At the end of my time in Cornwall and Devon this summer, I drove to a place called Sandymouth, a few miles north of Bude in north east Cornwall. The beach is a photographer’s Mecca, with rocks, sand, cliffs and westerly facing, so fantastic for end of day shots.
The tide was very high the day I visited and I would like to return when it has receded further, exposing more rocks and some sand.
Another weekend down in Sussex and I wanted to find an alternative view of Bosham harbour. As the sun dropped behind the village with its iconic church depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry and said to have been built on the crypt where King Kanute was buried, I chanced upon this scene. In the foreground, the seaweed looked more like the webbing of a giant spider, blanketing the exposed wetlands at low tide.
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.
Another dawn over the east coast of La Palma. This secluded beach at Cancajos was abandoned as the tides were pretty rough and the weather was a cool sixteen degrees Celsius. This place is a Mecca for anyone who loves dawn at a civilised hour. It is in the same time zone as the UK but is sufficiently west, so instead of sunrise at 6.30am it was at 8am.
I took the second image about 25 metres to the left of this image, just as the sun broke through the clouds.
Walking between Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton over the weekend, in south Devon, I spotted this interesting rocky outcrop. The sun was beginning to drop to my right and threw an captivating shaft of light across the scene. The tide was washing close to the top of my Wellington boots and I had a camera bag full of kit precariously balanced on the rocks next to me. I had just enough time to grab a couple of shots before having to clamber up the rocks. Definitely worth it.
This is Bentham beach in southern Devon. I took this a few weeks ago when I was in the area. This was taken about 30 minutes after the sun had dropped below the horizon. I should probably remove the light sources on the island and cliff top to make the image a little cleaner. The cloud and colour of the sky reminds me more of a tropical sunset than the UK. Could be due to the hint of magenta in the heavens. Well worth a visit if you can find it.
All Terrain Photography 