How come the sea looks so perfect in Cornwall?

The BB crew have been to Cornwall quite a few times, but on reflection, the last couple of visits have been blessed with great weather. This, I think, has made all the difference in the visual quality of the sea – at least to a cliff-top photographer like me. I have literally been blown away time and time again when walking around a bend in the coastal path with a new bay opening up before me.

The last time this happened, was on the visit we made in June this year to Falmouth. The photo above is of Maenporth bay just south of Falmouth. I can truly say I felt blessed on that particular walk, and the photo just hits at the complex topography of that bit of coast; Falmouth is a deep-water harbour and several large Royal Navy ships were in dock and several more anchored just beyond this bay.

But, back to the blue water – and clear water it has to be said. I have not pumped up the colours on these photos, they are fairly much as ‘out of camera’ (as nature intended them) and reflect my memories of that day. From the beach which, like many here, is long and shallow, the water started as clear glass then took on a bottle green transparency, then a lovely crystal azure punctured with pools of deep blue, out into the bay and beyond.

These colours cannot fail to flick a switch for us in the artistic department and a previous time I had seen such a marvellous sea was on a long holiday on the Adriatic coast. Croatia is famed for its natural environment, and is very proud of the quality of the coastal waters. Some of the photography I made of those shallow waters (OK paddling out with my camera, or leaning over a jetty edge) led directly to a range of Barley Bay greeting cards (see  http://barleybay.co.uk/page11.html )

such as this one. The BB crew were obviously having a few wistful holiday moments when they came up with the sentiments for this range! Holidays of course can bring out the wistful thoughts and I think these cards are perfect for retail in coastal towns tapping into feel good vibes and romance.

Back to Cornwall, I have also wondered what is the reason for those clear waters, having realised the blue itself was pretty much a reflection of the perfect sky. How perfect are Cornwall’s waters? I guess there are many aspects of this – and that sometimes they are not so clear (but still perfect as nature intended). So I took a look on the site of one of the organisations with a major interest in water quality – Freedive UK http://freediveuk.com/cornwall-water-temp-and-sealife-overview/ and they tell us that, lucky for me, I was looking at the right time of year! If my trip had been a little earlier in the year, then plankton blooms may have been there (followed by the hungry basking sharks) and they would have made the water cloudy.

Whatever the reasons, the BB crew intend to get down to Cornwall more often – regardless of the colour of the sea. While we are there we will get inspiration for more of our iconic British Coastal greeting cards http://barleybay.co.uk/page16.html such as the following. And yes, you will notice a blue sea in this one and that is more down to design than accident!