Rock Studies - Photography Week 10 (2017)

The weather conditions conspired against my short trip to Cornwall with high winds for one of the free days and mizzle for the rest of the time.

Trying not to be put off by poor weather I headed for Dollar Cove near Gunwalloe only to be pelted by sea foam carried on the wind. The beach looked like an industrial quantity of soap powder had been tipped into the sea. Undeterred, I moved to plan B, photographing the rock formations on the beach with my back to the wind:

This second set was taken on the following day in the mizzle at Gyllyngvase Beach in Falmouth:

Both sets demonstrate the array of colours that can be found in the coastal rock formations in Cornwall. Even in poor weather conditions, it is one of the most absorbing and enjoyable subjects to photograph.   

Dollar Cove - Photography Week 42 (2016)

Following on from yesterday's post is another draft from last year which I see no reason to edit (apart from the normal typos, grammar errors, misused words etc.). It has relevance for the direction of my photography during 2017.

During 2016, I have developed an interest in intimate landscape photography. Broadly included in this genre are compositions selected from the wider landscape often excluding the sky. Given this broad definition, the possibilities are endless yet they can be difficult to find and capture.

There maybe photographers that can naturally see pictures and simplify complex scenes, but that it not me. I need to practice, make errors, hopefully learn from them, and then try again. Setting practice targets is part of improving my photography.

The trip to Dollar Cove was centred on a rock formation that I had seen on previous visits. When the tide turns in this location the rocks do not seem to fully dry out. As a result, there are stripes running down from the undulations in the surface. With a bit of imagination they look like a miniature mountain range.

I have tried to capture the striped effect previously but struggled to get the right point of view and sufficient depth of field. This time I tried multiple shots with different focus points and then applied a focus stacking process in Adobe Photoshop. These were some of the results. Technically, I am happier with the outcomes but more neutral on the compositions:

Eventually the incoming tide washed over the subject matter:

Dollar Cove - Photography Week 30 (2016)

Continuing the theme from my previous post are a selection of detail and intimate landscape photographs from Dollar Cove near Gunwalloe, Cornwall.

In this first set I have concentrated on a section of the rock where the layers have been subjected to geological folding:

This next set concentrates on the lines in the rock:

The last two images step back from the close up detail providing more context to the composition:

Dollar Cove - Photography Week 18 (2016)

On previous visits to Dollar Cove I hadn't managed to line up the low tide point and sunset at the same time so I was intrigued to see how the compositions might change in these conditions.

Unexpectedly though, I lost the light at the crucial time. The sun dropped behind a cliff placing the cove into shadow with at least 30 minutes to sundown. I can now see on TPE (The Photographer's Ephemeris) that this will occur through the summer months reducing the effectiveness of this venue until September.  

The trip wasn't a total write off and these were some of the results. The shots are in time order from about 5:30pm to 7:30pm:

Shot 1 - the light is generally too bright  
Shot 2 - strong shadows which can change the compositional approach and in this case forcing a crop
Shot 3 - the sunlight is diffused behind a cloud and the result is a little flat
Shots 4 & 5 - low sun with a light shadow - my preferred lighting conditions
Shot 6 - for illustration purposes only, the sun dips below the cliff losing about 30 minutes of low light. 

Whilst waiting for the light to change, I filled the time with a some rock studies including the patterns created as the bedrock dried in the sun: