Cornwall July 2018 pt1 Polperro & Holywell

We are on our way down to Cornwall, staying at our usual camp site "Crossroads" which is in Cubert , near Newquay.   this will be the last holiday in the caravan as we have just purchased a motorhome which we will pick up when we get back home.
As usual for our holidays the weather is looking great, in fact this early part of the summer has been very warm.  the temperature is looking like a steady 22 degree's for the entire holiday , which is cooler than it is going to be at home luckily, where it is high twenty's into 30+ .

After a trouble free journey down we have set everything up are are going down to Holywell beach with the Terrible Twosome  ( aka Holywell Horrors)

                                                            Just  a couple of phone pics

Tomorrow we are going to Polperro which is on Cornwalls  South coast, last time  the sat nav directed us down a ever narrowing lane above the village and we nearly got stuck!!!!!!

This time however we navigated direct to the car park , and now walking down to the village.
Its looking a bit dull unfortunately , not what I want for taking photographs.

                                            The houses have beautiful flower displays.

    We are going to walk around the left hand side to go around the headland so I can fly the drone to get some images.   but first over the bridge to get a better view of the harbour boats.

                                             Its a beautiful harbour, enclosed on both sides

                                                   A local Photobombs my image    haha

We have made our way around the headland and I have clambered down onto these rocks where its safe to fly from.

                                   Here are the images I shot with the Phantom 4 pro drone.
     pity there is no sun , but that would make exposure very difficult with all the white buildings.

                                                           Topdown over the headland .

                                  A glimpse of blue sky and its brightening up a bit now .

                                                Six frame Vertorama  (verticle panorama)

As I was coming in to land, I shot this 9 frame panorama at quite a low level,  quite like the perspective it has achieved.

    That was a successful couple of flights , now to continue our walk and the sun is coming out!    just my luck after I needed it.

It is now getting very warm, Chester is looking a bit hot so we have gone back down to the harbour where Mollster decided to just walk off the end of the steps into the deep water!  Ooops    she is swimming around.  no off lead dogs here so cant let them play.   but Chester wouldn't go in!

                    Beautiful reflections in the sunshine now as we walk back around the harbour.

                           Ice creme time , and Chester balancing a cone on his nose, so funny .

Time to go now  ,i will go back down to Holywell beach tonight for sunset and hope to get a couple of good images IF there is any cloud to colour up!


The evening on Holywell beach , Gull Rock standing proud on the left side  and there is a small amount of cloud .     phone shot

I have found a big mound in the sand,  the incoming waves are just about to reach it , so this is my chance to get a good foreground into the composition.    

I have experimented with different shutter speeds , this is my favorite image.


                                              5DSr  17-40L  0.6 soft grad nd       1 second at f14 , iso 100

the end of first day in Cornwall...……………...

Lydstep and St Brides Sunset may 2018

Today we are going to take a look at the coastline near Manorbia and Lydstep,  its an area we haven't been before and the weather looks great this morning.

After driving down a few very narrow lanes we come to the car park , which is almost full!   in the middle of nowhere.  

Just a couple of hundred metres from the car we are looking down onto a beautiful secluded beach, which looks quite difficult to get down to.  Jan says not going down there!   haha

                    The rock strata is amazing here, showing the vertical layers in the rock.

                             Taking the drone up now.   quite breezy so cant go too high

                                                                A 7 frame Vertorama

                                       Another Vertorama looking right down the coastline.

We have walked down to near the end of the peninsula ,   I can fly out from here to look around the corner   so to speak.


  There we go,  and a couple of jet skis look great in the image also ,  it looks a great beach over there.

            This is were a drone gives such a great perspective and a view that normally isn't seen .

                       21 frame panorama ,  cant believe I got the jet skis in a fig 8 pattern :)
        I cant work out why the colour balance is different between these two images , both shot the same , maybe its the lower altitude in the second one.

Time to find a beach to give the dogs a swim ,  Shrinkle Haven is not too far away , not been there before but not to sure how easy it is to get down to.
Walking from the car park we pass Church Doors cove ,  the tide is high and has very little sand between the rocks, so even though we can get down the very steep steps, will give it a miss.  Just around the corner is Shrinkle haven...…

But we cant get down to it!!!!  the path leads to the cliff edge, but is all closed off with wooden barricades and warning signs.      a re think is required now...

We have driven to Bosherton , to go down onto Broadhaven beach , one we have been to many times.
its really busy today on a sunny afternoon,  but the tide is quite far out so plenty of space.

Now time to shoot a sunset , but where? ………………



We have driven down to St Brides for the evening , a tiny little cove with what appears to be a nice walk around the coastline.     there is what looks like a large castle/stately home.    It turns out to be St brides Castle, now turned into exclusive  holiday apartments.

               We are walking around the cove , its looking good for sunset but not a lot of cloud.

      Its quite windy now, but flying  the phantom will be no problem.  the low setting sun is now         illuminating the fields behind me.  this is the best light for a sunset shoot ,most people tend to  photograph into the setting sun, which doesn't work ,  shooting in the opposite direction is best.

Flying over the fields towards the castle , the furrows in the fields are showing up nicely I this lovely light .

As I bring the drone back , I pan the camera downwards at the coastline and fields right next to me.  what fabulous textures the low setting sun reveals .  this is a four shot image, moving the drone sideways taking each frame with about 40% overlap so the stitching program can blend the individual frames together.

                                                               Multi frame Vertorama

                                                      9 frame panorama, stitched in PTGui
                                                                         Fabulous light :)

What a fantastic day ,  and now watching sunset over the bay , the best light has passed and not enough cloud to produce a good sunset .   a phone shot .

Drone flying around Tenby and Pembrokeshire Coastline

The weather has turned against us,  its a dreary dull day today.  We are taking  the Terrible Twosome along to Freshwater west beach for a run , and I might get a chance to fly the drone possibly.

After a good run they are tired enough to leave in the car while I have a quick Drone flight,  the weather is rubbish for taking photographs though.

   The red rocks look interesting, so a couple of Topdown shots from the drone might look good.
The dull conditions make no difference to shots like this .

Looking down the coastline I can see rapeseed fields in the distance, the low clouds and sea mist really reduce the visibility unfortunately.

Time to move on now, looking at maps on the phone ,we have decided to head down the coast to Angle , which looks like it has a small island just off the coast that might make a good subject to photograph.

Take off , the island has a large fort built onto it and is not too far out, I just have to watch out for seagulls while flying.

    Looking back at where I just took off from, the drone gives a great view of the rock formations.

Flying out to the island, I take this image.  the old fort was built in 1850s to protect Milford Haven from a French invasion.

  Topdown image of the rocks near to where I am standing, the wind is getting up so that's it for flying today.

The following morning I have got up really early, for me that is about 6 am   lol  .   I want to fly the drone to photograph Tenby Harbour , the weather forecast is looking great early before the wind picks up and starts to cloud over.
Walking around the harbour and taking the path around towards the old lifeboat house , which will be a quiet safe place to fly from.

I have flown straight out over the sea ,  just far enough to keep good site of the drone in case any seagulls get too close.      shooting a series of 9 frame panorama images.  this is the best one.

                  I have merged the 9 frames together in PTGui stitcher  , with editing in photoshop.

                                                               A second 9 frame image.

                                                              A 5 frame Vertorama .

         Time to get back to the caravan now, and after breakfast take the Terrible Twosome out .

Tenby looking great in the sunshine, but the wind is getting quite strong now and its clouding over fast.

       Now time to give the dogs a run on Freshwater east beach , Mollster has found a large jellyfish .

                                                                   Stupid Spanner!1!

                                                            Photobombed by Chester!

                                               Back at the Caravan and …………………..

                                               Awwwwwww…………… Knackered dogs