A supple kelp sculpture on a pastel shoreline

20 Feb

Kelp - washed up on Blacksmiths Beach, East Coast Australia. — Kelp, Blacksmiths Beach

I am attracted by the timeless and ever changing place where the waves wash across the edge of land.
On this occasion clumps of kelp presented another element - an offering from the sea.

After spending some time choosing the most photogenic, wave arranged seaweed I set up the camera with a six stop Nisi ND filter.

At first I opened the shutter for about 5 minutes but found the incoming tide was advancing too fast and kept washing the kelp out of the frame.

I reduced the time to around 2 minutes and chose the clumps furtherest from the incoming waves - but still in danger of being moved by the sea because I wanted to show the blur of the water.

It took a few attempts but eventually I made three pictures where the waves came close enough to wash over the sand in the background but not so close as to move the subject during the exposure.

The movement you can see on the edges of the kelp is due to the strong nor'easter blowing that afternoon - one more player in the complexity and beauty of the shoreline.

Cheers,

Paul

Follow me on Instagram @lightmoods

Paul Foley

I am an Australian fine-art photographer based in Newcastle, New South Wales, and have been making photographs for more than fifty years, including 35 years as a professional commercial photographer.

I think of much of my personal work simply as finding pictures—looking for relationships between light and shadow, lines and shapes, landscape and humanity. My photographs range across landscape, the sea, abstraction and the human form, with recurring interests in time, place and memory.

I remain a generalist photographer. Some ideas develop into collections that I return to over many years; others appear unexpectedly and result in a single photograph.

My work has been recognised in Australian and international photography awards and exhibited in Australia and overseas. Including as a finalist in the Galah Regional Photography Prize (2025) and National Photographic Portrait Prize (2011), selected to hang in several 'Mosman 2088' exhibitions and included in group exhibitions in Glasgow, Tokyo, Newcastle and China. I have also had individual and collaborative exhibitions in Sydney and Newcastle.

I live in Newcastle, Australia.

https://www.paulfoley.com.au

A supple kelp sculpture on a pastel shoreline

Kelp, Blacksmiths Beach

I am attracted by the timeless and ever changing place where the waves wash across the edge of land.

On this occasion clumps of kelp presented another element - an offering from the sea.

Holding the pixels.

Sunset, Merewether Ocean Baths, Australia