Tag Archives: portencross sunset
Portencross Pier Sunset
Last night’s sunset at Portencross. A bit of a rush this one. I left the house around 30 minutes before sunset, which was cutting it a bit fine. By the time I got there was no chance to look for any other shots and I headed straight for the pier. Luckily it was deserted so I managed to get some pictures without anybody in the way.
Both images on a Nikon D700 with Nikon 16-35 f4 VR lens. A lee 3 stop soft ND Grad and a Lee 3 stop Grad used (to lengthen the exposure and blur the water slightly).
The last one was taken with my Lee Big Stopper. A 3 minute exposure, which wasn’t really long enough. My next exposure of 4 minutes was better but the clouds had moved on so didn’t look as good. A 3 stop soft ND grad was used too. This was the first time I’ve used the Big Stopper with the D700 and I was surprised by the amount of hot pixels in the image. There was also a touch of a magenta cast which is slightly visible on the right. Thinking about it later, I forgot to close the viewfinder blind which might have helped with this. I have used the Big Stopper on my Nikon D300 and never had issues like this, so more experimenting required I think.
Orange Clouds
Another sunset at Portencross in Ayrshire. This time the cloud formation looked nice, especially as the setting sun turned the clouds a deep shade of orange. The challenge was finding an interesting foreground to match. The shallow rock pools left by the receding tide became mirror like in the calm evening and reflected the wonderful orange clouds.
Portencross Castle Sunset
This is my first post on this blog for a couple of months. I have made a few changes to my equipment since my last post. I finally made the jump to full frame and this meant that a few lenses had to be changed to accommodate this. My Tokina 11-16 which has served me so well over the past 3-4 years was sold and I managed to get a very well cared for, secondhand, Nikon 16-35 f4 VR lens in it’s place. My original idea was an upgrade to a full frame Nikon D800, but I couldn’t really justify the massive expense it buying this camera. Luckily for me, I found someone willing to trade my woefully underused Nikon 300 f4 prime in a part exchange for a low use Nikon D700. Although the D700 and my D300 are from the same generation of camera and both have only 12 mp, the D700 feels like a step up from the D300. Certainly the quality of the full frame sensor shines through even though I have only used it a few times.
So armed with my D700 and 16-35, I was itching to get out again for some landscape shooting. Getting nearer sunset, the light looked promising, so I headed down to Portencross which you can probably see from my images is one of my favourite locations. The fact that it is less than 15 minutes from my house also makes it great to nip out and capture a sunset if the light looks favourable.
The sunset itself was a bit disappointing, it’s only once the sun dipped below the horizon that the clouds started to take on the shades of pink, orange and red shown in the first image. This is looking over towards the isle of Arran, using the mottled rocks in the foreground as a nice lead-in.
The second image is of a Portencross Castle sunset. This castle has undergone massive conservation works over the last few years and is now open to visitors. The renovation included this new path which makes a great lead-in to this image. Unfortunately health and safety strikes again with the stainless steel railing spoiling the look of the entrance to the castle. The official Portencross castle website has further details about the castle along with opening times.
Fiery Sky
My first landscape image for a couple of months. I managed to get out for a sunset a couple of nights ago to one of my favourite locations, Portencross. Luckily for me this is only 15 minutes from my house.
I like the way this image contrasts the red of the sky with the white of the waves breaking around the foreground rocks.