View allAll Photos Tagged fifecoastalpath
The combination of three exposures and the use of a polariser, ND & ND Grad Filter.
This and other images can also be seen at www.exposedelements.co.uk
In keeping with April Fools Day, this vintage space rocket (a la Jules Verne) is not all it seems. The Fife Coastal Path section between the quaint East Neuk fishing villages of Elie and St Monans, passes this beautiful old windmill. It is no longer working, but in the summer months it is open to the public. You can enter it to examine the exhibits on its history and then climb to the top floor for a panoramic view of the sea-shore. The windmill was used to pump sea-water to the old salt pans that used to be on the shore and ruins of the historic salt-works in front have also been excavated. The salt water was heated by coal fires to drive off the water and leave behind the valuable salt residue. It took approximately seven tons of coal to produce one ton of salt and in some salt-pan localities (like Dysart) ox-blood was added to the brine to help trap impurities in the salt!
The old sailors houses at Pan Ha, near Dysart Harbour. From left to right they are named: The Girnal, The Covenant House, The Tidewaiters House and the Pilots House (peeking out between the two right-hand houses is the List A house , The Anchorage built in 1570). The four shown are List B, protected houses, originally built in the 1700's and superbly renovated for private ownership by the National Trust for Scotland way back in 1969.
Another long exposure waterscape!
I know it’s a little repetitive to keep shooting the same subject in various forms and compositions but I feel that practice makes perfect and I’ve still got a long way to go before I achieve perfection.
The was the last and one of the best bike rides of the year. The weather was simply glorious and despite the frost on the ground the temperature in the sunshine was very comfortable for cycling.
I don’t like to make a habit of shooting sunset and sunrise shots on the same night because it really doesn’t leave much time in between to catch any sleep but making it a habit is exactly what I’ve been doing, The weather in Scotland has been so bad this summer that I’ve had to try to take advantage of every opportunity when presented. This shot is from this morning and I’ll be processing and posting the images from last night later in the week.
Shooting a sunrise in Scotland is a gamble at the best of times because so often the sky above land may be clear but the sky above the North Sea is cloudy and that pretty much ruins the horizon shot. Today’s post is a bit of a rarity in that the horizon was clear and what cloud there was in the sky was high enough to be lit from beneath creating that nice red tone. I had not planned on there being a rig and a couple of gas tankers out in the estuary creating some interest on the horizon but I’ll happily take on a happenstance like that when it’s presented.
The shot was captured using my usual method of three exposure; Sky(short) , Foreground (long) and Middle Ground (medium) and combined using layers in photoshop. I know the image looks very saturated but in reality the sky was so red this morning that I actually desaturated the orange and yellow sliders on this image to make it look a little more realistic.
I’m always trying to get balance in images even when it seems otherwise. In this case I was never sure in my mind if placing a large rock off to image left worked, especially way out past the third. However, I’m a great believer in the force of negative space and perceived mass. When I look at this image I see a horizon that splits the image in two balancing the top and bottom of the frame. I see a mass of dark cloud above the horizon equal to the weight of rock bottom left and I see the area of light colour top left equal to the weight of the empty space bottom right.
Does it work? Does it make sense? Is it all just a bunch of pretentious hokum? Thoughts?
Long before dawn the tide is rising fast and the old wall of the whaling harbour lies in ruins out in the water. I stand up the tripod on the water’s edge and set a long exposure sequence in motion.
I‘d like you to picture this tranquil scene where the colours are calming, the wind in non-existent and the bird calls create a soothing melody to the background. Very relaxing! I step back from the camera and let the time laps controller do it’s stuff whilst I chill sitting in the sand hypnotised watching the ebb and flow of the gently lapping waves.
I now need you to picture how fast the tide rises and how long the taking a sequence of 2 minutes exposures adds up. I hear the beep of the controller tell me it’s finished and time to prep the next shot. Only when I look over I see a tripod completely surrounded by water as the rising tide has engulfed the feet and moved quite a bit besides. Not I don’t have my welly boots on and I really don’t fancy wet feet but there is no way I’m leaving my hard earned kit to the elements. So, it’s off with the shoes and the socks and I wade into recover my stranded equipment. That put a dampener on the day and it wasn't even 5am.
Ripples in the sand and reflection of the darkening sky.
This is a fairly low key image taken about half an hour after sunset. I had been shooting the setting sun at the water’s edge and was getting packed up when I thought I saw an image in the sand and the pool of still water. The colour in the sky was still nice and that big cloud to the left was threatening to block out the light. One more shot I thought to myself. Back down went the tripod, back on went the ND10 and a focus, metering and long exposure later we have a nice little shot.
Captured in a single frame with using a Hoya ND1000 in a Sigma 17-35. The raw was processed twice in ACR to get a contrast between foreground and sky. Blended manually in Photoshop.
A rather industrial looking image for today’s post.
I was listening to a photography judge talking about the rules and aspects that make for good photographic composition and between all the usual comments about rule of thirds, golden ratio etc he mentioned something that struck a cord. He suggested that when composing for a good landscape image the photographer needs to be taking two or three images in one frame. The idea is that one nice image will catch the attention of the viewer of a period of time but including two or three aspects to the overall frame will keep the attention for longer. So the idea is build a foreground the catches the attention and stops the viewer’s gaze dropping off the bottom of the image i.e. something that will provide a base from which to build the image upon. The centre of the frame needs to provide the flow from the front to the back and shouldn’t put too much detail there to block the flow of the viewer’s movement. One or more leading lines is ideal as a mid ground feature i.e. rails, road or path taking the viewer inwards to the image. Finally the image needs to have a background that is detailed enough to catch and stop the viewer from just drifting out of frame and ideally has some feature to bring their attention back to the front for another loop.
Well I’ve followed the rules to the letter on this image but you know I’m just not all that convinced it’s the best combination that could have been achieved using this subject and conditions. Let me know if you agree and if you have any particular opinion on the ‘Rules of Photography’.
I love it on our beach at low tide when a little back-lagoon often forms and the sea-gulls and waders happily paddle around!
Made Explore #331 on 17 December 2008.
The abandoned pier at Carlingnose Point. This was taken in between heavy rain showers in the 5 minutes that the sky was blue on this particular day.
Time for another gritty monochrome image I think.
Today’s post is one that I have quite a soft spot for. Not because I think it’s the best image I’ve ever taken, not by a long chalk, but it’s because it’s the first image I ever grabbed using my new ND10 filter. At least it was new when I used it here because if you are familiar with my photostream you are probably sick of the sight of long exposure shots using the ND10.
I went on to fall in love with the effects that you can obtain using a stopper and it’s never off the front of the lens these days. I like this one because it was my first and you know what they say ‘You never forget your first time!’. ;-)
Shell Bay is a beautiful beach on the east coast of Fife near Elie. This image was taken at low tide when the rocks are exposed and at a location where the coastline faces west. This is one of very few places on the coast of Fife were you can catch a sunset from the shoreline.
I know the point of these long exposure shots is to make the water silky smooth and milky white but in this case I really liked the reflection on the water in the foreground so I deliberately reduced the period of the exposure. That decision has left the rest of the frame a little dark but it was a price worth paying in my opinion. I hope you agree.
A simple HDR shot based on three frames between 5 and 30 seconds. Blended manually in Photoshop.
This pier was originally built by soldiers around the period of the first world war and was used to land supplies to the various military installations that littered the shores of the Firth of Forth. The pier has long since been abandoned with all the sections leading to land completely gone.
The remaining remnant has been given a second phase of life though; as a bird sanctuary. If you look close enough you can make out rows of car tires laid out on the surface. These haven’t been dumped there by some vandal but rather they have been placed there deliberately to provide a sheltered nesting site for artic terns. There are quite a few terns in the area now so it may well be working.
The viewpoint for this shot is one that has been used before and will be used again. The path leading down the hillside to the beach has only one point where you can see through the overgrown vegetation so this is where everyone stops to take their photograph. It makes sense too because the pier is in the sweet spot; not too close to the horizon and not too close to the shore.
I’ll revisit this location for a winter sunrise at some point in the future by which time the point of the sun breaking the horizon will be behind the pier and should give warmth to the sky, which was completely lacking on this grey day.
Walk along Fife Coast, East Scotland 2019. The clouds looked quite dramatic and the afternoon sun gave beautiful colour.
Kilminning Castle is not a real castle - it is actually a sandstone sea stack situated on the Fife Coastal Path near Crail.
The RAF used it for bombing practice during WW2 - however they bombed it with bags of flour rather than anything more sinister
An unusual split rainbow looking from the Kincardine Bridge on the Forth and beyond the Longannet Power Station.
A forgotten and re-edited cloudscape taken in June 15 from Newhaven. The isle of Inchmickery is visible on the left, the Oxcars lighthouse in the middle.
St Monans Windmill dates back to the 18th century and was used to pump seawater into the nearby salt pans.
A classic old fishing-boat beached for the Winter. It chugs out to catch lobsters off Partan Craig rocks during the summer
I’ve had a bit of a break from photography in the first half of 2016. It wasn’t really my choice but things like changing job got in the way of what I really wanted to be doing. The reality is that I could have made more of an effort to be out and about if it weren’t for the fact that I lost the use one of my favourite lenses and I’ve been struggling to find a suitable replacement.
I have used an old Sigma 17-35mm EX model for about 10 years now. I still have the lens but due to an unfortunate accident at the shorefront my kit got soaked in salt water and the inner workings of the old lens didn’t survive. This is a lens that isn’t going to win any prizes for sharpness but it had a few wonderful features that were responsible for many of my favourite images. To start with it was an F2.8 max aperture but it would step down to F42 when I needed it. Most new lenses won’t go past f22 so having that extra ability to shut out the light meant I could get long exposures without the need for an ND filter. The second thing I liked was the parallel configuration of aperture blades meaning that the sunburst effect produced a simple flare with 6 legs in a hexagonal pattern. Most new lenses use an uneven number of curved blades for a soft bokeh but that produces a much more complicated sunburst. Pros and cons… And finally that old lens was excellent at resisting flare which when shooting sunrise and sunset shots is pretty critical.
Why am I mentioning all of this? Well I finally committed to the purchase of a new super-wide lens. After spending months researching all the latest and greatest developments in wide lenses I could not find a suitable replacement that met all my criteria. I finally decided to compromise and buy the best alternative I could get. I decided I had to have the new Canon 11-24 F4 L ultrawide. And then after seeing the price of the 11-24 I immediately decided I needed something else that would not break the bank and/or become grounds for divorce. I finally settled on the Canon 16-35 F4 L IS.
So to the point at last! Today’s post is my first attempt at a shot with the new lens. There are a few things I’m not sure about. That sunburst doesn’t have the nice diamond centre and hex protrusions I like to see and there is a fair bit of colour from lens flare in the foreground. On the plus side the details in the image are a LOT sharper than I could get from the old Sigma.
I’ll need to get out and use this lens a lot more before I’m ready to make my mind up. Feedback and comments welcome.
Following on from yesterdays’ theme of needing a bit more colour in my photostream I’m posting this very bright morning silhouette of the Forth Bridge. I grabbed a nice colourful sunrise this day but I also decided to hang around a little longer and get some shots with the sun rising. The sun proved to be a little bright for shooting into so I found some shelter behind the final stanchion on the south side and got a nice silhouette effect.
The Dysart Tolbooth (1576) had its original roof blown off by a drunken trooper from Oliver Cromwell's invading army. The Roundhead soldier accidentally dropped a lighted torch into a keg of gunpowder. The roof was rebuilt, but sadly history does not tell us if the idiot lived through it. If he survived the blast then he might even have been 'fired' a second time!
The Old Merkat Cross in the foreground has stood there since Queen Victoria's jubilee in 1887. Sadly some modern day fool mowed it down in his car a few weeks ago. That particular buffoon was arrested for drunk driving and hopefully should lose his driving licence. The cross will have to be moved to another location as it has been flattened by motorists a number of times in the past thirty years.
The building is looked after by Dysart Trust who made live a new website, in January 2009. The site can be accessed at www.dysart-trust.org.uk This site will populated with information in the months to come.
My first posting made Explore although I didn't realise that till a year later.