One light, from low tide to high.

[Wayland]

I normally shoot a location and then move on. On this occasion i met with my brother and we shot the same location over a ten hour period between low and high tide.



Picture One.

[mammarazzi]

Love it, The sky is spectacular and the detail from the front of the image draws your eye to that Sky, great composition.....you must have had a lot to talk about over a 10 hour period........

[Mike Buckley]

Absolutely gorgeous...and proof that a dead-center horizon can and should be used!

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[Wayland]

It's amazing how fast the time goes when you are working a location. We took a break at one stage to fry up some bacon for a breakfast buttie but apart from that we were shooting pretty constantly.

The shots I'll post here represent about half the compositions I tried which are the ones I liked best when I got them back to the computer.

It was an interesting exercise because the beach is quite sparse and the lighthouse provides the only strong point of interest which forces you to look for different points of view.

I tend to be instinctive about composition rather than thinking about the so called rules all the time. It often leads to similar results because there are so many of those rules that you can usually find one that fits retrospectively but it also challenges the conventions on occasions.

The only rule I use is if it looks good, shoot it.

Shot Two, pre-dawn.

[Wavelength]

Two classic images....

[Stagecoach]

That's two good ones so far Gary and you captured that pre dawn light perfectly.

[Wayland]

I got another one very similar to that but I think I prefer the first of the two.



Picture Three.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Wayland,

The first is great, although I do wonder if there's a second crop, losing some of the foreground, to be had - it perhaps distracts from the star scape.

Of the "Pre-dawn" shots, I actually prefer the composition of the second, i.e. Picture Three.

In Photo 2; I find my eyes keeping flicking from the centre foreground sand ripples to the light house and exposed sand on right (perhaps also the prominent logo doesn't help either) and back in a ceaseless triangle, whereas (I feel) the peaceful scene shouldn't do that.

I offer those personal opinions for whatever purpose they might serve, given that I am no landscape shooter myself.

[Mike Buckley]

The only rule I use is if it looks good, shoot it.

Good rule. All the others really are nothing other than mere guidelines.

[Rebel]

Nice images! I prefer the second shot of the last two.

[Wayland]

Picture Four.

First light.

[mammarazzi]

Definitely needs a paint job fab images love them all x

[NorthernFocus]

Well it was time well spent. Nicely done.

[Wayland]

Picture Five

Rising tide.

[DonnaK]

What an outstanding series of shots. They are all off the charts.

[bnnrcn]

Great shots Wayland, thanks for sharing

[Wayland]

Picture Six

Almost full tide.

[John 2]

Beautiful series Gary any one of which I could live with on the wall. Whereabouts were you?

[Wayland]

Sorry, I should have mentioned that.

This is the Point of Ayr lighthouse on Talacre beach, North Wales.

It's out of service now and it has been undermined by the tide so it has a definite tilt which looks odd in many compositions. I tend to straighten it up a bit using the perspective tools in PS but I guess that might upset some purists. (I'd probably do the same in my 5x4 camera if I was still using it much.)

I've photographed it before and there are some other pictures on my website, link at the bottom of my signature if you are interested.