South Shields

It was -5° at South Shields this morning and the rocks were frosted over, making them doubly treacherous! It was worth the white-knuckle treck along the harbour wall to get this shot though.

EXIF: 50mm : f/16 : 320secs : Canon EOS 5D Mark II : Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 : Lee 0.9 ND Hard Grad : Lee 0.9 ND Soft Grad : Lee Big Stopper

I made about 8 attempts at this shot, but the sun kept coming out from behind the cloud, blowing out the sky. Ordinarily, I just use my ND grads to dim the sun, but in this case the sea was almost as bright, which made it difficult to balance the whole exposure out.

EXIF: 50mm : f/16 : 144secs : Canon EOS 5D Mark II : Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 : Lee 0.9 ND Hard Grad : Lee 0.9 ND Soft Grad : Lee Big Stopper

This shot was deceptively challenging. The sea and the bottom half of the sky were seriously bright, but the land mass and the top half of the sky were really dark, so it took a few attempts with various combinations of hard and soft grads to get an exposure that worked right across the image.

EXIF: 50mm : f/16 : 49secs : Canon EOS 5D Mark II : Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 : Lee 0.9 ND Hard Grad : Lee 0.9 ND Soft Grad : Lee Big Stopper

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Newbiggin-by-the-Sea

The photo gods were against me this morning. First, the sun came up and dipped immediately behind a great slab of cloud, leaving everything dull and flat. Secondly, I discovered why there aren't many good photos of Newbiggin-by-the-Sea: no matter how hard I searched, I just could not find an interesting composition. I've heard since that I might just be looking in the wrong place!

EXIF: 50mm : f/16 : 206secs : Canon EOS 5D Mark II : Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 : Lee 0.9 ND Hard Grad : Lee Big Stopper

This one turned out okay, but it feels like just more of the same. I need some interesting rock formations to photograph!

EXIF: 50mm : f/16 : 258secs : Canon EOS 5D Mark II : Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 : Lee 0.9 ND Hard Grad : Lee Big Stopper

Click on any of the photos to see them full-size against black, and please do leave a comment below if you like the photos.

Whitley Bay at Dusk

My first shots of 2011 were a little depressing. I didn't make it to the coast in time for magic hour, and the sun had dipped behind the horizon by the time I made it out onto the rocks.

Since it was really gloomy, I turned the camera inland and tried out a large(ish) aperture long exposure shot, just to see what it would look like - never seen one before. This was the only decent shot I got before it got completely dark.

The result is interesting: The shallow f/2.0 gives back a little depth that the dwindling sun had all but drained away, and the long exposure really pops the colour out in the sky, as usual. Not great, but worth hanging on to.

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EXIF: 50mm : f/2.0 : 181secs : Canon EOS 5D Mark II : Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 : Lee 0.9 ND Hard Grad : Lee Big Stopper

St. Mary's Lighthouse at Dusk

Missed the sunset again tonight, due to a smash on the coast road. Facing a long drive back home, I decided to see what I could get away with despite the sun having dipped below the horizon. I'm not sure if the dark smudge of clouds behind the lighthouse ruins this or adds interest!

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EXIF: 50mm : f/2.8 : 136secs : Canon EOS 5D Mark II : Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f/1.4 : Lee 0.9 ND Hard Grad : Lee Big Stopper