Show Notes

Following on from my sunrise shoot at Bow Fiddle Rock, I had some breakfast and then continued my day by heading to a little village on the Moray Coast. This village has a beautiful sandy beach flanked by amazing stone/rock formations. 

As it was now mid morning, it became awkward to film ‘to camera’ pieces so instead of focusing on explaining myself in the field, I filmed silent sequences of the landscape and myself and added a voiceover that I could easily record at home. I think this style worked well, it gave me time to reflect on what happened that day and be more critical about what I was doing. Let me know your thoughts! 

Once I arrived at the beach I walked out and began looking for detailed compositions, the rock formations were beautiful and I knew that with a little patience I could find some amazing patterns worn into the stone with time and weather. 

After I found my first few compositions, I was inspired to try and capture the essence of the sea that attracts surfers from across Scotland to this tiny beach. So I tried photographing the waves, before resorting to ICM photography to capture the tones and colours of the sea. 

On the other side of the beach was some fascinating red sandstone that had amazing patterns of wear and I focused in on these details. With every few paces I would see something new that I wanted to photograph, and I look forward to examining the stones again in the future. 

Moving on from that first beach, I went to the village of Gardenstown. Built into the cliff side it is a beautiful village but I found the beach cluttered with jagged and messy rock formations. I walked around the beach to the next village of Crovie. Another beautiful spot but I was still lacking inspiration. 

So I went to the last village of my day, the village of Pennan, just around the headland from Crovie. It was another beautiful fishing village nestled into the cliffs of the Moray Coast. The first thing that came to my attention was a pattern in the sand but to really make the most out of the image it required a black and white conversion and heavy editing to make the pattern stronger. 

I then tried to capture the sea interacting with the stones and boulders that littered the beach. It’s a minimal style of photography that I have done in the past and I enjoy, but it proved difficult on this beach, although I liked the results. 

To round of the middle of the day section, I did some more ICM photography of the sea and I particularly like the patterns in the sea at this location. Along with the red/green colours of the cliffs in the last ICM image. 

It was a good day of photography. The next part will show the sunset to this day. 

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Onto the Images

The first composition that came to mind was to focus in on this pattern in the rocks. The layers created an amazing texture, the exposed rock worn away by the sand, wind and rain as well as the sea to emphasise the geology of the rock.

I decided to break the pattern by placing this puddle of sand in the frame, I think the addition of the sand helps to give a sense of the 3 dimensional nature of the subject. If we compare it to the next image. . . .

Although this image is the same subject matter as the one above, I approached the image completely differently. This is a much tighter focus on the patterns and textures of the rock. The conversion to black and white was to emphasise that pattern and texture, and create tones where the image looked a bit flat in colour.

The above image works better in colour because you can see the sand better than if it was a light grey lump, that and the bright green seaweed shows off the contrasting colours of the beach. Whereas this image is all about the different tones of grey created by the rock.

As this beach is very popular with surfers and the waves were amazing on that day, I decided to try and photograph the waves, capturing the moment that the crest of the wave fell into itself. I used my 70-200mm lens and focused in on the waves, a low continuous shutter meant I could rapidly shoot the approaching waves.

To be honest I wasn’t pleased with the result. It looks too flat and boring and doesn’t capture the essence of the waves, the drama and the movement. It’s too static.

So I decided to try and add the movement and drama to the waves by employing one of my favourite techniques: ICM Photography. I used the tripod to help keep the horizon level as I moved horizontally. Instead of capturing the moment the wave broke over itself, I wanted to create a sense of the movement and drama that the waves gives surfers.

Moving over to the other side of the beach this amazing red sandstone is a photographer’s paradise! It was beautiful!

The colour, the contrast, the textures, patterns and wear it was truly remarkable and I probably could’ve spent the whole day photographing different features found in the rocks. This is just a small selection of the various patterns that I found interesting and photographed.

The first one, I was drawn to the pattern because it looked like a wave preserved in the stone. Petrified from geological actions. The second, I was drawn to the contrast of green seaweed and red sandstone, and the way you can almost see the water pouring over the rock into the little puddle. The third, it was all about the textures of the rock, amazing rippling and contrast, and the limpets help to remind you you are at the seaside. The last one didn’t feature in the video but I really liked this straight contrasting area pushing through the rock, a remnant of a prehistoric past.

After a look around Gardenstown and Crovie, I moved around to Pennan to continue my photography. The first composition that came to mind on Pennan’s beach was this pattern in the sand. It wasn’t very prominent but it reminded me of an aerial view of a river system.

To bring out the pattern it necessitated a black and white conversion, but it was still very faint, so I had to really push the editing to make the pattern prominent. I had to edit a lot more than I would normally do to an image, but the contrasting pattern and sand works. I wish I could’ve capture it better though.

I was hoping to capture something similar to this all day. I like this minimal style of photography, focusing on the elements of the scene, in this case the rocks and sea interacting. The other beaches I had been to had either lacked any rocks in the sea or was too jumbled to isolate one feature. In Pennan it was better but still difficult to isolate individual features.

For this style of image I like to capture the moment the water is pouring over or off of the rocks, the few brief seconds after a wave has crashed over them. For me they demonstrate erosion in a very real way. Over the next few years, that rock will be worn away by the repeated bashing of the sea.

I think these compositions work best with a slow shutter speed, so the water isn’t frozen and you can get a sense of the water flowing over the rocks.

The last two images, just to round off the middle of the day shoot before heading to my final destination of the day and my sunset shoot, I decided to do some ICM photography in Pennan.

In the first image the sea and the rocks created these amazing overlapping patterns, a very unique result.

But the star is the second image, the cliffs surrounding Pennan were made of the red sandstone I had photographed earlier in the day and they were mottled with plants growing on their sides. The ICM created this wonderful contrasting mirage of colour: red, green and azure of the sea. Simply sublime.

After this experimentation, I continued my journey and spent sunset at another new location, subscribe to my YouTube channel to keep up to date and see the next part!

About the Film

Just a little information about the film and how I made it, as well as some links to equipment.

I edited the film using the Free Version of DaVinci Resolve. It’s an incredibly powerful piece of software that I am still trying to understand and will possibly write an article about in the future.

The tracks featured in today’s film were licensed via a subscription with Epidemic Sound. (By following that link, if you purchase a subscription then I will be gifted with a month free for referring you to their services)

• Tomorrow Is Another Day by Jo Wandrini 

• Get You Off by Sionya 

• Know About Us by Sionya 

• I Got Doubts by Spring Gang

• Let’s Be Honest by L. M. Styles 

• Upgrade by Spring Gang

A short Kit List

These are affiliate links, which means if you follow them and make a purchase I will earn a small commission for referring you to Amazon UK. You can find out more about affiliate links here.

Main Vlog Camera is a simple Panasonic G80 with the kit lens, its a great little mirrorless camera that I got for the sole purpose of creating YouTube videos. It’s capable of filming in 4k and seems to do everything that I want it to.

Rode Mic, I got this little microphone to boost the audio quality from the inbuilt microphone.

Action Camera, I use this to film myself when walking. It’s a simple DJI Pocket Osmo camera that has a motorised 3 axis gimbal head, which means that I stay in focus and static while the landscape around me moves. It’s also capable of filming in 4k and the audio quality is quite good.

Voice Recorder, to boost the audio quality when it’s windy or I’m using the action camera I use this handy little voice recorder with a lapellier microphone to record audio.

For a complete Landscape Photography Kit List you can read through what equipment I take with me when I go out here.

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Written by Daniel Long

Daniel Long created DRL Photography as a place to showcase his work as a photographer. Daniel has learnt a lot about photography and wishes to impart this knowledge with you, although the world is an ever changing place and he always says “you can never learn everything.” So as he makes his way, he continues to learn knew techniques, skills and information about photography. He focuses on Landscape and Wildlife photography and Daniel has a special focus on Scotland, his home away from home. As well as writing about photography and taking pictures out in the field, Daniel offers guided photography days so he can share his knowledge and locations in an effort to give his clients the best opportunities possible. Have a browse around this website to see his images, guided experiences and articles about photography. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in contact.