One of my Sisters lives in South Wales and I was visiting for a few days for Christmas and I arranged to have a couple of days out walking with my Nephew, Ross.
For the first of these, we opted for a Christmas Eve visit to Tenby - a coastal town I had never been to, but had seen many photos of on the internet, and one which Ross likes anyway.
The forecast was for breezy and drizzly conditions, improving a bit from mid afternoon, but we were determined to have the fresh air and exercise and to enjoy as much as possible.
Parking at South Beach car park was easy and affordable, which was followed by a gentle stroll along the beach. The wind was quite gusty at that stage and was blowing the fine sand along the beach as it was then low tide.
Our stroll took us to the furthest we could get before the headland juts out into the sea, with the North Beach being on the other side of that headland. We climbed some steps and walked around the footpath past the bandstand and round to the edge of the North Beach. From there, it was a very short walk into the bottom end of the town and we opted for a look around.
Later we headed along the esplanade above the North Beach, as I wanted to recce potential spots for dusk shots looking across the beach to the harbour with the hope that quite a few buildings would have lights on by that time to add to the atmosphere of my intended shots.
We found suitable angles to remember and return to and dropped down one of the many sets of steps to reach beach level to continue our exploration.
After a further wander through part of the town, we checked the time and decided on moving the car to the North Beach car park to be nearer for our dusk shoot.
Having moved the car, there was still a bit of time to spare and a coffee seemed like a good idea - so we returned to the town on foot and found a suitable vendor for a welcome coffee. We also found a potential photo spot for when lights were on, with a stack of lobster pots on the quayside.
Thereafter, it was out onto the beach for a few artistic shots of streaks of wave water washing onto the beach and flowing back down again.
Then the climb up some steep steps to the upper esplanade to the first of our intended spots for dusk.
Our intended spots yielded the hoped for shots of a well lit town
and harbour area and with light reflections in the water of the incoming tide.
The water appears smoother in the photos than it actually was, which aids the reflections, due to the slow shutter speeds I was using.
While up on that path, we noticed that the street lights had indeed been switched on at the quayside where the lobster pots were stacked. Reasoning that we had sufficient time to go and shoot that before the car park time expired. we hurried along there.
Arriving on the quayside we initially met with disappointment as the one 'led' street light nearest to the pots was very bright and creating a massive amount of glare when trying to compose the intended image.
Working on a variety of angles and settings, we managed to eliminate the glare problem and fired off several shots before needing to make a brisk walk back to the car park.
Arriving back at the car just in time, I realised a couple of changes I could have made to the settings to improve my chances of further photos and I would also have needed to change the camera battery by then. We opted to settle for what we had already taken and not to extend our car park stay.
There was also the added attraction of a welcome dinner awaiting us at my Sister's place after an hour of driving home, so we stuck to our plan.
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