The end of July 2024 and the sun had already started setting fortyfive minutes earlier than midsummer, and the sunset had moved inexorably southwards as autumn approached.
But the North Wales coast is still a great place to view the sunset from at this time of year, out over the vast expanse of the Irish Sea and, if the tide is right, out over a huge acreage of wet sand as well.
The north Wales coast is fringed with seaside towns, starting with Talacre in the east and ending with Caernarfon at the tip of the Menai Straits in the west.
And a short way along the coast, travelling in an easterly direction, you arrive at Rhyl.
Now Rhyl has had a bad rep over the past few decades, but a fair amount of work and seafront regeneration has restored some of the appeal of this somewhat forgotten holiday spot.
But that's not what appeals to me about the seafront at Rhyl.
With it's multiple wooden lines of groynes extending out across a huge expanse of beach, a view out to the northern horizon, taking in the offshore turbines of the Gwynt-y-Môr wind farm, and the ever changing weather, Rhyl seafront is a wonderful place to watch and film a sunset from.
Which is just what my wife Liz and I did on this particular evening, enjoying a spectacular lightshow as the setting sun played hide and seek in and out of the broken clouds just above the far horizon.
Filename - rhyl_sunset_timelapse_10
Camera - Canon EOS 6DMK2
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 50mm
Exposure (start of sequence) - 1/800 sec @ f/4, ISO100
Exposure (end of sequence) - 1/15 sec @ f/4, ISO100
Filters - 2 stop neutral density graduated filter used to reduce the brightness of the sky relativer to the foreground.
Shooting interval - 4 seconds
Location - Rhyl promenade, North Wales
Music - The Closing Of Summer - Asher Fulero
This clip - HD 720p, 30fps (4K and 1080p HD formats also available)
Clip duration - 33 seconds
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2024 unless otherwise stated.