After a spectacular sunset last Saturday that unfortunately, due to time of year, happen over London Bridge rather than behind The Shard, lead to an impressive blue hour scene.
The clouds slowly gathered around the top of the skyscraper and half moon rising in the sky.
Shot on a Tilt-Shift lens, to straighten the lines of the Shard and surrounding buildings.
Wembury Seas, taken over Easter, on a trip down to Devon. This end of day shot of Wembury, close to Plymouth was taken at the beginning of the long weekend . Unfortunately, there was little interesting cloud in the sky. However, the rocks and sea were at least playing ball.
Hopes Nose, situated close to Torquay on the southern coastline of Devon, was not somewhere I had been before. Fortunately, the light was decent and the tide was compliant, albeit somewhat frisky. From the water’s edge, Ore Stone island is visible below the rising sun. My daughter joined me on location for this shoot. It was a treat to share such a lovely view with her.
I was recently back down in Devon and took this opportunity to do a few early morning shoots of new places.
This one is of Daymark, in Kingswear Devon, which was built in 1864 by the Dartmouth Harbour Commissioners. It is a hollow, octagonal tower, 24m tall, constructed of limestone. It was built as a guide to mariners to the position of the harbour entrance and is visible for many miles out to sea.
Part of the Devon set from my time there in August. This was taken in Paignton, about 20 mins drive further south from Exeter than Teignmouth. Both towns have piers but Paignton was blessed with a more impressive sunrise the morning I was there.
This shot was taken moments after the sun crept over the horizon and was a long exposure as I was looking to create the illusion of a vanishing point aligned with the end of the pier.
The shot below was taken about 45 minutes later, from the other side of the pier. Again, I employed a long exposure to fill the vast sky with movement. The golden hour had past by the time I took this shot, with the cooler blue tones more apparent.
Taken in 2017 in south east Devon, this singular tree stood alone on the common. Above, storm clouds gathered. Indeed, I just managed to pack away before the rain fell hard. As the scene was devoid of much colour, black and white seemed a better way to convey the sinister, brooding scene best.
It was a glorious day in London today, so I grabbed the camera and headed to the South Bank. As Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament are currently under wraps, the Millennium Wheel seemed like a good place to grab a few shots. This photograph was exposed for almost 7 minutes, hence the motion blur and absence of people (best way to remove them from the scene).
After trekking a few miles from a small car park at Huisinis, which itself was at the end of a long single track B road, I camped in a very isolated position, looking over at the Isle of Scarp.
The following morning, I awoke at 3.20am and walked a further 2 miles, to the end of the peninsula, to watch the majesty of the sun rising over the horizon in absolute solitude. The warm, golden light reflected on the rocks in front of me, silhouetting the distant mountains. This image was a long exposure (201 seconds) as I wanted to soften the choppy waters and elongate the few clouds on the horizon.
The day had been a mixture of rain and clouds. For landscape photography, this can either mean a really interesting cocktail of factors or a nightmare in the making. Alas, the rain had meant that the morning had been a write off. I travelled the length of the north coast of the Isle of Lewis without finding the right ingredients for a memorable image.
After scrutinising a map, I noticed an interesting coastline option that meant transversing a local farmer’s land. With no one around to ask for permission, I trekked the 2km to the beach and found the stormy, isolate image above. This image is a 100 second exposure using a 10 stop ND filter. The long exposure robbed the photograph of some of the colour. To counter this, I put my longer prime lens on my camera and took a 2 second shot of a section of the same scene.
All Terrain Photography 