Canon M6, 23 mm, ISO 200, 71 sec @ f/11

Having read about Kynance Cove and that it got incredibly busy during the day, I wanted to make sure I staked my spot, so one morning I arrived there at around 06:30 to find a couple of other people wandering around walking their dogs, another person with a camera who looked to be packing up already and a fisherman who was on his way home, apparently having caught four bass. Kynance Cove is a National Trust site that is absolutely stunning. From the car park it’s approached by walking down. steep path. I didn’t attempt that due to my choice of footwear. However, I wanted to get a high-level shot so that was fine by me. As usual the Big Stopper was brought out to play and it occurred to me that it might be worth trying a panoramic shot. The above image is made of three separate shots, stitched together in Photoshop. I wish I had thought about it a bit longer and taken a fourth as I feel the cottage on the right is too close to the edge of the image. Oh well. Once stitched together, the image had a bit of adjustment including the ever-reliable Lenswork LW Warm Tone treatment. A few days later I went back to the site but could hardly stand up thanks to Storm Ellen that was passing through, and any thoughts of setting up the tripod were instantly dismissed! Instead I retreated to the relative safety of my tent though there were times when I thought that would blow away too…

Canon EOS M6, 22 mm, ISO 100, 165 sec @ f/16

We recently decided to do battle with midges and expensive alcohol and booked a lake-side cabin in southern Sweden at Deralycke, near Linneryd. The place was fantastic – utterly unspoilt and once we found another route to bypass a rather large tree that was blocking the road we had a splendid week of BBQs, fishing, reading and generally feeling vey isolated. Oh and I even managed to take a couple of photos. However, not having been able to take my proper tripod was a bit annoying but I did take my Manfrotto PIXI Mini tripod along with the M6 and Canon’s EF-M 22mm f/2 STM as well as my bag of filters. I ended up using a couple of chairs stacked on top of one another which wasn’t ideal due to squidgy, uneven surface and a fairly strong wind but it was better than nothing.

The fishing wasn’t much to speak of but I did at least manage to read five books over the week.

Canon EOS M6, 100 mm, ISO 200, 20 sec @ f/11

Last Sunday I did something I haven’t done in a while and attended a photography workshop. This was organised by Cambrian Photography Limited in Colwyn Bay and run by Paul Sanders. It was actually called a Fujifilm X-Series and GFX workshop but the initial blurb I saw on Facebook suggested that (a) you don’t need to own a Fuji camera and (b) you need to arrive with an open mind and a liking of cake. Two ticks for me!

The night before I was umming and ahhing over what to take and decided to persevere with my lightweight travel kit. I haven’t used the 5D Mk1 at all since getting the M6  back in August but I still have use of all my lenses thanks to the adaptor.

I ended up packing the M6 along with Canon’s EF-M 22mm f/2 STM,  EF 40mm f/2.8 STM pancake  and EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM. As it happened I only used the 100 mm lens throughout the day.

After a decent bacon and sausage buttie at Blod’s Cafe I wandered over to Cambrian and met some of the other attendees outside the shop. We were soon ushered inside to where others were waiting and after a brief introduction by Paul we set out.

The plan was for long exposures on the beach in the morning and macro at Aber Falls in the afternoon. We ended up at Penrhyn Bay for the long exposures which was fine until I realised I’d forgotten my tripod adaptor! Duh! Fortunately I was able to borrow a tripod so eventually took a few shots. Finally after trying for months I managed to make good use of my mist filter. Normally the effect ends up looking forced and unnatural but I think this time it helped things. Speaking of filters I decided that I really did need to equip myself with a hard ND grad filter rather than my soft grad for use in such scenarios where the horizon is pronounced.

After a couple of hours we headed to a local cafe, The Loaf for lunch. Another attendee, Jonathan (a fellow Lenswork subscriber), and I sat with Denis and Fre Hocking over an enjoyable long lunch.

Suitably fed and watered we headed out to Aber Falls. I don’t particularly enjoy macro but there were more opportunities for long exposures in a little stream or of course at the waterfall itself. I chose not to trek to the falls but to potter around by the stream near the car park.

The day was well organised, and very relaxed. We overrun by a hour or so, likely due to the extended lunch break but no-one was complaining. It was a great day with lots of assistance being offered by Paul and the whole Cambrian Photography team. Being Wales it obviously rained during part of the day but it was at the very tail end and didn’t spoil anything.

Canon 5D, 28 mm, ISO 100, 247 secs @ f/16

In my efforts to capture a decent long exposure with the Big Stopper during a recent trip to Roker, I was forced closer to the water’s edge for two reasons. First I could only attach the filter to my 17-40 mm lens and secondly in order to ensure there were no distractions, the wide angle lens would only be suitable if I got between said distractions and the water.

I found a great little spot at Roker Harbour where the water came quite close to the pavement so I didn’t even have to get sand on me or my equipment – always a bonus! As I was setting up there were some nice shafts of light coming through the clouds so I stuck on a polariser and 0.1 ND grad and took a few shots. I then added the Big Stopper. I calculated I needed a 128 second exposure but it looked too dark once completed.

The sun was continually breaking through and then being covered by the clouds so I then experimented at 180, 240 and 360 seconds. My initial preference was the 6-minute exposure but after consideration I chose the 4-minute one above. It’s slightly over the time as my fat fingers hadn’t released the shutter properly. I think I’m getting there. Some additional foreground interest would help I think – a couple of decent sized rocks or posts, but I included the water’s edge to compensate for the lack of those.

Had a wander over to East Float again this afternoon to try out the big stopper filter. I also used a Lee 3ND soft grad filter to help balance the sky against the boat’s hull. Final conversion to black and white done in Silver Efex Pro 2.

At long last I’ve got myself a Lee Big Stopper filter, so I popped down to the river near the Tranmere Oil Terminal to try it out. The tide was at it’s lowest so I was able to get well down the jetty. Unfortunately as the water was so far out it wouldn’t feature prominently! Still as I was taking some pictures the tide started to rise and the water moved in. This was the best of the bunch – not brilliant but OK for a first attempt, and it’s smoothed the water out quite nicely. Converted to black and white using Silver Efex Pro 2.