I love beaches. In this series of four beach images, I have chosen vertical format pictures even though the beach is a very horizontal subject.

1  The hard crinkles of the sand on a shallow beach are the beach’s fingerprints. All of them are unique, graceful, sinuous, bas-relief sculptures, which the sea carves again at every tide. The beach forges a new identity for itself every day – but only if you notice its details.

2  When I saw the little girl running up and down between the seashore and her parents sunbathing further back up on the dry sand I knew what picture I wanted to get. I watched her, and every time she raced down to the sea, I clicked my shutter. Fortunately, the little girl didn’t get tired of this back and forth energetic play until I managed to get the timing right. It only took twenty or so attempts to get lucky.

3  I had two choices with this almost abstract study of blue and silver. Abandon it to the pure rhythms of the abstract bands, or anchor the image and give it depth and distance by including the little island on the horizon. In this case, I chose the latter. The one without the island is different but it looks good too.

4  When the day is sunny but overcast there is a magic moment late in the morning when the water becomes pure mercury, a shiny silver-bright liquid metal that plates the sand as its washes up and back. Normal everyday colours don’t survive in the brilliance of its glare.