Severn Bore From Maisemore Bridge 19th September 2012
Today’s trip to watch the Severn Bore was on route to the Forest Of Dean in an attempt to capture some late shots of dragonflies. I had a feeling it was going to be a bit of a challenge, in between the sun bursting through fast moving clouds, a cold north westerly breeze blew colder than yesterday. Some locals turned up to watch today’s bore which was good. I set the tripod up with camera and stereo microphone, today pointing straight into the direction of the sun, facing south towards Gloucester and the approaching bore. The idea being, to reverse the situation from yesterday; film and than cross the bridge to take some long shots with another camera of the wave making its way to Maisemore Weir. The most challenging aspect of shooting straight into the sun of course, is flare and over exposure, but I think I just about pulled it off without having to do any post editing work; I prefer to try and show what I can capture on the camera. Things went to plan: right on queue the skies became a patchwork of clouds, blue bits, sun bursting through on and off, creating a patchwork of colour, deep shadows and twinkling reflections bouncing off the water. A surfer did emerge from under the bridge but just out of shot - a small ripple can be seen in the water at the bottom of the view. His cry echoing under the bridge can be heard as he sees the bore approach, along with the sound of some cars passing behind me; all background sounds that are so much a part of this location. As the bore approaches notice how the water that normally flows out to sea, starts to pool as the incoming tide meets it and takes over. As is often the case, you can also hear the wind pick up as the bore gets closer. I stopped the recording as the bore reached the bridge to make my way across to the other side. I carry on taking pictures of the wave pattern on its way to Maisemore Weir as the clouds darken the view. The water now takes on a very different look as the cloud cover darkens things. At the same time the water reflects the blue patches in the sky creating an oily appearance. In these still shots you can also see the trees are thrashing about as the bore finally meets Maisemore Weir and breaches it.
Andy Sharpe
