closer and the wider together, so will have a look at that and see if I can make it hang together...

Thanks and best

Thanks for sharing these, Bill.

My favourites are 2,3,5 & 10. So it would appear that my tastes are different from some of the other posters ? But that's what it's all about - we all have different perspectives on what we like and that's how it should be.

I'm with you on looking at things in a different way and I also love the patterns of waves left on the sand. I've tried to capture this myself but I think I took Nigel's approach and went for a wider view on my shot of the breakwater at Frinton which I posted recently.

I also like to look closely at rocks and pebbles on the beach and also into rock pools for different images like the 'layers' shot I posted.

Thanks again for sharing these. I'll look out for some more.

Incidentally, when you are next on the beach how about some close ups of worm casts ? They can also give some different images ?

Best regards
Peter

love 10 a lot

11 & 14 are my favorites although the whole set are great! 11 for the sparse view and 14 for the otherworldly view.

Sometimes we only really see when we really look. 😋