Godrevy (April 2018)

A car issue curtailed some of the intended photography whilst in Cornwall. It is sods law that makes rare mechanical breakdowns happen when you least expect them and when you are not at home!

Despite this we did manage to get to Godrevy on Cornwall’s north coast for a day out. It was quite breezy but warm enough to walk comfortably and to sit and enjoy the views across St Ives Bay. This photograph of Godrevy Lighthouse tries captures theses conditions with the wind whipping back the top of the waves. I also processed a black and white version of the same image which provides additional emphasises the white water and the lighthouse:

Walking along the beach at low tide I took some detailed shots of the cliff face. What interested me was the seemingly abrupt transition from slates to mineral veined mudstone which shows on iGeology as a boundary between the Mylor Slate Formation and Porthtowan Formation.

As I understand it, slate is a metamorphic rock formed from mustone and shales sediments that been subjected to heat and pressure. There is certainly evidence of intense folding in the cliffs at Gwithian Towans which suggests that the Mylor Slate Formation sits above the mudstone layers of the Porthtowan Formation, although I find it hard to visualise this process when simply looking at the cliffs.

Another feature that caught my eye was sand patterns at low tide. I partcularly like the dark streaks that are formed by the retreating sea water:

Then there are patterns that can be viewed from the top of the cliff:

Finally, a couple of shots of the marram grass, an adder spotted near to the car park and the seals in Mutton Cove:

 

Godrevy Lighthouse - Photography Week 15 (2017)

A return to Cornwall and the National Trust site at Godrevy. It is one of our favourite places to visit in Cornwall with a mixture of spectacular beach views, cliffs walks, seal watching and, of course, photography.

I must have taken hundred of shots in this location in the last year or so, many with the lighthouse in the background. Whilst I try to look for new angles and compositions it is often the lighting conditions which makes each visit unique.

On this occasion it was highlights on sea spray that caught my eye. The sun had just dropped below some heavy cloud sitting over the lighthouse and every time a wave hit the rocks the top of spray moved into the sunlight. A shutter speed of half a second was used to freeze the moment but still get a sense of the sea's movement:

Prior to making these shots we had walked along the cliff path to the Knavocks with many signs of spring along the way including, pink thrift, and primroses on the cliffs looking down into Mutton Cove and towards Godrevy Lighthouse. A herd of seals can also be seen in one of the shots of Mutton Cove:

Back at Godrevy Rocks the sun was struggling behind a bank of thick cloud. One of my favourite views of the lighthouse includes a section of cliff with contorted layers of Devonian mud and sandstone. The extent of the geological folding is particularly evident in direct sunlight:

Where the tides wash over the rocks the sediments form wave-like patterns which are cross-cut veins of quartz. These make interesting abstract shots:

Once the clouds had moved over there was bright sunlight for the rest of the day although the lighthouse remained in shadow due to the angle of the light. To use this creatively, I exposed for a highlight on some mid ground rocks which placed the lighthouse and the rest of rocks into near silhouette. A 10 stop filter helped to even the undulating sea movement and the final image was later converted to black and white:

Godrevy - Photography Week 9 (2016)

This is a set of images taken last year on Godrevy beach in Cornwall. At the time I was behind on processing images and I skipped a number of weeks to concentrate on more up-to-date work. I had also taken many images from this location and was eager to move on. With hindsight, I might have under-estimated the lovely evening light:

Also, looking closely at some my unprocessed shots I realised that I forgotten about the sunlight reflected back from the lighthouse giving the impression that the warning light was switch on. In reality, Godrevy Lighthouse has not been used since 2012 and the tower light has been replaced by LED lights on the far side of the island. I suspect that mirrors would still be in place inside the tower and these may have caused the concentration of reflected light:

These are selection of the alternative compositions taken on the day:

Godrevy Lighthouse and Rocks - Photography Week 40

Back in May 2016, I took a series of images from the rocks in front of Godrevy Lighthouse in Cornwall. In the subsequent post I said that there would be better days to capture some of the compositions and these are the results from my latest visit.

The difference between the results in May and my latest visit is the angle of the setting sun which has moved by approximately 45 degrees. Instead of shooting broadly into the light, as I did in May, there is now side lighting on the rocks and the lighthouse. The results are less harsh, the tones are warmer, and tools like polarising and graduated filters are more effective:

Whilst waiting for the light to move into the golden hour, I started looking in more detail at the rock formation. The bedrock at Godrevy is mud and sandstone and forms part of the Devonian Porthtowan Formation. The section in front of the lighthouse takes a real pounding from the sea and has a salty, bleached appearance with many pits and grooves. I tried to represent this in a series of abstract photographs plus a wider angle context shot: