A Colourful Return to Dawlish Warren
After almost a yearlong gap, I return to Dawlish Warren where I’m treated to a unexpectedly colourful sunrise.
From Grey Skies to Colourful Skies
Winter on Dartmoor is often my favourite time of year for photography. Sunrise isn’t too early, and you can shoot sunset and still be home in time for dinner. The colour of the Dartmoor landscape is also particularly photogenic.
This winter has been tough though. Lots of overcast damp days. I can work around most weather conditions, but there are some conditions that make photographing Dartmoor really challenging. It’s not that I haven’t had some good days on Dartmoor this winter, but they have been few and far between.
Sometimes you need to take a different approach. Or in my case, a different location. Having spent what seemed like hours, if not days staring at forecasts over the winter, I concluded that I was perhaps focusing too much on Dartmoor. I’m surrounded by amazing coastlines so why aren’t I out there photographing it! The weather can be a bit more forgiving on the coastline as you can benefit from even the smallest of gaps on the horizon for the sunrise or to make the most of a darker, moodier sky.
To get myself back into coastal photography I decided to head back to an old favourite, Dawlish Warren beach. A location I have photographed many, many times. It’s also close to home and given I haven’t photographed it in over a year it seemed the perfect choice.
Looking at the weather forecast for that morning it didn’t look great but when I analysed the cloud coverage, I could see there might be the possibility of gap between the horizon and the lower clouds. If all went well the rising sun would break the horizon and bath the scene in light before it disappeared behind the cloud.
It’s not often that a specific analysis like that transpires into reality but in this case it did exactly that.
Dawlish Warren #2, Devon - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 24-120mm f/4 S at 120mm, f/11, 30 sec at ISO 64, Kase CPL and ND.
Dawlish Warren #4, Devon - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 24-120mm f/4 S at 120mm, f/8, 90 sec at ISO 64, Kase CPL and ND.
As you can see, the light was beautiful. It was also very brief. It can’t of lasted much more than 10 mins. But what a 10 minutes it was! With the soft pastel colours of the scene, I went for simple compositions which work well when combined with a long exposure.
There is something special about the coast, something which I think I’d forgotten and returning to Dawlish Warren has reignited my spark to photograph to it. Of course, not every visit to the coast will result in good photographs, but that’s not a reason not to explore and photograph the hundreds of miles of coastline I have access to.
I’m also going to print and hang one of these photographs. What better way to celebrate a morning photographing the coast than by creating a print.
Do you photograph your local coastline? What does it mean to you? Let me know in the comments below.
Fujifilm GFX100s - The Ultimate Landscape Photography Camera
Is the Fujifilm GFX100S the ULTIMATE camera for landscape photography? In this video, I test and review this medium format 100MP camera the only way I know how, and that's by heading out into the real world and taking landscape photographs.
A Rare Opportunity
I try not to talk about gear too much on blog and YouTube channel. When I do, I try and make the gear chat part of a landscape photography adventure. I’m not much for sitting in my office making videos about camera specs and shooting test charts.
The gear that I do talk about, whether it’s cameras, lenses or even outdoor clothing, is normally something I already own. I think I’ve only ever talked about an item of gear that I didn’t own once. It was at least for a camera that I had a genuine interest in and not for a random item that some company wanted me to make a video about.
So, when there was an opportunity to spend the weekend with the Fujifilm GFX100S, I jumped at the chance. How could I miss the chance to use this 102 megapixel, digital medium format camera? I would of course have to put it to good use and head out into the real world to capture landscape photographs with it.
A Fujifilm GFX100s Review for Landscape Photographers
As a YouTube content creator, I was also not going to miss the opportunity to make a video of my experience with this camera. Despite the price being out of reach for most landscape photographers, like me, I expect many of you have an interest in this camera.
The video I have made of my experience with the camera could be considered a review, but it’s very much a personal review. What I mean by that is that I’m reviewing it from the perspective of if I would buy the camera. So, I don’t really care about fast autofocus, stabilisation, frames per second, etc. I want to know if I would buy this camera as my next landscape photography camera, or at the very least, aspire to own it.
Though I’m not trying to convince you to buy the camera, I do hope you will enjoy this personal video review of the Fujifilm GFX100S. As with the other gear related videos I make, the video is also dedicated to the experience of creating landscape photographs as much as it is about the camera.
I hope you enjoy both the gear elements and the landscape photography elements of this video, but I accept no responsibility for a reduction in your bank balance should you buy a Fujifilm GFX100S!
Fujifilm GFX100S Landscape Photography Gallery
Here are all the photographs I captured in the video. Enjoy.
Something Old, Something New
In the blog this week I get something new from one of my favourite locations, Dawlish Warren beach on the south Devon coast. I also visit Teignmouth Pier and discover that good photographs don't have to be taken during the golden hours.
An Old Friend is a Best Friend
I have photographed the beach at Dawlish Warren a lot. It's probably my most visited location. Since I started this blog I've written about it several times and I'm made several videos for my YouTube channel there. You can read why I keep going back and watch my latest video from there in my blog article Shoot, Print, Surprise!
However, the more I photograph Dawlish Warren the better I get to know it. As my knowledge of the location increases, I need to think less about where I am, freeing up my brain to focus on the creative and composition aspects of my photography. Rather than repeat visits becoming boring they do in fact become more productive. An old friend is indeed a best friend.
Something Old, Something Special
The trip to Dawlish Warren for this blog article was actually postponed several times due to poor weather. It's not that you can't put the bad weather to good use. Just have a look at my articles on Bad Weather Photography and Let's All #EmbraceTheGrey. However, for this particular trip, the conditions needed to be a little more forgiving.
My father-in-law, who is a keen amateur photographer, had managed to score himself a day out with a professional photographer as part of a magazine feature. Fortunately for me, I was asked if I wanted to tag along. I could do my own thing at each location, but I would also have the added benefit of some good company.
After what felt like weeks of poor weather we finally got a break and we all met up at Dawlish Warren car park. The conditions looked good and we all felt very positive. In fact, it turned out to be one of the best mornings I've had at Dawlish Warren.
It was one of those mornings that you look forward to as a landscape photographer on the coast. We were treated to some beautiful morning light, calm winds and a gentle sea. It was one of those mornings where you think that if this is the only image I get today I'll be happy.
I took a number of images that morning using varying shutter speeds. Here a couple of my favourites.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 @ 18mm, f/11, 3 seconds at ISO 64.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 @ 32mm, f/11, 8 seconds at ISO 64.
You can see how my father-in-law got on with his photographs by checking out this months issue of Digital SLR Magazine (April 2018).
Something New
I'm not much of a daytime shooter. I much prefer dawn and dusk than midday. As we headed to Teignmouth to photograph the pier I had already decided that I probably wouldn't shoot it. I've only photographed Teignmouth pier once before and while I liked the location, it was at dawn when the light was better. I wasn't sure that shooting it during the day would suit my personal style.
When we got there about 11 am, it all looked a bit different than I had envisaged. The sky had a good coverage of clouds and the outgoing tide was leaving some nice white lines in the sand as the waves pulled back. So I thought stuff personal style and got the camera out!
Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 @ 19mm, f/11, 2 seconds at ISO 64.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 @ 19mm, f/11, 2 seconds at ISO 64.
As it turned out I would have missed out on creating some pleasing images if I had just left my camera in its bag. Yes, I much prefer the light at dawn and dusk, but taking those images did show me that these aren't the only times I should be looking to take landscape images. It appears it wasn't just my father-in-law that was learning something new that day!
So what are your favourite times of day to shoot? Do you have a favourite local location? What location have you discovered recently? Let me know in the comments below.
The Best of the Rest
It was hard to pick just a couple of photographs to feature in this blog article. So rather than leave the other images out of the blog, here they are in a gallery. Enjoy!
