Dawn with Danks - A Mini Adventure with Gareth Danks
In the blog this week I share with you vlog I made when fellow photographer and YouTuber, Gareth Danks paid me a visit. We headed down to the south Devon coast for a bit a coastal photography and a chat.
Meeting Gareth Danks
I've been following Gareth Danks on YouTube for a while and we briefly met up at The Photography Show earlier this year. At the show, we discussed the idea of meeting up to do some photography but finding a date we could both do proved a little tricky.
As spring came around and the days got longer, the number of opportunities to get out with the camera also increased. So when Gareth announced he was going to be making a visit to Devon we thought it would be a great time to meet up. We agreed to shoot sunset on Thursday evening and then shoot sunrise the following day.
Our Adventures
The plan was set and the day soon came around. In the following videos, you can see exactly what we got up to.
The first and only video I made was of the Friday morning shoot at Dawlish Warren and Dawlish. You can see it here:
For an alternative take on the morning, check out Gareth's video from Friday morning:
And finally, if you want to see what we got up to on Thursday evening on Dartmoor, you can see Gareth's video here:
I hope you enjoyed all those videos. I think we both have a similar style when it comes to our vlogs so it was really easy to mix up the photography, shooting my video and appearing in his vlog. Though it was only a short meetup, it was a mini adventure to remember!
My Photographs
You will have seen my photographs from the Friday morning in the video, but as always I like to share them here on the blog as well.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35 mm f/4 at 16mm, f/13, 240 secs at ISO 64, Lee Filters circular polariser and 10 stop ProGlass IRND.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35 mm f/4 at 20mm, f/11, 80 secs at ISO 64, Lee Filters circular polariser, 2 stop hard edge grad and 10 stop ProGlass IRND.
I do hope you also watched Gareth's video. It's really interesting to see how another photographer shoots the same scene at the same time. It was beneficial for me as watching Gareth setup his compositions got me to think about my own compositions.
Do you meet up with other photographers? Do you find yourself learning from them or trying something new out? Let me know in the comments below.
Kilchurn Castle: A 5 Minute Photo Adventure (Special Edition)
In this blog post, I share with you the story, photographs and video of a near perfect morning at Kilchurn Castle on the banks of Loch Awe in Scotland.
More Landscape Photography on Holiday
In my recent blog post on Dalveen Pass, I talked about my desire to fit in some landscape photography while on an Easter holiday with the family. Dalveen Pass was easy to fit in as it was a short detour off the M74 while on the drive up to Scotland.
I was really looking forward to my family holiday but there was really no way I was going to spend a week in the highlands of Scotland and not do some sort of landscape photography! Fortunately, my family agreed (kind of) and so I was able to take a morning off from holidaying and take my camera out to capture some images. But where to go?
Kilchurn Castle
I was staying in a small village just outside of Oban in Argyll, so I could feasibly drive to any number of amazing locations. The obvious choice was to go to Glencoe. I had amazing photography adventure there last year, and normally I wouldn't hesitate to go back, but in the back of my mind, there was a location I wanted to visit even more.
Scotland has many amazing castles to photograph, but to me, Kilchurn Castle is one of my favourites. I grew up only a few miles away from Kilchurn Castle and so I had seen it from the road many, many times. I'd even visited the castle a couple of times. However, now that I am a landscape photographer I was desperate to revisit the castle to photograph it.
Picking the Right Day
With the exception of one day, I could pick any of my holiday days to visit Kilchurn Castle. A quick check of the weather forecast showed that the first full day of my holiday was for very light winds. This was ideal for the type of shot I wanted as there was a good chance that Loch Awe would be very still and provide some great reflections.
The only trouble was that I would need to get up very early and I would be tired from a long drive the day before. However, if the conditions were to be as predicted it would be so worth it!
Let's see how I got on.
As you can see the conditions were a bit of a mixed bag. I certainly got the glassy reflections on the loch, but these annoyingly disappeared for a while when the sun came up. The sky was also a little too clear. Some clouds would have added something a little extra to the images, but on the whole, it was a pretty special morning. Well worth getting up early for!
One thing you didn't see in the video was the other photographers that were there. I always enjoy having a chat with other photographers and the conversations I had were very welcome and good distraction from the cold. One of the photographers I chatted to, Dan Rooke, also has a YouTube channel, and I recommend you check it out here.
So have you photographed Kilchurn Castle before? Where would you have gone if you had just one morning to take photographs? Let me know in the comments below.
The Photographs
Here is a selection of the photographs I took that morning.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 VR at 50mm, 1/5th sec at ISO 64, f/11, Lee Filters Circular Polariser.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 VR at 38mm, 6 secs at ISO 64, f/11, Lee Filters Circular Polariser and 6 stop ProGlass IRND.
Bit of a bonus photograph for you. As I drove home from Kilchurn Castle I noticed the near perfect reflections on the Pass of Brander so I just had to share this image with you.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 VR at 24mm, 1/50th sec at ISO 64, f/11, Lee Filters Circular Polariser.
Photographing The Cobb in Dorset: A 5 Minute Photo Adventure
In the blog this week I head to Lyme Regis in Dorset to photograph The Cobb. You can also watch one of my 5 Minute Photo Adventure videos so you can see how I captured the images featured in this blog.
Finally...A Break in the Weather
After what feels like an age, the weather forecasts finally started to show some better weather. January had been a challenging month for my photography. It was the normal combination of lack of time and poor weather, that resulted in not a lot of photography. For anyone who has read my blog for long enough, you'll know that January has historically always been a challenge for me.
It's not just the photography I've been missing, but also going out there and creating new videos for my YouTube channel.
Off to The Cobb
One of the locations that I've always wanted to make a video from is The Cobb in Lyme Regis. It's one of my favourite locations to shoot coastal images. I did actually try and make a video there last year, but I failed to prepare my gear properly. You can read all about that trip here.
So when the weather, and importantly the tide looked good for a dawn shoot at The Cobb I was super excited to finally make one of my 5 Minute Photo Adventure videos there. Here is the result:
I do hope you enjoyed that video and it has inspired you to photograph The Cobb. It's such a great location to photograph if you like shooting seascapes. Just remember to get there early in the morning (it can get busy with photographers), and watch out for those crashing waves!
Have you photographed The Cobb before? What is your favourite coastal location? Let me know in the comments below.
The Photographs
Here are the photographs you saw in the video, plus a couple of extras.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 @ 19mm, f/13, 2.5 seconds at ISO 64, Lee Filters Circular Polariser and ND Grad.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 @ 22mm, f/11, 1/8th second at ISO 64, Lee Filters Circular Polariser and ND Grad.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 VR @ 65mm, f/8, 60 seconds at ISO 64, Lee Filters Circular Polariser.
And finally...
Just a word of caution when visiting The Cobb...
30 Minutes at Great Mis Tor
In the blog this week I head to Great Mis Tor to capture some snow landscape images of Dartmoor. The trouble was I only had 30 minutes to do it!
Tight Timelines
When my friend, who also happens to be a photographer, called me to tell me snow was forecast for Dartmoor and would I like to join him on a morning shoot, I just had to say yes. What better way to start the day than a quick hike up to Great Mis Tor to capture some morning light, and hopefully a little snow.
As is sometimes the way, the timing of this too good miss offer wasn't great. I had commitments that morning that I could not miss. So I decided to work out all the timings to see I could fit it all in.
I would need to get up at 05:30 to meet my friend at 06:30. It would then be a short drive of about 20 minutes to get to the car park near the start of the walk. It's then about another 20 to 30-minute walk up to Great Mis Tor.
Sunrise was going to be about 08:04, and I would need to be back in the car no later than 09:00. It was going tight that was for sure!
Beautiful Dartmoor
On the morning of the shoot, things started off as expected. We started our walk up to Great Mis Tor with great enthusiasm and chat about the recent Star Wars film and the lack of Game of Thrones in 2018. As we walked up there was a distinct lack of snow, but as we approached Great Mis Tor we found the ground covered with a light dusting of snow. It looked beautiful.
I'd never been to Great Mis Tor before and I surprised by how large an area it was. With only about 15 to 20 minutes before sunrise, I was going to have to work fast to work out what compositions I was going to shoot. I could spot different weather conditions all around me so I also knew things could and probably would change rapidly.
Go Go Go!
After a little scout about, the action started fairly quickly. I was mostly relying on my instincts as I went from spot to spot capturing images. I was glad that I was well versed in the workings of the D850 so I was able to setup and shoot with the camera with ease, allowing me to concentrate on compositions.
As predicted the weather and conditions changed rapidly. We had everything from pink clouds to snow showers to beautiful light on the surrounding hills. It was fun and exciting, but hard work. Here are the photos that I captured:
In retrospect, I wasn't able to make the most of my time there and I perhaps could have captured stronger images. It was always going to be a challenge though given the amount of time I had there, and my lack of experience with the location (and it's many viewpoints). Did I regret my visit? Of course not!
There is almost always something to be gained from a trip out with the camera. Firstly I got to visit a new location. Great Mis Tor is definitely a location I will photograph again. It was also great being up on Dartmoor. A walk on Dartmoor is always a special thing, but when it snows it can be magical. (If you want to see what I mean check out my vlog from Belstone Common). And finally, it was great to have the opportunity to catch up with a friend. Overall, time well spent in my opinion!
So have you had the chance to shoot any snowy landscapes this year? Do you take every opportunity to squeeze in time with the camera? Let me know in the comments below.
Landscape Photography in the Lake District
In this blog post I write about my 2 day photographic adventure in the Lake District. Read about how despite the challenging weather I still came away with some great images and a sense of satisfaction.
Escape to the Lakes
When a photographer friend of mine invited me to spend a couple of days shooting the Lake District in the height of autumn I literally jumped at the chance. Over the last decade or so I had visited the Lake District a number of times with my family and enjoyed it immensely. After all if you like the outdoors there really isn't much not to like about the Lake District. This was going to be a different type of visit though. This visit was going to be all about photography and I couldn't wait!
The plan was to spend two full days shooting various locations around the Keswick area taking in tarns, lakes, hills and of course the odd jetty. Our only restriction was dates. Free time for photography has to fit in around family and work time, so when we picked our dates we were committed, no matter the weather.
November seemed to take an age to come round but when it did my levels of excitement had almost become palpable. I had packed my stuff two days prior to departure and when I did hit the road the 300+ mile journey flew by. I couldn't wait to get shooting but as I would soon find out, the Lake District weather was going to be typically British.
High Brandelhow Landing
It was a 5:30 am alarm call on the first day and despite the lack coffee I was in high spirits and ready to get shooting. Our first stop was High Brandlehow Landing, a pier on Derwentwater. It's a classic Lake District composition with a pier but it was an ideal location to get the photography brain into gear.
My first instinct was to shoot the pier vertically but I actually ended up preferring the horizontal version. Using the Little Stopper at ISO 100, f/11 gave a 2 minute exposure but I was loosing the detail in the sky. Setting the camera to ISO 200 gave me a one minute exposure maintaining some texture in the sky.
Stock Ghyll
Despite the sky being almost completely overcast it had been a reasonably successful start to the day. After breakfast though the weather turned rainy so we decided to head into the woodland at Ambleside and walk along Stock Ghyll.
Photographing Stock Ghyll was a real challenge as I spent most of the time clearing rain water from the camera. I found it difficult to concentrate on my composition. I later tried to shoot the waterfalls but couldn't really find a composition I liked.
Grasmere
After drying out over a pub lunch we took the short drive down to the southern end of the lake at Grasmere. Though it had stopped raining the weather remained resolutely overcast which was a shame as there was barely a breath of wind and the reflections were stunning.
Lovely reflections, just a shame about the light. This image is a 2:1 crop from the original frame.
Latrigg Fell
With a renewed sense of optimism on the morning of day 2 I headed down to the hotel lobby to meet my friend. Unfortunately he was taking shelter from the down pour of rain. Not to be put off we checked our respective weather forecast apps and agreed that an ascent of Latrigg Fell could be rewarded with some nice light come sunrise.
The weather at dawn was not great but we dug in and waited.
As time progressed some splashes of light started to appear on Cat Bells. This image is a 3:1 crop of a 9 vertical image panoramic stitch.
The dawn light struggled to get through the clouds but when it did it provided little moments of magic. This is 16:9 crop from the original frame.
Castlerigg Stone Circle
While ancient stone circles don't necessarily offer a lot of interest for me, the location of Castlerigg Stone Circle is still an interesting location to shoot. You don't necessarily need to include the stones in your compositions.
Bad weather can work in your favour as well. I just needed to wait for a break in the light which came and went in the space of seconds. You just have to stand there with the finger on the shutter....waiting....till you get that fleeting moment of light.
As I've written about before, its important to look around to see what else is happening. I was focused so much on getting the previous image that I almost missed this one.
Tarn Hows
After our trip to Castlerigg we headed up to Ashness Bridge. It was a short stop as no sooner had we got our cameras out it started to rain heavily. So as we approached the end of day 2 we decided that we might try and catch last light at Tarn Hows. The weather hadn't exactly been kind to us up to that point and unsurprisingly it didn't improve that much.
This scene just need a splash of light on the trees but it wasn't to be.
Cat Bells
I was due to make the long trip home the morning of the 3rd day, but I couldn't resist one more dawn shoot. My friend had hit the road at 4am to go home, so as I was on my own I decided I would make the 450m ascent of Cat Bells. Despite the the previous two days of poor weather, I remained optimistic as the weather forecast looked like it might produce some nice early morning light.
My vision for this image was to get some morning light break over the fell peaks (Robinson and Red Knot). I waited and waited but this was as good as it got.
As is often the case in the Lake District, the moments of good light are brief but wonderful. This image of Rigg Beck and Causey Pike is a 3:1 crop from a single frame.
I was on my way down from Cat Bells and looking forward to breakfast but sometimes you just have to stop and unpack all your gear again. The light on Lonscale Fell was too good to miss.
Fun but Challenging
There was no doubt that I was extremely excited about my trip to the Lake District. Having seen so many autumnal images of the area I was keen to produce my own spectacular images. However, as you can see from my images old mother nature had a different plan which mostly involved rain and overcast skies. Even when it was dry there was very little of that magical light that you want to really lift a scene. When it did rain I would just spend most of time trying to keep my gear and filters clear of water. This can be infuriating and doesn't leave much time for the creative side of photography.
So was the trip a failure? Of course not! Yes, it was challenging, difficult and sometimes frustrating but I was in the Lake District, in autumn, with my camera. Sure it would have been nice to have better weather but sometimes as a landscape photographer you have to work with what you get. As I write this blog and look back at the photographs there is a lot to be happy about. Those little breaks of light like I saw on Cat Bells, or the stormy sky over the trees at Castlerigg just goes to show that there is an image to capture in almost any weather condition.
For me landscape photography is also about the adventure, about being outdoors. This trip was an adventure and I managed to capture some dramatic images of the Lake District, so I'm calling my trip a success!
Do you have a bucket list of locations or areas you want to shoot? Have you turned up to a location and faced a few challenges? Is there any type of weather you wouldn't go out in? Let me know in the comments.
Remember to check out my Instagram and Flickr feeds so you can see even more of my images. See you next time!
My Favourite / Top 5 / Best Landscape Photography Locations in Devon
In this special blog post and video I take you on a mini tour of my 5 favourite landscape photography locations in Devon.
A Personal Selection
As a landscape photographer living in Devon I am spoilt for choice when it comes to shooting locations. I have access to Dartmoor National Park, large areas of the South West Coast Path, and everything in between. I shouldn't really ever run out of places to shoot.
Even though I have all this variety I can't help but have a few favourite locations. So in this video I'm going to take you on a mini tour of my five favourite locations to shoot landscapes in Devon. I've chosen a mixture of coastal and inland locations as well as choosing to shoot at dawn and dusk. Some shoots were more successful than others but I'm hoping the video will give you some ideas and inspire you to visit and photograph those locations yourself.
So why not check out the video below and let me take you on a tour of Devon...
If you need a little more information on the locations I have visited or just want to see the images in a bit more detail then please do read on!
Dawlish Warren
The groynes along the beach at Dawlish Warren offer some great lines for your composition. Long exposures often work well at this location as well, especially in poor light.
Don't forget to shoot the beach huts.
Venford Falls
Venford Falls as shot on the video. A polariser is very handy to control the reflections.
Spring is my favourite time to visit as all the moss is at its best.
Emsworthy
Both the rocks and the tree are great elements to include in your composition. This location is good to shoot at both dawn and dusk.
Turn 90 degrees and you'll find a few other compositions to shoot.
Froward Point
Shooting at sunset will typically provide the best light but what ever time you visit please be careful on the rocks!
If you've got good light shoot Daymark Tower as well.
Start Point
The classic Start Point composition. Shame about the weather!
Sometimes it pays to hang around a little longer. There is just a splash of colour in the sky in this image.
In Summary
Hopefully this video and blog post has given you a little inspiration to not only shoot these locations, but also the wider Devon. It really is a fantastic part of the country with huge variety in locations and conditions.
So what are you favourite locations either in Devon or further afield? Did you find this video useful or inspiring? Is there a location in Devon or the south west that you recommend I visit? As always let me know if the comments, and remember to like and share this post! See you next time.