I chose Swansea as it has the Mumbles and the Gower nearby. I have been to the Gower before but it was early in my photographic adventures (when I still had hope) and so the shots could be improved. One of the things I really wanted to shoot was the wreck of the Helvetia in Rhossilli bay at sunset. We set out well prepared and duly arrived on location in plenty of time. we'd brought sandwiches and coffee so we could eat those and then set off down to the beach to catch the sunset. The sky was looking good with plenty of clouds for added drama. So I got out of the car and wandered over to the cliff's edge to see what the wreck was looking like.
This is what I saw.
Tides? I live in Wiltshire we don't have them. The red arrow shows the position of the Helvetia which you can see in the full size picture as a little black dot. Bugger... and the tide was still coming in.
BTW dawn was also high tide so again that was ruled out.
We ate our sandwiches and headed back to Swansea and up to the Mumbles to see if there was anything worth shooting there. My mate Andy, with his local knowledge, having spent his Uni years there had suggested Mumbles Pier (or anywhere in the Mumbles or the Gower, but not the town centre. Maybe we could use this encyclopedic knowledge to our advantage) There was a view of Mumbles point from the coastguard station beach (don't know it's real name but you know where I mean) that looked quite nice earlier but when we got back there in the evening it was like an episode of Shameless, so that was out. I grabbed a quick shot from the car park but wanted to move on. We moved up to the next car park (oh the glamour and romance of photography) which looked like it had a decent view and as I looked over the edge, there was mumbles pier. The race was on as the light was looking really good at that point and it doesn't hang around so we drove down to the pier car park and I legged it out of the car.
The Pier was locked........ yay.
I saw two ladies taking snaps from some steps ahead of me so I went over to see if I could see anything interesting from there. "Oooh, very professional!" one of them said as I rushed past with the camera on the tripod over my shoulder. "Not really, I'm just faking it."
Now, I have been inspired to take a few landscapes recently as I bought David Noton's DVD, "Chasing the light." He tells you how to get in position and wait until the light is just right. You shouldn't be running to the location (like I was), you should have scouted it out earlier in the day (instead of scouting out TGI Fridays). That way you are all prepared and set up in plenty of time and don't look like a big confused, sweaty mess.
When I got to the steps that the ladies had been looking out from there was a little beach. I couldn't believe it. It made all the running and parlava worthwhile when I saw this.
The next night we went back up to Rhossilli and walked up to worm's Head. I knew it would be rocky there and tide in or out as long as the sun set was good we should get some good shots. I shot on fluorescent white balance for this one which gives it a magenta cast, which I like. I know some people that don't understand or just plain don't like messing with the natural look but that's not me.
Next time we're off to Cornwall camping where I discover that neutral means purple and nearly fall off a cliff.
0 comments:
Post a Comment