Rocks at Hopeman, Moray, Scotland
Jan, 2014Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
The image was taken at Hopeman a small fishing village on the Moray coast in the Scottish Highlands. The area between Hopeman and the next village of Covesea has some marvellous rock formations, caves and rock arches which I love to photograph.Time
The great thing about this location is it's North facing. That means you can photograph the rocks at about midday when the sun is illuminating them, so you don't need the usual early morning start! It also means you can time your visit to coincide with high tide to get lots of water movement.Lighting
The lighting was actually pretty average when I took the shot. The sun was lighting up the rocks but the sky behind was a fairly dull uniform grey. I knew though that conversion Black and White using Silver Efex would extract the maximum detail in the sky so I shot with this in mind.Equipment
Canon 7d and sigma 10-20mm (at 11mm) lens on a tripod. I also used a Lee little stopper filter (which increases exposure time by 6 stops) to increase the exposure time to 4 seconds at f14.Inspiration
I was looking for a location where long exposures would really come into play to try out my new Lee Little stopper filter. I knew the shoreline at Hopeman would give lots of potential spots and this proved to be my favourite. I really wanted to have a large stationary object set against the power of the sea.Editing
All my images are RAW files so initially this was taken into Adobe Lightroom where I adjusted the shadows, highlights and contrast. I then opened the adjusted image in Nik Silver Efex and did the Black and White conversion there.In my camera bag
I try to keep things light but nearly always have a Canon 7d, Sigma 10-20, Canon 17-40 and Canon 70-200mm lens. I also have a Canon 100mm Macro and 300mm telephoto but I only carry these if I have a specific subject in mind. I nearly always use a tripod. My most recent acquisition has been Lee filters and I have the LIttle Stopper and Landscape Polariser, they are expensive but are really great quality.Feedback
When I started out I was tempted to visit Iconic locations but these were always full of other photographers and I found it uninspiring so I would urge others to take your own path. If you want to visit famous locations do it at unusual times or difficult conditions to try and do something different. Be true to yourself though and always take images that you like, if you try too hard to please others you will find your photography will be less satisfying. Plan your trips and aim to get one or two really good images rather than hundreds of average ones. Above all have fun, this is supposed to be fun :-)
