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.
A wide and shallow river flows over the sandy beach at Ventry Bay on the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland. I do not know its name. Characteristic ripple marks are made in the wet sand around the margins of its wandering channels, showing the influence of the freshwater currents modified by the sea water tides. As you walk away from the fast flowing water, the overlapping ‘leaf’ patterns made by the river currents gradually transition into the parallel ridges of wave-induced ripples that are more typical of the intertidal shore .
The wind was blowing really hard across the navy blue water surface of slacks trapped behind the shingle banks at Rochefort Point. Rochefort Point is a short walk from the Louisbourg Fortress in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The ripples were tight packed and narrow, travelling at speed. The water was actually a brackish brown but reflected the clear blue of the sky resulting mostly in dark blue hues. From some angles and in certain lights the sun shone through the ripples revealing the reddish colour of the water. The low standing crests of the waves were so distinct that it seemed as if the water was viscous.
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.
Rippled Water 7 – 15: Natural patterns of shallow wind-rippled water in sandy pools near the tidal island of Burry Holms, Rhossili, Gower, in South Wales. The original photographs have been colour-modified to highlight the lines of reflected sunlight that trace the surface sculpturing of the water.
Rippled Water 1-6 – Natural patterns of shallow wind-rippled water in sandy pools near the tidal island of Burry Holms, Rhossili, Gower, in South Wales. The original photograph has been colour-modified to highlight the lines of reflected sunlight tracing the surface sculpturing of the water.
Fleeting patterns of reflected light on wind-driven ripples across the surface of the seawater in St Peter Port Harbour on Guernsey in the Channel Islands make natural abstract designs in never-ending variations.
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 blue water at Portlet Harbour was breaking gently on the shore, disturbing the fine sandy bottom with each successive wave into cloudy yellow plumes, seen courtesy of the sunlit translucence.
Wind-driven natural patterns of ripples in clear shallow sea water over sand that change with every micro-second.
