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A summer's eve on the beautiful Isle of Anglesey and I'm spoilt for choice as to where to go to watch the sunset.
But in terms of a full on sensory experience the cliffs and lighthouse at South Stack on Holy Island is a hard location to beat.
With cliffs glowing golden in the light of the setting sun, the clean, fresh smell of sea air blowing in off the Irish Sea and the cacophony of thousands of nesting seabirds this would be an amazing place to be even without the perfectly placed lighthouse set below on its rocky outcrop.
My wife Liz and I visit and photograph here throughout the year, as you can always see the sunset from this spot whether it's to the southwest in winter, or the northwest in summer, and you can strategically position yourself on the cliff to include both lighthouse and sunset in the frame of your chosen composition.
On this occasion, with the sun setting at 9.30pm and about as far to the northwest as it could get, my chosen position was on the cliffs at the base of the Ellin's Tower RSBP lookout, where I set up my Canon 6D on its tripod to record the stills for my South Stack Time Lapse #6 video, of which this image was just one of several hundred RAW files that I took that evening.
This wasn't the lonely photographic vigil that I'm used to, as the cliffs and paths around me were dotted with other 'serious' (i.e. tripod and filter wielding) photographers, all busy capturing the scene.
In particular I got talking to one guy who'd driven two and a half hours from Leeds to get to this spot and was going to sleep in his car before driving home the next day.
Liz and I are just so blessed to live in North Wales, surrounded by such beauty all within an hour or so's drive, and I make no apology for continuing to photograph and video this wonderful part of the world.
Filename - south stack lighthouse 07.jpg
Camera - Canon 6D
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 35mm
Exposure - 1/320 sec @ f4, ISO100
Location - South Stack, Anglesey, Wales
This image - 800x450px JPEG
Conversion - Adobe Lightroom
Comments - 3 stop neutral density graduated filter used to darken the sky
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