Anglesey Jan 11th 2022

 Today I want to experiment with some long exposure photography with a  Freewell nd1000 filter on my New Mavic 3 drone which  is supposed to be so stable that 8 second exposures are possible! 

This should be very interesting experimenting with different exposure times  ,  I have Ozzy with me and will head to Trearddur bay first on the island of Anglesey.   Parking next to a small bay I have clambered out onto the rocks and flown the drone just out over the semi submerged rocks out in the bay. the wind is a bit gusty but should be a perfect test with the nd filter.   The 10 stop nd filter works exactly the same as on the dslr big camera, blocking light to increase the exposure time to hopefully show wave movement in the image.  Although there is not much of a swell as the sea is very calm but there are sufficient waves swirling around the rocks for this experiment.

Here are two images, these show good movement that I wanted,  amazingly about 3/4 of the images I shot were sharp!   

 8 seconds f2.8  iso 100

                                                                 3.2 seconds f2.8 iso100 

Now heading to South Stack lighthouse to have a look around that area.   Since Ozzy is with me a walk up and over Holyhead mountain seems a good idea.

                                          He has found water already!   lol

Up and over the top of Holyhead Mountain we eventually get a view of the Holyhead Breakwater in the distance.

A bit closer now , and will carry on walking close enough to safely fly the drone out to try the long exposure technique on the sea, which may not actually make much difference as the sea is so calm anyhow. 

The drone is up flying with the nd filter on, experimenting with different iso and apperture values the histogram is not really showing the differences and when i check the images in the app after the flight, they all look overexposed, even though there were no highlight warnings on the histogram,  very odd!

This is three frames merged into a Vertorama . I don't think the long exposure time made much difference in reality, but its a good test.  Using higher iso values seems to be trial and error, needing to check each image in the app to see how the exposure is.

                                                    6 seconds  f5  iso 200.

Now time to head back to the car and drive down to Newborough for sunset at Llandwyn island.   It is about an hour until sunset, and the walk along the beach takes about 20 minutes.  This will be good for Ozzy anyhow. 

Sitting down on the rocks near the island I have taken a couple images with the low setting sun illuminating the dunes , Ozzy is fetching the ball constantly as i throw it down the beach.

                     Always love the long shadows in the last 3/4 hour before sunset.

Looking back from the island , the sun is getting quite low now so will not be long before any colour may develop. But it appears most of the cloud has left the area now ,  so i just hope to get some of the last good light illuminating the rocks and lighthouse.

                                                             Happy Spanner!

           It is now time to go out and see if any light will be on the lighthouse. There is a glimmer of colour on the horizon above the Snowdonia mountains.

                                             Multi frame panorama 

                  This is what i wanted, the last of the light illuminating the lighthouse.

This is the best of the colour that developed, 5 frames manually shot and merged in photoshop using layer masks.

                       Time for the long walk back along the beach to the car now

                       That's the last ball throw Ozzy , off to the chippy now . 

The end of a great day on Anglesey ...................

Scotland Holiday October 2020 pt1

 We have decided to get away to Scotland in the van for a week  , another Lockdown is imminent due to increasing Coronavirus cases so this may be the last chance to get away this year. 

Heading up to the Galloway forest where there is a Scottish forestry "stay the night" scheme which allows an overnight stay in one of their nominated car parks , the one we are going to is at Clatteringshaws Loch near the center of the Galloway forest park.   On the way up while passing Lock Ken we have pulled over for a short stop , the weather is warm and sunny with blue skies . Time for a quick drone flight.

What a beautiful area this is !    Next stop is Clatteringshaws .  Arriving at the carpark we have set up at the end with a great view across the Loch.    Perfect !

Wine time.

Ozzy looks happy , taken just before they went swimming in the loch.  which turned out Not to be a good idea, but we didn't know at the time.

Time for a nice short walk down towards a stone monument , and while the light is good time to get some more images.

This is Bruces Stone , one of two in the Galloway forest park dedicated to the Scottish King. 

                              The water level looks quite low , only just up to the water tower.

                                          Meandering stream , lovely early Autumn colours.

                                      What a view , across the Loch to the Rig of Clenrie 

                                Ozzy is content to sit and wait for the sunset , and Jan has wine :)

Time for another drone flight , the sun is slowly getting lower in the sky giving good light , here is the visitor centre and our van on the near end .

                   Down to the left end of the loch is a Dam , this is a 9 frame panorama 

                                                 and the opposite side from where we are

Sitting waiting for sunset , and the cloud is looking very nice at the moment and we could get a really good colour display later.  Drone batteries are fully charged in readiness.  making good use of the late sunlight on the solar panel. 

What a beautiful first evening of our holiday , and looking at the forecast it could well be the last sunset we see. 

                                                         a phone pic after the sun has set 

That was a great start to the week , its looking increasingly wet unfortunately .  Tomorrow looks very wet , so we will head up past Loch Lomond to a campsite at Tyndrum for the night as we head up to the highlands. 

Cornwall Holiday pt5 Epic Holywell Sunset

                     

                            This morning another walk along the beach and up onto the headland.

                                       Still breezy and some good waves coming to shore .

Now for sunset ,   we have walked down in plenty of time to give the dogs a run first , and scout out a few possible compositions for later .

As the sun sets low near the horizon ,the light is looking good and with some very nice clouds it is looking like a good sunset is possible ,  But  the clouds are moving very quickly so they will be long gone I fear before sunset time. 

While I am on the beach looking for compositions the dogs are watching me , or trying too as Jan is standing in the way forcing Chester to try to look around her. 

Almost sunset and the cloud has built up really fast , its looking great now.

        Two frame focus stack ,  one focused on the immediate foreground sand and the second on Gull Rock  , merged in Zerene Stacker.   5dsr  17-40 L 

Trying to get the sand ripples as a leading line to the sun.

     This is the peak of the colour ,I did not expect this tonight . Nice patterns created in the sand by the stream running into the sea work well in this composition , better than the previous image.

                                  5dsr  17-40 L   0.3 sec   f13  iso 100    0.9 soft nd grad

The colour faded quickly after this , so this is the last image of the night on the camera.

                             A phone picture taken as the colour faded.

Cornwall Holiday pt 3 Crantock Beach/Holywell Sunset

 

This morning a nice walk to Crantock , one of my favorite beaches.     

Its a long walk across the meadows to Polly Joke, then up over Pentire headland and around the coastal path to cross over the sand dunes behind the beach.  If the tide is out far enough there is a  set of steps to get down about half way ,  but as you can see the tide is too high at present so will have to walk right the way round to the dunes in the distance.

                                          What a stunning day , beautiful blue sky and water .

The dues are where we can get down to the beach.........  hopefully 

This way to the beach,  and a huge drop off that both dogs leapt down and found we couldnt follow!  Ozzy jumped back up but Chester with shorter legs couldn't manage to get back up and had to go around the outside .

                                                                   Where is Chester  lol

Straight into the sea ...........

Time to walk back now, we have managed to walk across to the steps halfway along the cliffs now the tide has gone out.

                                                        One last image across the bay 

Tonight i have walked down to Holywell for hopefully a good sunset

It is looking good so far , fairly good waves crashing on the top of the beach so i am going to try get the low sun light illuminating the waves.

                                                       5dsr  17-40 L    1/20 th  f13  iso 100

         1/20 th sec    i shot a series of frames in "continuous mode "to hopefully catch the light on the wave tops as they break.   out of about 30 frames i got a couple that worked out how i wanted.

                 A long exposure to show the receding wave across the sand.         1.3 secs  f8  iso 100

                                                                              1.3 seconds   F8 

Time to head back to the van now ,  one last phone image...........