Parked up by the edge of the sea on Llandudno's West Shore you get a great view over the estuary of the river Conwy to the dramatic cliffs of Penmaenmawr on the far side.
These high cliffs attract some active weather, as the moist air rises and the water vapour condenses into clouds as the air cools on the way up.
I was busy shooting stills for a timelapse sequence of the cloud movement on my Canon 5D, firmly bolted down in the blustery weather, so I was glad I had my little Nikon handy to photograph other compositions while the Canon was doing its thing.
There were quite a few spots of rain hitting me and the cameras as I took these images, and no matter how frequently I wiped the lens some more spots of rain would hit it before I had the chance to take a photo.
In the end I decided to just go with it and live with the rain spots, and I was pleasantly suprised to see how much more interesting the photos with the spots were compared with previous 'dry' exposures I had made.
The out of focus rain spot highlights added drama to the photo, making the final image much more of a statement about the North Wales weather than it would have been otherwise.
It's funny how what would normally be considered a defect ended up adding so much more to this image.
Filename - beach clouds 10.jpg
Camera - Nikon D3100
Lens - 18-55mm zoom @18mm
Exposure - 1/3200sec @ f18, ISO100
Location - Llandudno West Shore, North Wales
This image - 800x533px JPEG
Conversion - ACR & PS-CS2
Comments - -1 stop exposure compensation used to reduce burnout in the sky.
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