Gordonmac Dot Com

Yesterday I used up the last day of my annual leave allowance, and used the opportunity to take the camera for a little trip along the coast to the South Head. The weather was nice, the sun was still low in the sky – but best of all… high tide and a large swell! Brilliant!

I clambered over the rocks behind the remains of Thomas Stevenson’s breakwater down to the edge of the water and took shelter behind a large rock. After getting the tripod set up, a man came down the rocks and passed where I was sitting, he never noticed me though, which meant that my “hello” caused him some alarm :), I chuckled.

I love taking long exposure shots of the sea, it’s time-consuming and fiddly, but very much worth the effort. The way long exposure saturates colours and slows time is something amazing. I quite like taking these shots when the sea is quite rough, the effect always looks better due to the amount of action going on during the exposure.

This was my first shot:

The sun flaring into the lens was an added bonus. I think this is one of my favourite long exposures I’ve taken.

Moving further along the coast towards the Trinkie I switched lenses and opted for the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM to take some shots of the waves crashing into the rocks near the shore. Over the past few months two of my friends have managed to drown their cameras trying to capture rough seas in Wick Bay – I didn’t intend my new 5D MKII to be the third casualty. Maintaining a safe distance from waves is critical to the safety of both you and your camera :)

My favourite thing in this shot isn’t really the large wave in the distance, and even though the wave was the focal point of my shot, it’s the sea spray silhouetted by the sunlight I really like. I almost filled a CF card with this shot trying to get it right, but it’s good fun taking photos of waves, trying to predict which developing surge of sea is going to break into the best wave is probably more fun than it sounds!

On the way back home I noticed large numbers of gulls congregating behind the South Pier. They seemed to be trying to feed on whatever was being churned up by the rough sea in that corner. Their problem was the massive waves interrupting the frenzy, annoying for them, but amusing for me. I stopped to take a photo of them, and filled another CF card trying to get a good photo of them taking flight to get away from the waves.

So, two full CF cards and 3 keepers – not a bad day! Better than being at work, that’s for sure!