Show Notes

Travelling to this third location after the Sandy Beach photo shoot, I was hoping for some decent sunset light, and I was not disappointed. 

I arrived on location and it was so windy that audio was never going to happen, so I focused on the photography and filming in silence. I had 2 ideas of images that I wanted to get. 

The first style was a minimalist style. The sea was raging with large waves and the wind was causing the tempestuous clouds to quickly move across the landscape. I wanted to capture these 2 elemental forces in a simple composition. Nothing else to clutter the landscape. The tones and colours of the sea and sky alone. 

As the sun set the clouds became delicately painted by various pastel colours that gave an even better composition. The whole time I knew that I wanted to use a 10stop filter to really slow down the whole landscape and add an otherworldly sense to the image. 

I eventually found my remote trigger and that enabled me to make exposures well beyond the 30 second limit set by the camera, and my last image of the evening was a monumental 8 minute exposure and it was still extremely dark! 

As well as the minimalist images, I was experimenting with a more classic composition. Using the beach as a leading line to the sunset beyond it. And this provided an amazing composition, especially when the sun was just sitting as an orange dot above the horizon. 

I’m glad that the day turned into such a wonderful sunset. 

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Onto the Images

When I arrived at the location I knew I wanted to capture images like this. Very minimalist, with only the sea and sky as subjects. The heavy clouds, wind and rolling sea was the perfect simple composition.

This was the first image I took once I got in to position, just a 30 second exposure but you can see the smoothing of the sea and the movement of the clouds as the wind pushed them towards the shore.

The sky started to get this light touches of colour brushing the clouds and I knew the sunset was going to get better as the sun continued to drop.

I love the whiteness of this image and the way the sea has lightened to almost a turquoise when compared to the image above.

As the sunset continued to develop the clouds took on this wonderful pastel colour, I repositioned the camera slightly to make the most of it. And it’s easy to see why this one was my favourite image in the minimalist style.

So much colour, yet still beautifully simple in composition. The repositioning meant that the land beyond the sea just crept up above the horizon, adding a little whimsical dimension to the image.

For this one, I had managed to find my cable release in my bag, and so through guesswork mostly, I calculated an exposure of 4 minutes should result in a well exposed image. It turns out my guesswork was pretty good!

The last image of the shoot and as you can see the sun had set completely, taking the colours away and leaving the scene in darkness. But I had an idea that capturing the sea in this near darkness would accentuate the tempestuousness of the sea and evoke a sense of storm and foreboding. I think it does…

For this one, still using my guesswork, I exposed for 8 minutes. And to be fair I wanted the image to be underexposed. So when it came back and it was still very dark, I was both surprised and happy with the result. I honestly thought that an exposure of 8 minutes would have resulted in something a little brighter than this!

The second image I took that evening. As soon as I arrived and saw how the sun was sitting in just the right place, I knew there was a composition with the beach acting as a leading line to the sunset.

This first one, I wasn’t happy with, so I continued to tweak the composition as the sunset developed.

I decided to focus on the stones to blur the background, in an attempt to add intrigue to the composition, but I feel like there is too much light in the sky and the ones that followed as the sun continued to descend were better.

This one without the hot spots caused by the sun has a nicer palette of colours and I really like the sea ghosting around the beach due to the long exposure but I feel like the composition is a little unbalanced.

Like Goldilocks, there is too much sea and not enough beach. I wanted to get the composition juuust right…

This one! This one was ‘juuust right’!

There is still a good amount of sea, creating a vastness and space to the image, but the beach is strong enough that it leads you to the sun dot above the horizon. The hotspots of the first composition have all gone as the sun has descended.

The ultra long exposure of 3 and a half minutes has helped smooth out the clouds, which reflects the textures of the sea. Less bold shapes and formations compared to the other 2 images.

In my opinion this one was the best image from this classical composition.

I took this one immediately after the last image, just in case the portrait orientation and focusing on the beach gave the image a stronger composition. But to my disappointment the sun had dipped over the horizon completely and the composition was lost with it.

The image above is so powerful because there is the sun as a focal point. Without the sun, then the landscape is not as powerful. It’s a nice landscape but it’s missing a little something, and when you compare it with the image above it’s easy to see that thing it is missing is the sun.

I was lucky that this third location didn’t have anywhere near as many people as the location that I was trying to photograph before. The other spot was mayhem, but I’m certainly looking forward to returning as the summer is coming to an end.

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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)

• You Belong Here by Across the Great Valley

• Waiting Like the Storm by Rand Aldo

• Cold Light of Day by Across the Great Valley

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.