Shallow Water Tidal Ripple Patterns 1-3 Photographs of natural patterns created by reflected sunlight on the crests of minor ripples in clear shallow seawater lapping with the incoming tide around the island of Burry Holms at the tip of the Gower Peninsula in South Wales. Here shown in negative format to highlight the intricacies of the natural designs.
Rousse Ripples 11 – 18: Ripples in lapping clear water on the seashore act as lenses to distort the image of coloured rocks below. Rousse Point, Guernsey, Channel Islands, October 2016.
On the edge of the seashore, each moving sunlit ripple becomes a prism that splits the colours and distorts the images of the stones beneath the clear water.
The MacIntosh Brook is one of the stopping places along the Cabot Trail in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia, Canada. This clear mountain stream flows rapidly via waterfalls and over stones of many colours as it passes through dense old-growth hardwood forest. The water source is high up in the hills at about 430 metres. It starts in Ordovician-Carboniferous granitic plutons, then passes over Ordovician-Silurian meta-igneous rocks (both rock formations belong to the Aspy Terrane). Finally, in the lower reaches it flows over red Horton Group sand stones and conglomerates from the early Carboniferous Period. The torrents of winter storms and spring snow melt bring rocks of all these types tumbling down the ravines to the stream bed where they ‘colour’ the water and create a rapidly transitioning series of riffles, ripples, and water reflections – a kaleidoscope of impressions.
It was a lovely winter’s day on the beach at Studland earlier this week. The light was bright and a cold breeze was bracing. It was one of those tides that did not fluctuate much from the high tide line – just ebbing for a short while before coming in again. The water was clear and bounced quickly back from the shore as each wave broke in the shallows. A cross wind caused ripples to pass from left to right as the waves lapped in and out. When the sun came through the clouds, the tops of the ripples caught the light, and the reflections made patterns on the sand beneath. The patterns moved rapidly – appearing and disappearing within seconds – making it it difficult to capture the fleeting image and keep your feet dry at the same time. Here are some of the photographs I took of these natural abstract designs.
I have added these photographs to my portfolio on the Redbubble site.
On the western half of the shore at Eype in Dorset, England, the cliff is basically made up of porous yellow sandstones and limestones, belonging to the Middle Jurassic Down Cliff Sand Member and Thorncombe Sand Member, overlying the pale, blue-grey micaceous silty mudstone and shale known as the Eype Clay Member. All three members belong to the Dyrham Formation. Rainwater soaks down through the upper porous rocks but, when it reaches the lower clay-based strata, it seeps out to the surface and drains away down the cliff face to the shore in numerous small streams.
The picture above, and the short video clip below, show one of these little streams running over the clay where someone has artistically constructed small pebble bridges over the flow. The last image in the post illustrates the general appearance of the cliff face with the small streams issuing from the lower layers.
COPYRIGHT JESSICA WINDER 2014
All Rights Reserved
More natural colours and abstract patterns of reflection on the gently moving water surface of waves lapping ashore over pebbles on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, UK.
COPYRIGHT JESSICA WINDER 2012
All Rights Reserved
