Cabo de Gata - Spain

Am improved shot of Mojacar at night with a few more clouds in the sky





The full moon brought high tides to the shores of southern Spain. As I wait for the sun to lower towards the westerly horizon, I seemed to be consuming my daily allowance of salt intake from the constant spray from the winter waves. The amount of salt managed to turn my blue, wobbly wheeled Vauxhall Corsa hire car into a shade of white almost witnessing the corrosion in action. My new Camera and filters did not like this.




I had set-up next to this old, weathered fishing boat with lens caps on and filters in pockets ready to pounce for when the sun became ideal for the photograph. The cloudless sky was cloudless, I usually like a few clouds in my shots to give the scene more atmosphere and interest, however no such luck. I decided to use the setting sun to my advantage and give a warm Mediterranean vibe to the image, even though it was freezing, my fingers were numb and my nose was running quite badly. It had been 20 degrees in the middle of the day but as soon as the sun lost its punch it had plummeted to 7 degrees with a wind chill factor of... a lot.


I usually do not point my camera directly at the sun as flaring becomes an issue can ruin the photograph. However in this case I think it really adds to the image. In my landscape photography I try to convey the atmosphere so that the viewer feels as if they are standing right beside me as I am taking the image.
In this image I used a 1 second exposure to blur the waves a touch to give them a painterly feel which I always look for when shooting rough seas.

This image will feature my 2011 calendar. Order now! Email me info@johnalexander.me.uk if you want one! Last order 5th December.

Take a look at some samples http://www.johnalexander.me.uk/

John

Back to England!

East Sussex Shoot

Dartmoor National Park

An image to appear in my 2011 Calendar.

http://www.johnalexander.me.uk/2011-Calendar.html

After narrowly avoiding some suicidal sheep, driving on the meandering roads near Postbridge in Dartmoor National Park, I parked up and began my walk to the top of the Tor.
I have been up this Tor three times in the past and still have not learnt that loafers with holes in the toes are not the shoes for the job. There is no path as such up to the Tor, only what seems to be a ankle deep floodplain to wade through, complete with an alarming array of different types of faeces to step in. I successfully stepped in all types available.
After I squelched through the marshland surrounding the Tor I arrived at the top. These outcrops of granite are scattered all over Dartmoor, each presenting a dominating panorama over the barren autumnal landscape.
Tripod, Camera, Remote-release and a 0.9 + 0.6 graduated filter in order to balance the brightness of the foreground with that of the sky, and I was ready. Your compact camera or a SLR without a graduated filter will expose for the sky or the foreground giving you either a well exposed foreground and a white sky or a great sky and black foreground, to stop this happening get a graduated filter! On this occasion I used two graduated filters to darken the sky down sufficiently to match the brightness of the foreground sky. Boring bit over!

I took this shot with a 10 second exposure which gave a little movement in the clouds. The subtle orange hue of the setting sun over the west horizon made it all worthwhile.