In the sand dunes of Formby Beach stands a tall wooden structure. I’m not sure how tall it is but I would guess around 10m, perhaps more. At the top of the wooden structure is a large wooden triangle. What it’s for I have no idea, but it makes a great subject for a shot.
I have captured this object many times and always been disappointed. Even this image has sat on my hard drive for a couple of months and I never new what to do with it. Today I wanted a break from writing my next book so thought I would experiment a little with this image. This is the result.
I hope you like it and have a great weekend.
The Lightweight Photographer 
It’s a ‘day marker’ – they mark the edge of a channel on your starboard (right) side when approaching from the open sea. Quite often they are numbered and the numbers usually increase consecutively as you approach.
Thank you. I have puzzled over what this is for years.
Looked very soft, almost out of focus in the email, but a quick look on here confirmed ultra sharp and detailed. Looks quite metallic with the reflections on the wood and almost ethereal with the clouds in the background. I have just searched with as many terms as I could think of but haven’t had any success in finding out what these posts are for, some I’ve seen have an upturned wooden slatted ‘bucket’ on top. Warnings of some sort I guess.
Hi Chris, the soft look is the processing I used. There is some glow effect in there which is what causes the look you describe so well. It was achieved in a combination of On1 and Nik Color Efex Pro. Not because I wanted to use both but because I was comparing effects. In the end, I had to merge the two in order to create what I wanted. As for what the post is, Steve just added that it’s a “day marker”. Not something I have come across.
Robin, I like what you did with the image. You mentioned above you used Nik Color Efex Pro, yet the image looks black and white. Was there something with Color Efex Pro that you liked to use that wasn’t in Silver Efex Pro?
Dave
Thank you. I should have been a little clearer with my description of the processing. I did create the basic conversion to B&W in Silver Efex Pro. But after that, I added film grain in Color Efex Pro. I like the additional Film Contrast slider it has. I also applied the glow effect to the image using Glamour Glow. Hope this clears up the confusion. Sorry
I do like this picture, primarily for its composition.Works well in square format. Glad you found it, pursued its post-processing, and shared it with us.
Thank you. Much appreciated.
Hi, we love your photo and hope you do not mind but have used it in our recent story about the marker being restored. We have given you credit and put a link to your website and to this page. If you are not happy, please let us know.
Here is a link to the story:
https://www.formbybubble.com/single-post/2018/07/31/The-historic-navigational-marker-at-Formby-Point-is-being-restored
Thanks, great photo! We are also interested in any photos that you may have of Formby and will always give you credit.
Thanks Kim, much appreciated. I’m always happy for my published images to be reused for a purpose like this. All I ask is a credit line as you have given. Formby is a great location and I always seem to get some great shots when I visit. This marker has always captured my attention and I’m pleased to see it’s being restored/maintained. The other landmark for me is the post in the beach which appears to be some form of tide marker (I’m showing my ignorance here). I will email you with a couple of links to other Formby images if you can email me using robin@lenscraft.co.uk.