The Misplaced Buoy

Kneeling in the surf with the camera just above waterline, I framed this beached buoy like a stranded witness—half-devoured by barnacles, its functional past eroded by time and tide. The wave motion is deliberate: a slow shutter gave the water its painterly strokes, pulling the viewer toward the object with a sense of gentle urgency.

The wide-angle perspective exaggerates scale and places the buoy in stark contrast with the horizon. The red-orange plastic punctures the cool blues of sea and sky, a sharp chromatic discord that anchors the entire composition. It’s an aggressive intrusion into the otherwise pastel calm of the shoreline, yet visually satisfying because of the balance created between foreground dominance and distant horizon.

Technically, I exposed to preserve the clouds—shooting RAW to retain highlight recovery range and ensure the mussel-covered surface didn’t collapse into black. Focus is tack-sharp where it needs to be, softened progressively by the water’s movement.

This isn’t a metaphor, at least not intentionally. It’s a study in decay, displacement and visual weight. A buoy, designed to float and guide, now marooned, colonised, and forgotten.