We spent the weekend in Suffolk. We couldn’t get on a preferred campsite so we ended up in a budget hotel for a couple of nights. Yesterday I got up at 4am and headed to South Beach in Lowestoft for the sunrise. I was great to feel the sun on my face, the breeze in my hair and listen to the sea as it settled on the beach before retreating once again.
Since the beginning of lockdown, I have, over on Instagram, being posting a picture a day from my archive and occasional newly taken pictures. This is the 100th picture I posted. It’s sunrise over Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park. Pre-dawn we had struck our campsite, packed up and drove the forty minutes to this point and set up gear. The sunrise was spectacular but the pictures not so much. When I got home,I ignored this image as lens flare as it’s not “allowed” in landscape photography but when I trawled back through my archiveI really liked this picture. There is something of the breaking day and the promise of everything clean and new and full of opportunity about it.
After 12 weeks of lockdown, we took my mum to Felixstowe for a couple of hours on a glorious day. I managed to grab a few pictures of one of my favourite subjects.
In this Lightroom tutorial I share how to create a pastel feel for a beach hut image taken on the fly. I show how to correct a horizon, use the colour mixer to make adjustments to the light of individual colours in the image, and use the basic contrast, highlights and shadows controls to give a pastel feel to the image.
I have recently (March 2020) started a YouTube channel. In coming months I will be adding short instructional videos about:
As I get used to my new light-weight Fuji camera, I took it out to a small wooded area of a local park near my in-laws to try and use it in a landscape environment. I had only brought a mini-tripod (about a 30cm tall). The shot uses a 1 second exposure to get the milky effect on the water running over the rapid.
Fujifilm X-T3, 10-24mm at 16mm, f8, 1 second
I have just upgraded my mirrorless camera to one that is better suited to landscape photography and a new wide angled lens. I haven’t really been out an about for taking landscapes, but I snatched these when I was walking around my home town (St Neots) the other day.
One of the great places along the south west tip of the Cornish penninsular is Porthleven. It gets brutally pummelled by high seas in wintertime as it faces straight at the Atlantic and there is nothing to stop the full forces of the winter storms hitting the village and storm watchers have recorded pictures of waves dwarfing and engulfing the church at the foot of the pier seen here in right of the image. I was here in early Nov last year and spent a day walking along the coast to Mullion before taking a couple of busses back to Porthleven where my car was parked. I arrived in the golden hour and had a chance to shoot some lovely warm images of the harbour, the coast and surfers just beyond the harbour wall. I hope you like them.
I was pleased to have a quick walk around Dovestone Reservoir on Saddleworth Moor near Manchester a couple of weekends ago. It was one of those early spring days when the wind is low, the sun is out and the clouds are moving slowly. The long exposure worked well here to emphasise the reflections in the water, and the slow moving clouds made dream-like.
I took this shot in November. There was lots of wind and I was shooting around 4pm into the setting (weak winter) sun from the beach at Cape Cornwall. I struggled across some slippery rocks to this pool. A long exposure meant the water’s movement became impressionistic. I like the ethereal effect the shot became.
The Christmas period has not been easy as my mother has been in hospital but she is home now and I am looking forward to more outdoorsy adventures, coastal walks, and perhaps some new places to visit in 2019. My jaunt along the SWCP has brought me as far as Mousehole and I want to get along towards Kynance during 2019.
