The Knolls Dawn

     The Knolls are the ever-changing, shifting shingle banks and sand shoals that form the Deben Bar across the mouth of the River Deben in Suffolk, England. They act as a natural shelter for the estuary, cover over with the sea at high tide, and present a dynamic navigational challenge for sailors.

     They are composed primarily of flint pebbles moved by coastal longshore drift, creating moving islands and shoals that are completely covered during high tide and exposed or shallow at low tide, altering the entrance channel continuously. For the photographer, it means that every time the site it visited, the banks will look different so that with changes in the weather and light they afford the opportunity to create new images. On this early morning visit, I encountered distant cloud banks out of which the sun began to make an appearance. The one visible bank and the soft colors in the sky allowed me to create an epic minimalist image of the scene.