Weather forecast mentioned possible moments of sun during early morning. I adjusted my plans for this slight possibility and decided to start the day in Marazion, located on the shore of Mount's Bay. The main attraction of the place is St Michael's Mount, half-a-mile offshore, small hill with old church on top. With low water one can simply walk all the way to the mount along old stone pathway. It sounded very interesting. Double checked tide times and all things seemed to work just fine. I knew where to go.
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| St Michael's Mount at dawn. Pathway by the mount is already under water. |
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| St Michael's Mount at dawn |
I had to keep moving to escape fast coming sea. If I had followed the path I would have been cut-off by now, swimming under best circumstances. But I must say I totally enjoyed the placed, coming sea, red and blue clouds lit by rising sun, those are magical moments and unfortunately they last only minutes. Following line of water I reached again stone mount path, now its further section well flooded already. I kept shooting capturing still very colourful skies, light was changing now very fast. After every shot I had to change the settings.
And then new day simply arrived and magic was gone. I stayed on the beach for a bit longer waiting for more sea to come loving what I had in front of my eyes, almost not believing that world around me could change some much in such short period of time.
With most of the pictures I used LEE's reds enhances to boost reds and 3 stops ND hard grad to darken the sky and clouds. I did not bother with polarizer, I wanted reflections.
Then I faced new crucial problem, I needed to find place serving breakfast. I hoped in Marazion I would find one, but I had no luck and had to move further, I ended up buying sandwich in some small convenient store along the route to Land's End... this is where I went. Land's End sounds so mysterious, almost like end of the world. Well, it is not far from the truth. Driving along those small roads is such a different experience, no traffic, almost no houses, only fields on both sides. Such remote location, and besides holiday season it is so deserted. But I liked it that way.
I was a bit disappointed with Land's End, large (paid) parking and typical amusement facilities with hotel, shops and restaurants took over wilderness of the place. Wind became stronger, more clouds came in. I looked for good angle to get some picture of distant lighthouse built on rocks about 2 km off-shore. Far away for the camera. I mounted 200mm lens with 2x converter to have effective 400mm focal length. Typical shot, with no colours really. I wanted something more, blur the water. But blasting wind successfully prevented it. I had to hide from the wind. Long lens with 2 times converter is simply too large object for heavy wind if you want to open up camera for 30 seconds of more. I spotted closed bar or restaurant and hid behind its walls.
Put 10 stops big stopper and gold-n-blue polarizer to get more blues from ocean's waters, and came up with this...
Not the best photograph but still way better than typical snapshot. I like blurred waves though.
Then I mounted 300mm with 2x converter and tried to get as close as I could. As I said the lighthouse is over 2km away, and picture is not cropped except settig 16:9 ratio.
But there were no colours really, no basic photo ingredient, forecast was not optimistic either. There was no point in waiting for sunset.
Let's find something wilder, more natural with some rocks and textures.
I ended up in Porthnanven, Cot Valley, about 10km north along the coast. Driving to Cot Valley is experience of its own, last section is so wild and narrow that I was wonderring if actually you are allowed to drive there. There were no signs prohibiting access along the road (at least I have not seen such), and to my surprise at the end of the road there was small parking waiting for me.
I like this in England, to most of great locations you can simply get with your car, and you do not have to hike for miles. I am sure there are places you cannot reach by car, but here in Cornwall it was quite good for me.
Porthnanven, Cot Valley has those beautiful large stones and rock formations. I spent the rest of the afternoon photographing them from different angles and had lot's of fun. I did not expect any spectacular light so I simply concentrated on blurred water and colours of stones and rocks.
Climbing the rocks can be quite risky business. While shooting at edges of rocks I only prayed not to get some sudden blast of wind that would knock down tripod with the camera into waters below. I was using long exposure times of 4-5 minutes with big stopper, ND soft grads, and sat by the tripod leg gently almost holding it... just in case. Sound of the ocean was fantastic!
There is nice sort of path along rocks formation and you can walk quite a bit having cliff wall behind you. It is fantastic location for sunset... if you get decent weather conditions, I wish I could come back here to witness that one day.
But future trip must be way longer, so I can spend at least 3-4 days in each location.
To be cont'd.
Cheers
Jerzy
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| St Michael's Mount in the morning with flooded pathway |
With most of the pictures I used LEE's reds enhances to boost reds and 3 stops ND hard grad to darken the sky and clouds. I did not bother with polarizer, I wanted reflections.
Then I faced new crucial problem, I needed to find place serving breakfast. I hoped in Marazion I would find one, but I had no luck and had to move further, I ended up buying sandwich in some small convenient store along the route to Land's End... this is where I went. Land's End sounds so mysterious, almost like end of the world. Well, it is not far from the truth. Driving along those small roads is such a different experience, no traffic, almost no houses, only fields on both sides. Such remote location, and besides holiday season it is so deserted. But I liked it that way.
I was a bit disappointed with Land's End, large (paid) parking and typical amusement facilities with hotel, shops and restaurants took over wilderness of the place. Wind became stronger, more clouds came in. I looked for good angle to get some picture of distant lighthouse built on rocks about 2 km off-shore. Far away for the camera. I mounted 200mm lens with 2x converter to have effective 400mm focal length. Typical shot, with no colours really. I wanted something more, blur the water. But blasting wind successfully prevented it. I had to hide from the wind. Long lens with 2 times converter is simply too large object for heavy wind if you want to open up camera for 30 seconds of more. I spotted closed bar or restaurant and hid behind its walls.
 |
| I hid from the wind behind the house |
Put 10 stops big stopper and gold-n-blue polarizer to get more blues from ocean's waters, and came up with this...
Not the best photograph but still way better than typical snapshot. I like blurred waves though.
 |
| Land's End, Cornwall |
Then I mounted 300mm with 2x converter and tried to get as close as I could. As I said the lighthouse is over 2km away, and picture is not cropped except settig 16:9 ratio.
 |
| Land's End Lighthouse |
But there were no colours really, no basic photo ingredient, forecast was not optimistic either. There was no point in waiting for sunset.
I ended up in Porthnanven, Cot Valley, about 10km north along the coast. Driving to Cot Valley is experience of its own, last section is so wild and narrow that I was wonderring if actually you are allowed to drive there. There were no signs prohibiting access along the road (at least I have not seen such), and to my surprise at the end of the road there was small parking waiting for me.
I like this in England, to most of great locations you can simply get with your car, and you do not have to hike for miles. I am sure there are places you cannot reach by car, but here in Cornwall it was quite good for me.
Porthnanven, Cot Valley has those beautiful large stones and rock formations. I spent the rest of the afternoon photographing them from different angles and had lot's of fun. I did not expect any spectacular light so I simply concentrated on blurred water and colours of stones and rocks.
Climbing the rocks can be quite risky business. While shooting at edges of rocks I only prayed not to get some sudden blast of wind that would knock down tripod with the camera into waters below. I was using long exposure times of 4-5 minutes with big stopper, ND soft grads, and sat by the tripod leg gently almost holding it... just in case. Sound of the ocean was fantastic!
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| Porthnanven, Cot Valley |
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| Porthnanven, Cot Valley |
But future trip must be way longer, so I can spend at least 3-4 days in each location.
To be cont'd.
Cheers
Jerzy
Beautiful spots. I would really love to stay at Cornwall cottages that's near those places. I wanna see those beautiful spots.
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