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A brief break in the late December weather had my wife Liz and I scooting off for some fresh air and exercise on the North Wales coast.
The chosen location was at Porth Dafarch on the beautiful Isle of Anglesey, but I have to admit to an ulterior motive.
Porth Dafarch is a southwest facing, quite narrow, cove which catches the sunset for only a couple of weeks either side of the winter solstice.
So for my part, the exercise consisted of standing by my tripod and camera in the chill onshore breeze catching the light and tide as the clouds streamed by overhead and the sun sank towards the horizon.
I was determined to get the most out of our time at Porth Dafarch, so I started the shoot by filming a few seconds of live action video, featuring the freshwater stream that channels its way through the sand at low tide and gives a wonderful wet sheen to the flat area of the beach near the sea.
Having shot this real time video, I then reset my camera to take the hundreds of still images needed to create my Porth Dafarch Time Lapse #3 video, with me making minute exposure adjustments as the sun set and dusk set in, gradually replacing the golden warm late afternoon sunlight with the much cooler blue tones of twilight.
I only stopped shooting this timelapse as the tide finally reached my position high up on the beach, and when a particularly large surge threatened to topple my tripod I reluctantly moved!
But I wasn't prepared to leave without just a couple more still images, this time using a long exposure to render the moving waves and water as a ghostly blur.
When I finally finished photographing it was nearly fully dark, with the planet Venus shining out over Porth Dafarch from behind some thin cloud.
A fitting end to a wonderful, if chilly, afternoon and evening in one of the most beautiful coastal locations I know.
Porth Dafarch Night Timelapse #1
Porth Dafarch Night Timelapse #2
Filename - anglesey porth dafarch dusk 01
Camera - Canon EOS 6D
Lens - 17-40mm zoom @ 22mm
Exposure - 30 secs @ f5.6, ISO100
Filters - 2-3 stop neutral density reverse graduated filter used to reduce the brightness of the sky at the horizon.
Location - Porth Dafarch, Anglesey, North Wales
Image enhancements - Adobe Lightroom
Comments - Long exposure used to blur moving water and clouds.
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