As a seascape photographer, I love nothing more than to immerse myself in a coastline and see what wonders from the deep emerge. The motion of the water, the uniqueness of every wave and of course the sounds, smells and feelings that the sea produces are some of the things that keep me coming back for more.

Today however I was going to be heading to a beach and not once getting even remotely near the water, instead, I would venture less than 50 meters from the dunes and have my camera pointing down for 99% of the shoot. What would make me do this?

As I was travelling along the coastal road from my last photography location, I was taken aback by the incredible beauty that the Clare Coast has to offer, jagged cliffs, roaring waves, a landscape that could come from the moon, boulders the size of cars that had been thrown up onto the roadside from gigantic waves and of course the ever-present view of the Atlantic to my right. As I drove this road, I spotted in the corner of my eye a bright yellow glow, a glow that only a pristine sandy beach bathing in sunlight can offer, so without a moment’s hesitation I turned right and entered an area that is almost picture perfect. This was Fenore Beach on the Wild Atlantic Way. A beach surrounded by dunes, crystal clear blue water and a pristine sandy beach, unspoilt by human footprints due to the ever-cleansing hide tide that had recently come and gone.

Arriving at the wooden deck I got my first view of this stunning beach, and it immediately reminded me of a recent set of videos by Nigel Danson that I had watched. He spent 30 days on location on Luskentyre, in Scotland and my view reminded me of this from the get-go. I was excited as I walked down towards the sand as to what I would discover there. Within seconds I was again reminded of another video that my good Pal Gavin Hardcastle had recently made, where he looked for patterns, shapes and textures along a beach in Nova Scotia in Canada. So the scene was set, the inspirations locked in as I set about trying to capture some abstract shots of my own.

This form of photography was new to me, I normally am right at the water’s edge, but today as I entered the beach I found my first subject to photograph, a pattern in the sand formed by the wind blowing across it creating ridges and edges as the sand moved from one mini dune to the next. Setting up my camera I decided that I would see what I could make of this and after hitting the shutter I knew that this would be the path I would take for this shoot without a doubt.

Less than 20 feet away I would find my second and third compositions, the golden sand had many lines and waves of black sand being woven into it, creating some incredible patterns and undulations before me, combine this with some rock pools which also assisted in forming the abstract shapes and I was starting to hit my stride in finding and photographing each composition. What struck me quite quickly was with this approach it wouldn’t matter what orientation I had my camera, I didn’t need to be straight I could have the camera turned in any orientation that the sand shapes would want me to, as there would be no horizon or point of reference whatsoever. The only thing I would have to be conscious of was the sun and more importantly, the shadow that its light would create in my frame, this however was quickly overcome by shooting into the sun, and all shadows would be cast behind me.

As I explored the beach more and more abstract scenes presented themselves to me, and as I walked over the sand, I was very aware that I was the only one who was going to ruin this pristine beach with my footprints, so I would only move and step on a scene once I knew that there wasn’t something in there for me to photograph, otherwise, I might have a big wellie boot footprint instead of a unique shot.

Gavin’s video had me looking for trees in the sand, trees formed by the water as it retreated out to sea, leaving what resembled a tree trunk with branches protruding from them, and I managed to find a few of them for myself, each different to the last and next but all fantastic subjects to shoot.

As my morning drew to a close, due to the onslaught of many more humans and footprints on the beach other than my own, it was time to call it a day and finish up what was a very interesting type of photography for me, but not until I, of course, took one shot with the ocean in it.

You can see the images I managed to capture in the gallery below or watch the adventure on the Youtube video from Sunday at 5 pm