At full and new moon the coast around North Wales and the Wirral experiences a huge tidal range in the region of 8 metres from high to low water over a six hour period.
This enormous movement of water exposes and then covers vast areas of sand and estuarine mud, a happy feeding ground for wading birds of all types.
But for my latest trip to West Kirby at the tip of the Wirral peninsula, seabirds and sand didn't feature highly on my interest radar.
Rather it was the causeway surrounding the man-made Marine Lake that grabbed my attention, as it was completely submerged by the high tide, a sight I'd never seen before!
Tidal movement has always been a favourite time lapse subject of mine, especially what the tide covers or reveals interesting features.
So I lost no time in setting up my camera and tripod on the rocks at the end of the causeway and started filming just at the turning of the tide.
I was suprised at just how fast the water level dropped, with the causeway appearing from under the waves as if by magic.
It was also funny to watch people seeing how far they could get along the path before getting their feet wet, until after about half and hour had passed from the high tide mark and the first brave souls ventured all the way round.
Filename - west kirby timelapse 07.mp4
Camera - Canon EOS 6D
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 24mm
Exposure - 4 secs @ f8, ISO100
Filters - 10 stop neutral density filter used to extend exposure time and blur the wave action. 2 stop neutral density graduated filter used to balance the brightness between the sky and water.
Capture interval - 6 seconds
Location - West Kirby Marine Lake, Wirral
This clip - HD 720p
Clip duration - 13 seconds
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