Three weeks before the official Coronavirus lock-down and a week before we went into voluntary isolation, we spent four days in South Wales exploring the area around Porthcawl for walks and photographic opportunities. This was inspired by the book Photographing South Wales by Drew Buckley. Four locations were selected and are represented in this month’s images: Kenfig Nature Reserve, Sgwd Gwaladus (Lady Falls), Dunraven Bay, and Nash Point. Kenfig dunes is an HDR image - multiple shots at different exposures to manage the high dynamic range of shooting direct into the sun. The Lady Falls valley (long exposure) shot was an experiment to smooth out the water for a more etheral effect. We visited Dunraven Bay before checking into our accommodation to scout possible compositions which was invaluable when revisiting it a couple of evenings later, tempted by the beneficial weather forecast. Dunraven sunset shows the glow of the on the rock strata of blue lias magnificently and also resulted in this composition becoming the Image of the Month. We returned home via Nash Point: the dramatic cliffs, boulder-strewn beach and incoming tide provided some compelling dynamics for the final two shots. These were taken around mid-day, although they could be interpreted as sunrise or sunset. Overall, I think this set of images starts to show my developing style of composition, use of light, conscious choice of time of day and post-processing...
Image of the month: Dunraven sunset With the cloud cover, I wasn’t sure I’d get anywhere near the shot I envisaged. However, having found my favoured position and set my camera up within half an hour of sunset, I waited and was fortunate that the clouds parted over the horizon, and the sun caught not just the cliffs, but also the edges of the rocks that make up the beach. I took three shots with different exposures anticipating a High Dynamic Range shot, to be combined in Lightroom. Had I not done this, the sky might have been “blown out” or the cliffs too dark. I subsequently submitted this shot for an hour’s workshop with Nigel Danson and received favourable comments and a couple of helpful hints, cutting out some distracting foreground and softening the sky.
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