Portland - Dorset

Portland - Dorset

I am collecting a wide range of subjects for my calendar this year. I will be taking orders in late November but if you would like to purchase one Please contact me on info@johnalexander.me.uk and I will place you down for an order.

I decided to get some shots of Portland on Dorset's Jurassic coast. I arrived late, I had approximately 10 minutes until the sun dipped below the horizon. After paying the car park my entire life's savings, I ran to position myself in hoping to capture the last golden rays of the setting sun side-lighting the Portland Limetone of Pulpit Rock. As I caught sight of the English Channel, the wind immediately nearly knocked me off my feet, the sea spray aslo made it difficult as one speck of spray on the lens compromises the entire photograph (not forgetting the life of my camera)!

The hardest shots to get are always the best, I said this to myself, as I clambered down the cliff, tripod and camera over my shoulder. I needed to get as close to the action as possible to deliver the most impact in the image. I huddled behind a boulder attempting to shade myself from the howling wind and spray to get a clean, blur free image. Tripod, remote release, and camera in position. I took off the lens cap at the last moment. I managed to take this photograph and as soon as the 1/2 second exposure ended, a tsunami of all waves smashed the rocks in front of me and drenched my camera, filters, lenses, tripod and of least importantly, myself.

This part of taking photographs I really love. The excitement of climbing on slippery rocks, the gamble of having thousands of pounds worth of equipment on my shoulder and having the possibility of destroying it by just one wave makes it all the more exciting. There is a time for waiting for the light to come over the horizon on a misty morning, the spectacle provides you with that excitement, but then there is that other dimension of adrenaline that also makes my landscape photography really exciting to shoot.

I quickly took off my jacket, and rubbed my camera, filters and lenses with my jumper attempting to get as much of the salt and water off the camera. For the next few minutes the camera didn't turn on but eventually after drying it with every layer of clothing I had on my body it came back to life.

The night shot of Portland Bill lighthouse doesn't have such a dramatic story, but hopefully the images does! The shot is a 10 minutes exposure with still a little light in the sky. The foreground was pitch black, so I used my flash gun to illuminate the foreground during the exposure.