St Michael's Mount, Marazion, Cornwall, UK. Access to St Michael's Mount is by way of a causeway, once walked by pilgrims, which is revealed at low tide.
I arrived half an hour before dawn (05:00am) as the tide was starting to cover the causeway. I set up the tripod to await the tide and light on a boulder strewn beach.
As the tide came in I saw these two boulders were going to be the last two points above the waves but it meant standing in the rising water upto the knees. I wanted to use a long exposure to get the mystical soft water around the boulders. I used all the ND filters I had to get the 8 seconds exposure time.
The dawn sunlight hits the granite walls of the castle and harbour but doesn't hit the beach for another 15 minutes. This image was partially luck (I was on vacation and able to get there), but planned as far as tides and sunrise times.
I hope you like it.
Used Rawshooter Essentials to reduce exposeure and set to outdoor strong, bumped the shadow contrast and saturation also minor adjustment to colour temp.
PS Work:
Removed some obvious sensor dust using clone tool
Crop and rotate to level the horizon
Increased saturation
Added a layer to provide a vignette effect heavily blurred and 25% opacity
Amended brightness and contrast
Used neat image to the bottom half of the image to increase the effect on the water.
Add 10 px black border then resize to 640.
File Name CRW_2770.CRW
Camera Model Canon EOS 10D
Shooting Date/Time 23/08/2005 5:31:40
Shooting Mode Manual Exposure
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 8
Av( Aperture Value ) 22
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
ISO Speed 100
Lens 28.0 mm
Focal Length 28.0 mm
Image Size 3072x2048
Image Quality RAW
Flash Off
White Balance Mode Auto
AF Mode One-Shot AF
Parameters Settings
Contrast Standard
Sharpness Standard
Color saturation Standard
Color tone 0
Color Space Adobe RGB
File Size 5366 KB
Statistics
Place: 2 out of 200 Avg (all users): 7.3846 Avg (commenters): 8.5333 Avg (participants): 6.8926 Avg (non-participants): 7.8129 Views since voting: 12650 Views during voting: 537 Votes: 260 Comments: 76 Favorites: 46 (view)
Keith, This is a lovely image of St Michael's Mount. I remember it well, having surfed at Marazion many a time in the distant past before leaving for travel around the world. As I remember, the seagulls on the Mount itself are well-practiced in bombing runs. They have a rather dreadful chemical arsenal made from old pilchards. Have a bit of that ordinance land in your hair (as I did one day while there) and it can be extremely embarassing! ;-)
Congratulation and you certainly have captured what you set up to do, and I don't call that luck. You have captured the intangible, the mystical ambience of the castle. Nice work.
Didn't view the D&L ones before results were posted - so what a delight to see this one! It's a lovely image of a beautiful place - and your decision to use all the ND filters and get that long exposure and hence that milky effect in the water, works really well. As does the red morning light on the mount against the darkness nearer to shore. Wonderful!
Wow, what a stunner. There are so many captivating elements to it. The lighting of course is stunning, the composition really reall works. You have placed those styrene rocks perfectly :) The one in the foreground leads you to the hero fof the shot, the island and the one on the left is significant because it breaks the horizon line and gives the whole pic depth. The sky is perfect for the shot mood and finally the sureal look of the water in the foreground just punctuates the whole effect. If I could vote, it would be a 10
Very nice long exposure, great lighting and composition. Mont St.Michel is one of my favorite places in the world and I actually got to go there once...love to go back someday. Good Luck!
I think this is masterfully displayed. really. is this on the road that leads into this wonder? for those who don't know of this place, it really is amazing. great job.
Is this not where the causeway runs out to the mount? The cver of a recent National Trust magazine has a better, though similar shot, which includes the first steps along the causeway. There'sa certain magic imparted by the wave-mist around the rock, and the vignetting (whether edited of lens-produced). Perhaps a touch simply 'pretty' for my taste - but then that's no easy thing to achieve by any means. Good work.
Wowzer.... this has always been a place that I'd like to visit and you have captured it beautifully. I'm sooo jealous here... so you get a 10.... and a fav. Great work.. hope you ribbon.
Love this shot. Excellent work. Maybe the title might cause a drop in votes... those who insist on D & L (Could have called this Dawn & Light) Should do very well. My top rated...
Great photo! I wish I'd seen the mount at full tide (but then I couldn't have walked across). I've stood on that rock in the foreground :) Is that vapour around the base, or did you do this on a long exposure?
wow, great triangular compostion great use of light ballance and color contrast. the blue aginst the buildings and the sky is great. only thing negitve to say is in the top right hand corner the clouds are way out of focus but I don't think that is going to matter much, great shot and let me be the first to congradulate your top three finish
Beautiful. Love the misty water. The light seems a bit drastically different on the island and in the mid-to-foreground, but that could be due to an object (i.e., mountain?) blocking the sun there. Very dramatic piece.
I gave this shot a 9 last night and want to comment on it. The foggy appearance of the water is so ethereal. The golden tones of the structures in the distance makes for a great contrast. I love the simple wisp of a cloud here and there. Overall - stunning.
Yes I can pretty much see this ribbon and it very well deserves it as well, I guess no one can deny that =) Not only is the subject nice on itself, the composition, the lighting and the slight softness just makes this picture all complete. The only thing that bothers me slightly is the contrast, but you know I think it's just me. This picture makes me want to jump from one rock to another and then swim to the castle. Not swim float, that's what the long exposure makes me feel like doing. Beautiful
Dawn Light (St Michael's Mount)
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