Valley of the Rocks - 5 Minute Photo Adventure
In the blog this week I head off to the Valley of the Rocks in north Devon to shoot another 5 Minute Photo Adventure video. See the images I took at this dramatic coastal location and be inspired to visit yourself as I show you grandeur of this location from the air.
Drama!
Photographers will often use the word dramatic to describe the coastline of the south west of England. I've even been know to use the word once or twice in my own videos! While it is true that much of the coastline in the area is indeed dramatic, there are few such locations as the Valley of the Rocks in North Devon that have really earned that title.
No matter if you are a photographer or not, walking along the South West Coast Path as it cuts through the valley is a sight to behold. On a good day you can see out over the channel and onto Wales, or just appreciate the steep and rocky cliffs as you stroll along the path at what appears to be a dizzying height.
But enough of me waxing lyrical about the location, take a look at my latest 5 Minute Photo Adventure video to see what I'm talking about.
On Location
I hope you feel inspired to visit the Valley of the Rocks. I shot a little more drone footage than I probably would have for one of these videos, but sometimes you need more than 15 to 30 seconds of video footage to help tell the story of a location.
I opted to shoot from an elevated position so that I could get a long view down the valley and hopefully get some nice evening light across the rock faces. These are two of the images I took, just taken a little time apart.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 @ 22mm, ISO 100, 1 second, f/16, Lee Filters circular polariser and ND grad.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 @ 22mm, ISO 100, 1.3 seconds, f/16, Lee Filters circular polariser and ND grad.
I'm reasonably happy with both images. They are probably the best images I've captured there. However, being the picky photographer that I am, there are a couple of things I would like to have been a little different. Firstly it would have been nice for the golden light to be a little stronger and more widespread. You can just about see the golden light coming through on the foreground rocks, but having more it along the valley would have been nice. However, it did light up the sky very nicely.
While things like the light are sometimes out with my control, the composition is my job. It's not that I'm unhappy with the composition of both photos, but for the first image, I should have shot just a little wider. Perhaps around 17 or 18 mm. The setting sun in that image is very close to the edge of the frame. I should have either excluded it all together or given it more room. I was probably concentrating on other elements around the frame or just waiting for the sun to go from the frame. It might have been that this was a test shot while I was waiting for the sun to leave my composition. It's strange how sometimes that an image you never intended to be the "one" can end up being the favourite from a shoot.
Go Explore
Though I only photographed from one location that evening, there are numerous spots along that part of the South West Coast Path to shoot from. It's well worth getting there a little early just to have a wander and take in the location. No matter what you shoot with or what you like to photograph you should find something inspiring. It might even be the wondering goats or the cricketers playing a match on the valley cricket field!
So have you been to the Valley of the Rocks? Did the video and images give you the inspiration to visit this stunning location? Let me know in the comments below.
And before you go....
Oh, and one last thing. I'm very happy to be in Feedspots Top 75 Landscape Photography blogs. Why not check out out the other 74! There are some top names in there so it's well worth checking out.
1 Location, 2 Cameras, 3 Photographers and Force 4 Wind
In this blog post I write about a recent trip to The Valley of the Rocks where I nervously flew my drone in strong winds and shared a cliff top perch with two other photographers to photograph Ragged Jack.
Last of the Midweek Shoots
Autumn is open us and though the amazing autumnal colours haven't reached their peak yet in Devon, the nights are closing in rapidly. During the spring and summer months my photography benefits greatly from the long evenings. Photography during the week becomes practical as I can grab my camera and head out straight after work and travel all over Devon and Cornwall and still make sunset.
Over the last few weeks though that window of opportunity has been shrinking and my ability to travel long distances before sunset reduced. So when I was looking at my location map and decided to go to The Valley of the Rocks, I knew this could be one of the last of my longer mid-week trips for a while.
1 Location, 2 Cameras
With my one location locked in for the evening I got to checking out the conditions and planning my shoot locations (see my blog post on Planning). On my last visit to The Valley of the Rocks I took some time to have a walk about to see if I was missing anything. (Check out my blog post on Location Scouting to read why I do this). Well, I was glad I did as I discovered a whole new aspect to The Valley of the Rocks and was inspired with some new ideas!
My plan was to not only take out the big guns (Nikon D750) but to also take out my DJI Phantom 3 4K so that I could get some aerial shots of the dramatic coastline and rock formations. I've recently been discovering the joys of drone photography and I thought this would be an ideal opportunity to do some more work in that area (see blog post on Drone Photography). My plan was to shoot with the drone while the light was good, and then switch to the DSLR for last night. So with my one location locked in and my two camera's packed I set of for the north coast of Devon.
Force 4 Wind
The drive to my location wasn't exactly inspiring as the rain continued to come down and as I reached some of the higher parts of the route the fast moving cloud got lower and lower. However, I had checked the weather forecast and it had promised to clear up around sunset so I was remaining optimistic. By the time I had got there things had much improved so with a sense of excitement I got to my first spot and got the drone out.
It was at this point that I did get a little nervous. If anyone has been to the north Devon coast will testify it can get a little windy. I've had to extend my planning routine recently to take into account flying the drone, particularly along the coast. I now check the coastal weather forecast to see how strong the wind will be. The drone does have a maximum horizontal speed and flying in wind speeds that exceed that could see my drone drift out to sea!
I had done a number of calculations and worked out that I could safely fly it in the predicated conditions of a force 4 wind. However, what is OK on paper may not actually be OK in real life. So while perched on a cliff side with a very long drop I cautiously started up the drone. Hovering at 1.5m I could see the drone working hard to stay in one place. Putting caution to the wind (excuse the pun), I decided to fly it away from the cliff side as I thought it might be a bit less blustery. Though the drone was still working hard, it had settled down a bit and my confidence grew. I still had a worry that it was going to get caught by a gust of wind and go out to see or crash into a cliff, but I was feeling bold (or daft) and managed to capture some dramatic images.
3 Photographers
After about 45 minutes with the drone I had got the images I had come for. Well, most of them anyway. There were a few shots of some rock arches that I wanted but I really wasn't brave enough to get them given the conditions! So with sunset approaching rapidly I headed off to a spot that I had noticed earlier with the plan of shooting Ragged Jack with my DSLR. As it was a Tuesday evening in late September I thought I might have the place to myself but as I turned the corner I found another photographer setting up on the cliff side.
The spot we had both picked to shot was relatively small but Steve (the other photographer), kindly let me share it and we got chatting. It was the normal stuff, gear, technique, processing, but all very enjoyable! Just as we got shooting another photographer turned up. So two became three and we all waited for that magical sunset moment….which to be honest never actually happened. I took a handful of frames trying different combinations of filters but sometimes the conditions just aren't quite right. The third photographer soon walked on and I continued to enjoy my chat with Steve. We both continued to take a few frames but soon we were packing up also.
Time Well Spent
Though my final image taken with my DSLR isn't one for the portfolio I still count my trip to The Valley of the Rocks as a success. Firstly I managed to capture some nice images of the location with the drone. I really like the extra dimension that the drone has brought to my photography. I try and take the same approach to composition with the drone as I do with the DSLR, but this doesn't always work so I'm still learning how to compose when shooting at 200 ft!
It's also good to just get out and practice the art of photography (see my blog post on Practicing). Sure the conditions didn't turn out to be perfect but just getting out with the camera is always a pleasure.
It is the unexpected that can also make these trips worthwhile. It was great to meet and chat to a fellow photographer. Landscape photography can be a solitary pastime, and while I greatly value the solitude, it's also great to meet people, especially other photographers.
So overall it was time well spent. Any time with the camera is time well spent! I might still squeeze in a couple of mid-week evening shoots but I'm already starting to plan out my dawn shoot locations for the next few months. During autumn and winter my opportunities for photography are limited to weekends and sunrise shoots minimise any impact to my family commitments. But do you know what, I kind of like those cold mornings perched on top of a tor on Dartmoor, freezing cold, drinking coffee, waiting for the sun to rise and bath the world in light.