British Coastline Information Page

About Me

Hello, who I am is irrelevant. What I am like is meaningless and my back story is nothing special. I know I know usually in a biography photographer type write up about oneself you're meant to say positive things and relay some impressive accolades but I've never been one comfortable enough to inflate my own ego or able to talk about myself in a third person perspective but apparently this is what you're supposed to do. Ok I have had some publications in some magazines and I've even had some of my footage used on TV. There that's my accolades done. I suppose I started this project as a very young child. But I was unaware of the project I was starting. I used to collect postcard pictures with sunny photos of places I had visited on family holidays. Like many people we didn't travel abroad, mainly travelled around the South West and Wales. Now I seem to take the photos instead and I am storing a selection of these on here my website.

Here's a rare photograph of me. Taking photos! I prefer to stay behind the camera usually. This one is ten years old now anyway.

I have been doing this for around 12 years now and as I get older I get more critical of my work so I have been recently slimming down the gallery section. This project is forever ongoing as like most of us I am working full time and only committing my spare time to this project.

YVONNE BEARDON

4th February 1953 -

12th April 2024

About The Photo Gallery

I have been interested in photography for some time but I have not really invested in it until around 2010 and that's about the time when I purchased my first DSLR camera which was a Canon 550D. But the significant date in my life is the 10th of September 2012. This is when I met Elizabeth who also shares similar interests. So you will find in the British Coastline Photography gallery that no image pre-dates 2012.

There she is! It's Elizabeth! Sharing similar interests on the British Coastline (Devon). Isn't that nice!

It's nice for me.

So how do I decide what images make it into the gallery section. Well I am trying to get a varied selection of images from all the way around the British Coastline. Sure it would be nice to only use images that have perfect light or interesting weather events but I want a representation of the varied coast around Britain.

One of the most beautiful sunsets I've captured, taken on the Isle of Rum. Maybe I'm hard on myself but the image itself is not strong enough for the gallery. Or is it?

The Photo Gallery itself is divided into geographical sections and each section displays images from most recently taken to the oldest. The South West Section and Scotland section are my most popular areas I visit and therefore you can see the direction I am taking as a landscape/seascape photographer I suppose. The South East section is my least preferred and least visited area therefore I consider my weakest section.

There she is again! She keeps getting around. Both on the website and around Britain. Well I guess we both do. Because we go to these places together you see.

Sometimes we make little Youtube videos about our adventures around the British Coastline. Our Youtube channel can be accessed via the Youtube link at the Bottom of this website.

Luskentyre Bay Outer Hebrides

The beautiful beach at Luskentyre in the Outer Hebrides.

Sometimes the best way to capture the most beautiful images is to plan your journey. Know what you want from the trip. Make sure the tide and the orientation of the light is exactly how you want it for the image. Know your way around the coast and what to expect in terms of foreground interest. I have plenty of images like this in the gallery section but equally I have been on many trips where I am not familiar with the coastline and I'm just exploring. When doing this the images have then found me. I suppose this would be classed as reactive rather than proactive and I have images of that nature too.

It's Elizabeth again on one of those exploration trips. Enjoying basic living in a remote Scottish Bothy. Sometimes you've just got to get away from Civilisation, modern life pressures.

Exploring beautiful remote beaches is a big part of this project. This is what we like to do and that is why Scotland is one of our favourite places to visit. There's more remote beaches, more wild landscapes, more natural beauty per square mile than anywhere else in the UK.

Here we are kayaking to one of those remote beaches (Isle of Mull) as shown from above.

Certainly seems worthwhile.

A beautiful secluded beach that we had all to ourselves. I admit it. I'm greedy! I don't like sharing beaches. So we will sometimes put the effort in to find empty beaches and it really pays off.

Oh Yeah!

Oooh look! You can find these beautiful empty beaches in England too (Pednvounder). A lot easier to access but much more likely not to be empty.

I know! You can't always get the Weather in Britain but that's what makes the British isles interesting.

Can you believe it? Another sunny day.

This time a popular beach (Kynance Cove) in Cornwall. But when the tide falls, quieter spots reveal themselves.

Well that's about it from us I'm afraid. Back to mundane Monday. existing within the daily grind feeding the system in exchange for brief escapisms in the form of exploring the British Coastline.

Picture taken at St Govan's Chapel, Wales.

Please check out my Instagram page for many other images taken on my travels around the coast. You can access this at the bottom of this website via the Instagram logo. If you want that is. I'm not going to force you. Well I can't anyway. You have free will. But you've made it this far. Might as well keep checking stuff out don't you think?

British Coastline Flora (Cornwall)

There are lots of flowers especially around spring time on the coast around the UK. This is extremely evident within Cornwall so here I have put together some images showing some of the flora on offer that I have captured around the Cornish Coast and what time of year you might see these beautiful flowers.

Pictures taken at Porthtowan, Bedruthan Steps and Hell's Mouth.

Lets start with some of the earliest flowers. Ok so you will get daffodils and snow drops in march but Sea Thrift (Above) tends to bloom late April Early May and you will see this flower all over the Cornish and UK coast. Sea Campion (left) tends to come out late April Early May and can be found all along the coast Also.

Sea Aster are also known as Michaelmas Daisies. This flower can be found in salt marshes, estuaries and on cliffs. It is in full Bloom around mid June Early July.

Pictures taken at Perranporth and St Ives.

Foxgloves can be found in various places but I've found them in large quanitities around Crantock Bay. They flower around June/July.

There's alot of Poppies within walking distance from those foxgloves above on the West Pentire point and again flower around June/July.

Red Valerian. Now this flower is all over the coastline and country. Again Flowering around June/July time.

Heather is all over the sea cliffs all around Britain and tends to come out late summer time (August) but in Cornwall I've noticed it comes out even earlier than that possibly due to the milder climate.

Picture taken at Wheal Coates, near St Agnes.

Aurora Borealis UK

The Aurora Borealis is very hard to predict but here is some information I have collected from various sources which helps better understand strong solar activity and when the chances of this may occur.

The Basics

The Aurora Borealis also known as the Northern Lights (and this may sound obvious to most people) can be found in the northern parts of the night sky. Being in the UK and not as far north as many countries that benefit from this phenomena it is unbelievably rare to have the Aurora over head like you might see in Iceland, Canada, Alaska, Norway, Sweden and Finland. So the Northern parts of the sky is the place to be looking. There are many attributes needed for this to be visible especially here in the UK. I'm going to state the obvious again, strong solar activity, clear skies and dark skies so that means away from light pollution (Cities, Towns & street lights) and preferably no moon. Also the further North the better so you have more chance of seeing this in Scotland than you do anywhere else in the UK.

Solar Activity

This is dictated by sun spots, the more the better. Sunspots are the darker, cooler areas of the solar surface where the magnetic fields are particularly strong. As such the number of sunspots can indicate the likelihood of a solar flare eruption. When this happens the radiation can travel close to the speed of light and reach earth within 8 and a half minutes. However Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) are much slower and range from 15 hours to several days to reach earth. Most solar flare particles are deflected away but some become captured in the Earth's magnetic field, accelerating down towards the north and south poles. This is why the Aurora is concentrated at the magnetic poles.

Aurora Colours

Depending on which gases within the Earth's atmosphere this reacts with and at what altitude depends on what colour you might see.

The most common aurora colour is Green, this occurs when charged particles collide with oxygen at altitudes between 60 and 190 miles. According to the Canadian Space Agency.

Red auroras are less common associated with intense solar activity, they occur when solar particles react with oxygen at higher altitudes of around 180 to 250 miles. This is why red is usually seen at the higher edges of the display. According to the Canadian Space Agency.

Blue and Purple auroras are even less common. These colours are produced when solar particles collide with nitrogen in the Earth's atmosphere at an altitude of 60 miles or less and tend to be visible at the lower parts of the display. According to The Aurora Zone.

In reality though especially in the UK to see these colours with the naked eye would need a very strong solar storm. A lot of the time they will appear to be white/grey in colour and the actual colours may only be detected through a camera. I have witnessed the Aurora Borealis with my camera 5 times, 3 of which in Scotland and 1 in Cornwall and 1 at home and only once could I see the green colour with the naked eye.

Isle of Skye

My first capture of the Aurora Borealis. Location next to the Lookout Bothy looking out towards the Outer Hebrides. colour visible with the naked eye.

07/10/15 21:55hrs

Achmelvich

My second experience lasted an hour. I wasted time experimenting with very long exposures. Lots of movement and shimmering. 26/10/16 0:29hrs

Isle of Arran

My third experience, a very strong solar storm considering the moonlight, the clouds, some light pollution and being further south. Little movement.

15/01/22 0:14hrs

Sandymouth

My fourth experience, super strong solar storm considering how far south we are, the clouds and having our view to the north obstructed.

05/11/23 18:31hrs

Hatfield Moor

My Fifth experience, super strong solar storm considering the almost full bright moon and the massive amounts of light pollution.

25/11/23 20:10hrs

Ravenscar

My Sixth experience. Had to move quick as this didn't last long. Getting alerts on the app and already being on the Yorkshire coast certainly helped.
12/09/24 20:24hrs

Whitby

My Seventh experience. Again lasting possibly half an hour needed to move fast. Luckily we were staying around the corner.
13/09/24 23:27hrs

Doncaster

My Eighth experience. Full colour, very visible reds to the naked eye and in all parts of the sky. Slow movement.
10/10/24 21:47hrs

Solar Cycle

A Solar Cycle is approximately every 11 years of solar activity driven by the sun's magnetic field which is recorded by the frequency and intensity of sunspots visible on the surface. It is repetitive but difficult to predict as the cycle can be as short as 8 years or as long as 14 years. Peak activity is known as a Solar Maxima. We are currently on an upswing of solar activity which is predicted to peak in 2025.

During last year of 2023 there have been 13 red alert solar activities recorded which means Aurora Borealis being visible in all of the UK. this has been a good year. Out of those 13, 4 lasted a considerable amount of time within the night. Here are the dates.

26th February

27th February

23rd/24th April (the strongest Aurora this year)

6th May

25th June

18th July

5th August

18th/19th September

24th/25th September

4th November

5th November

25th November

1st December

I have been unable to capture this on some of these dates due to missing it or having to get up early for work. These are poor excuses and partly the reason why I have decided to include this information on my website is for me as much as anyone who may read it. Also another piece of information that may be beneficial is that the sun takes around 27 days to rotate (solar rotation varies by latitude). So if there's strong solar activity causing a red alert Aurora within the UK it could be a good idea to keep an eye out 27 days later as the same sunspot that caused the previous eruption should be in the same position ejecting solar flares towards earth, possibly.

This year 2024 so far there has been 16 red alert solar activities recorded.

3rd March (Cloudy)

23rd March (Very Brief)

24th March (Quite Brief & Full Moon)

16th April (Very Brief)

19th April (Brief and within twilight)

5th May (Too Brief)

10th/11th May

The strongest Aurora I've ever known peaking at 1449.1nt and lasting all night with Aurora being overhead in all of the UK.

12th May (Very Brief)

11th August (Quite Strong)

I have to do this from memory now as I can't seem to get the history on the Aurora Watch website anymore.

12th September (Quite Brief)

13th September (Quite Brief)

16th September (Brief)

8th October

10th/11th October

Even stronger than the 10th of May peaking at 1525.4nt and lasting all night with Aurora being overhead in all of the UK. I was photographing around 10pm and there were patches across all parts of the sky. after midnight it got even stronger.

9th November (Very Brief)

10th November (Very Brief)

I've since learnt that this was a category 5 event and the last time this happened was in 2003. In 2024 this has now happened twice.

Helpful Websites/Apps

There are 2 main tools dedicated to the UK Aurora which are very useful to have. They do not attempt to predict the Aurora as this is too difficult but rather alert you of what's happening with the Aurora as it happens.

A free service offering alerts of when the Aurora might be visible in the UK created by Lancaster University.

Aurora Watch UK

Glendale Aurora App created by Andy Stables who lives on the Isle of Skye which uses detailed real time Aurora Activity and a community of many users who upload their images and information in real time.

Glendale Aurora

The Dream

Having limited funds and limited time the dream seems unachievable. The dream would consist of having a campervan and travelling around the British Coastline with all the time in the world to capture it in detail with no part of the coast untouched.

Tip Jar

This website makes absolutely no profit whatsoever at this time and for the foreseeable future. If you feel that this website has provided you with useful information or shown you some beautiful images that you've appreciated then why not fund the tip jar or alternatively you could visit the STORE and purchase something there to help fund this project. All proceeds including any money generated from prints will be used for the sole purpose of this website i.e. printer costs, camera gear costs and travel costs around the British Coastline.

Contact

If you would like to contact me regarding anything related to the photography and images displayed on this website, including how to receive a print, permission to use my works in your publications, website or marketing material, or if you have any queries about me or the British Coast then please complete the form below and I'll get back in touch with you as soon as possible. Also you can use the envelope symbol at the top of the page at any point whilst perusing my website to access the contact page.

If you would prefer to email me then you can using this address: stephen@britishcoastline.co.uk