Sunset over the beach at Porth Dafarch, Anglesey, North Wales

Sunset over the beach at Porth Dafarch, Anglesey, North Wales #1

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The story behind this image

A brief window of good weather in mid December 2020 was all the incentive my wife Liz and I needed to hop in the car and set off for the beautiful Isle of Anglesey, just off the North Wales coast.

With sunset at 4pm at this time of year we didn't have much time to mess about, so we went straight to our chosen destination of Porth Dafarch on Holy Island, without taking any of our usual diversions around the numerous beauty spots that Anglesey boasts.

Porth Dafarch is a stunning little bay, bounded by rocky cliffs and with a sandy beach punctuated by large rock outcrops.

But more importantly from my point of view, it faces southwest, which means that the sun sets between the headlands for a couple of weeks either side of the winter solstice.

Another bonus for me this year was that the tide was far out, having just turned, so there were acres of wet sand in front of me, reflecting the glorious sunset skies above.

So it was quickly out with all the photographic paraphenalia needed to shoot the hundreds of still images required to create my Porth Dafarch Timelapse #4 video as the sun sank quickly towards the horizon.

But before the sun had dropped too far we were treated to a magnificent display of sunbeams, or crepuscular rays to give them their scientific term, as broken cloud swept across the horizon from the west.

So I selected this image from the time lapse sequence to present as a stand-alone capture, with those crepuscular rays at their most dramatic.

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Image location

Porth Dafarch Angler Video #1
Porth Dafarch Sunset Video #1
Porth Dafarch Sunset Video #2
Porth Dafarch Timelapse #3
Porth Dafarch Timelapse #4

Image data

Filename - porth dafarch sunset 01

Camera - Canon EOS 6DMK2 DSLR

Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 47mm

Exposure - 1/1600 sec @ f/4, ISO100

Filters - 2/3 stop neutral density reverse graduated filter used to reduce the brightness of the sky, especially near the horizon.

Location - Porth Dafarch, Anglesey, North Wales

Image enhancements - Adobe Lightroom

Comments - This image is one of hundreds captured to create my Porth Dafarch Timelapse #4 video.