Total waste of a journey up to Dunstanburgh Castle yesterday morning. Firstly, I was unaware that the castle itself was a 40 minute trek from the nearest car park, so I missed sunrise altogether and only just caught a glimpse of magic hour.
To make things worse, the tide was way out by the time I got to the North side of the castle so there were precious few of those famous black boulders in the surf for a good long exposure shot. I had to walk miles out to get a shot with even a few rocks in the water - this was the only one I got.
I also discovered that Dunstanburgh Castle is yet another of those uninspiring landmarks along our coastline that only really comes to life through an ultra-wide angle lens. I love the simplicity of my single 50mm prime setup, and really don't want to be buying more lenses, but sometimes it's difficult to create a dramatic image with such a pedestrian focal length!
The second of my disappointing shots from yesterday's trip to Dunstanburgh Castle. I was so uninspired by the castle itself, I decided to call it a day and home with only a single half-decent shot on the card, despite having woken at 4am specially to shoot it.
On my way back, I saw this submerged gate in a flooded field that looked quite interesting. There were no great compositions to be had, as the landscape around the pond was so awkward and cluttered (I would have liked to have isolated it) and most the of the viewpoints around it were cut off by the water - I need some waders!
The best I could do was to use my hard grad to black out the mound behind it, and make the most of those lovely magic hour highlights. Unfortunately the shot was pretty much ruined by the horrible flare right across the middle (which I couldn't see on the LCD at the time). Looks pretty interesting nonetheless.
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.
