Cornwall , pt2 Crantock & Bedruthan sunset

This morning after a lie in its a day on the beach with the Holywell Horrors, its going to be very warm and sunny.
Crantock is on the river Gannel , very shallow with fast currents when the tide is on its way in.

With strong winter storms this beach has changed every year we have been coming here, the river outflow has moved from the far side of the bay and now winds its way across the centre.   look at the water clarity, fabulous.

                                                        Chester is swimming already .

                                                          Mollster is swimming now.

                                     The tide is coming in fast across the shallow sand.

                                     They have had a fabulous time , getting tired now

Now for proper photography,   Bedruthan Steps this evening for sunset.

The tide will be still too high to get down onto the beach , but high enough for interest in the foreground hopefully.   

Parking at the café carpark and we have walked down to the cliffs, I think we should have come down a bit earlier as the best light will be very soon.  There is no cloud unfortunately but that means the cliffs will hopefully light up with the low setting sun. 

quick phone shot 

I have run down to the far end to be able to fly the drone,  Nt own the land up to the steps down to the beach,  but im ok at this end of the cliffs to take off.
I have quickly set up the tripod and taken this image on the 5dsr 17-40 L , the sun is already lighting up nicely so I need to get the drone up fast in case I miss the best light!

The cliffs are turning warm in the low setting sun .

                                                 9 frame Vertorama ,what  fabulous light !

                                                                     9 frame panorama

                                          Looking behind me, the fields are lit up also .

                                                                       Jan has snapped me  

                                                            Topdown over the pinnacles

The light is fading now , it was fabulous while it lasted,  some of the best side lighting I have witnessed.

                                                              All the colour has gone now!

                                                                         Drone selfi

                                Chester doesn't look impressed with the sunset  haha

                                                                      End of the evening.

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 .