Framedlight

It was getting late in the day so we went back to the pier at San Simeon, hoping for a sunset. We were not to be so lucky, low cloud  and mist came in as it was getting dark but the low light gave me the chance of some long exposure of the sea and pier. We spent the night at the San Simeon State Park campground which we had booked in advance, not wanting to be stressed out looking for a space. The pier photographs are here, both in colour and monochrome.

After the tide had forced us off Saltwick Bay we drove north to Saltburn to photograph the pier. The tide was almost up to the very top of the beach which was good and the sea was fairly rough as well which made for good long exposure shots. I was finding that exposures of around a second showed some movement in the sea but longer exposures of 15 seconds or more smoothed it out. The scene was interrupted by a couple of horses being ridden along. I was not really set up to take them but have done so anyway! I had new boots on (Meindl Toronto) which stood up really well to the soaking they received. Again there are some coloured pictures and then monochrome. The pier really suits monochrome but I love the muted colours that long exposures give. The pictures with the horses I have only shown in black and white as one of the riders had on a high vis yellow jacket.

After breakfast we went onto the pier to take long exposure pictures of the opposite pier and the town. I was rather taken with the movement of people up and down the pier which, when looking back towards the town, was facing directly into some warm sunshine which created a glow from the plank floor boarding of the pier. We were using 10 stop filters to get the exposure time up and for the people pictures I adjusted the ISO to get exposure times of 1/2 to 2 seconds in order to get some delineation of the figures but also some movement. The weather was clear but cold with some interesting clouds. I had brought fingerless gloves with me and wondered at my stupidity as I lost the feeling in the end of my fingers. I have converted most of these pictures into monochrome as well so I will post two sets - one colour and one black and white -  I can never decide which I prefer. The first picture is not a long exposure, but of the town of Whitby from the pier. The last picture is one I t...

On the Saturday morning we rose early and packed the van up with our belongings. Rene got off back up north to Milnthorpe and we set out southwards to home. This was not however before I realised that it would be my last chance to photograph dawn at Trefor, so I went down to the shore even earlier to take pictures of the brewing sky and windy foliage. We left, but stopped at the beach in Criccieth as the light was spectacular, and then had only one stop in Snowdonia for a coffee on the way home. Some of the Criccieth pictures have been converted to black and white using Silver Effex Pro. It was the end of a fantastic 3 weeks in Wales. View from the back of the house at Trefor The beach at Criccieth