I recently spent some time in Northern Spain where my main objective was to explore the coast that is known for having a wealth of sand beaches, rocky beaches, sea stacks and cliffs. This is a long coast and my time was limited so I knew I would be able to only sample a bit of what this part of the world has to offer.

I decided to spend the afternoon at this extensive beach and cliff complex that had hiking trails both on the rocky shore and on the cliff top above.

When I saw this rocky arch a short way offshore I decided to concentrate on this structure and watch for a time to see how the slow ocean swells would interact with it. Most of the time nothing much would happen because the ocean was quite calm but every once in a while a larger wave set would happen along and be forced through the arch. It would then dissipate in a dramatic fan-like arc after coming out and I knew I had to study this with my cameras for a while. I photographed several patterns like this one but this one was easily the most photogenic during my time there.