Evening blue hour after a very wet day, and it was only 5 pm! Mid-January on the South Coast of England can be bleak, but at least it had stopped raining.

There are four groynes along the shingle beach at Pagham; this is the second; the rocks of the groynes were imported from Norway in 2012 to stop the shingle from washing away, with partial success. All the warning posts have recently had an upgrade and have lost their battered red hats to be replaced by an X-shaped reflective cross, which is yellow but is now losing its glow; at least blue and yellow complement the image.

The rocks of the groyne are seen just emerging from the sea as the tide recedes; identifying the time of the tide and the light is probably an exact science. However, I usually target mid-tide with some success. Wave and cloud movement are important, hence the 4-plus minute exposure. The rocks are mostly bare granite, but some have a gorgeous green covering, probably not suited to minimalist photography, and anyhow are not that gorgeous in dull weather.

The feature that I really like to include with any of the groynes is the distant warning post standing above the sunken wreck of a Mulberry Harbour that would have been part of the beachhead docks on the opposite side of The Channel. It started sinking as it was towed to the Normandy beaches in June 1944 and was scuttled a mile offshore. It is a haven for all sorts of sea life now.

In the photograph, it represents a particular echo that I like.