Kynance Cove: Day 2 - Photography Week 23 (2016)

The previous evening I had seen a number of interesting wildflowers in Kynance Cove. The light wasn't right to capture these so I decided to make a further visit in brighter conditions. I also wanted to take a closer look at the serpentine rocks on the beach at low tide.

When researching Kyannce Cove for my blog post 7th June 2016, I was aware that it was home to several rare or uncommon species of wildflowers. One mentioned was the Bloody Cranesbill (Geranium sanguineum): a reddish purple flower with distinctive red veins and a red style:

Also mentioned was the Burnet Rose (Rosa pimpinellifolia):

Whilst scouting around I captured this more common Tormentil (Potentilla erecta) and a Common Catsear (Hypochaeris radicata):

Thrift (Armeria maritime) is very common on the Cornish cliffs this time of year but this is the first time I had really looked closely at the individual flower heads - beautiful:

Also close to where I took the long exposure the previous day was this Early Purple Orchid (not totally sure on the ID of this one):

Apart from the wildflowers I had an opportunity to walk on the beach at low tide and in particular the tombolo which connects the Asparagus Island to the mainland. Sitting in the middle is the imposing Steeple Rock:

The rocks on the beach are Serpentinite, a rare exposure of the Earth's mantle pushed to the surface 300 million years ago as two continental plates collided. Up close they have a distinctive mottled green and red appearance:

In my previous posts I had challenged the notion of Kynnance Cove being a pretty cove and preferred my description of beauty inspired by the power of nature. Having now spent time on the beach at low tide I can certainly see why visitors flock to this part of the coast on a summer's day - it is pretty. That said, the landscape photographer in me will tend to favour the wilder and more dramatic conditions! 

Kynance Cove - Photography Week 23 (2016)

Being many weeks behind with my image processing often serves as a prompt to revisit some of the photographic venues in different seasonal conditions. Also, I tend to learn more about a location as I research for the blog posts which inspires me to take a fresh or closer look.

My winter shots from Kynance Cove, published on 7th June, where taken at high tide with the sea pounding into the cove. On the cliff side I dodged an number of heavy showers waiting for glimpses of sunlight. I didn't really get any sense of the pretty cove described on tourist websites. Instead it was more about the raw power of nature.

The day after publishing the winter shots, I decided to revisited Kynance Cove. A clear evening was forecast and I wanted to test my impressions in late spring conditions. On reaching the cove I was surprised by how much of the beach was in shadow. This forced me to improvise with compositions from the cliff top looking back towards Asparagus Island and Lizard Point in the distance. Gradually, the shadow area crept up the island until only the tip of Gull Rock had direct light:

On the way back to the car park I stopped to make a long exposure of Kynance Cove which includes from left to right: Bishop Rock, Gull Rock, Asparagus Island and Steeple Rock.

As I came away from Kynance Cove with a slightly different set of images than I had expected, I decided to make a further visit to the cove and planned this for the next day. I had spotted a number of wildflowers which I was interested to look at in better light and I still hadn't managed to get onto the beach at the lowest tide.