The Everyday Sublime: Favourite Coastlines, Near & Far
From a babymoon in Fiji to after-work flights in Sydney, we've chased coastlines. But some of our favourite photos are from just around the corner in Wales.
There’s always a pull to get on a plane. The lure of a new place, a different kind of light. For years, our work and life have been split between home and somewhere else, chasing projects or just a change of scenery. It’s a privilege, and it’s given us some of our favourite images from our gallery — the kind of landscape photography that only happens when you’re a long way from your own post code.
We were in Fiji for our babymoon, and on one of the last nights on Manta Island, the sky just lit up. One of those sunsets that stops conversation. There was no real plan, just a feeling that this was a moment that needed holding onto. So, the drone went up.
That’s the kind of travel photography everyone dreams of, right? The postcard shot. It’s clean, it’s simple, and it’s a million miles from a wet Tuesday in the UK.
But then there’s the other kind of “away.” The years we spent living and working in Sydney gave us a completely different perspective. The coast wasn’t a holiday destination; it was the backdrop to daily life. It’s where you’d go after a long day in the office to clear your head. Flying the drone over the Bronte Baths wasn't a special occasion, it was just… a thing to do before heading home for dinner. You see the same lines, the same waves, the same swimmers doing their laps, and you find a rhythm in it.
Coming Home
After spending so much time abroad, you start to see your own backyard differently. You come home and realise you’ve barely scratched the surface of the places on your own doorstep. We’d been to more beaches in New South Wales than we had in North Wales.
So we started exploring. A lot of our local photography comes from just picking a spot on a map and going for a walk. We stumbled across this man-made waterfall in Plas Power Woods, near Wrexham. It used to supply water to an old mill, and the path runs right alongside it. It’s quiet, and on an autumn afternoon, the light through the trees is something else. It’s not a tropical sunset, but it has its own quiet power.
That’s the thing about finding beauty close to home. You can go back. You learn its moods. The Welsh coast is a permanent fixture for us, a place we return to again and again. A weekend trip up to Anglesey offers a totally different feeling to the sun-drenched pools of Sydney. The path out to Llanddwyn lighthouse is one of our favourites. It’s rugged and exposed, and the weather can change in minutes. You can walk it a dozen times and get a dozen different photographs.
The big trips are brilliant. They give you a jolt, a new way of seeing. But there's a slow-burn satisfaction in getting to know a piece of coastline so well it feels like an old friend. Turns out the sublime can be just around the corner, not just on the other side of the world.