Rodney Campbell's Blog

I was hoping for a little colour in the sky post sunset here at the Craggs. I hadn’t seen (or at least hadn’t been out on a shoot in a good location when I saw it :)) a really good sky in months. Tonight however the sky went absolutely nuts and with this prehistoric coastline in front of me having an epically prehistoric sky to match was too lucky.

Prehistoric Times

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 19 mm, 15 sec at f/11, ISO 50

It wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns however… we still had gusty windy conditions and lots of fine mist and sand falling onto the filters. There wasn’t any point cleaning it however since we were just getting more every few seconds with each new wind gust. I’d just have to live with it…

The colour up to sunset was looking pretty ordinary and it wasn’t till quite a few minutes after sunset that things started getting interesting. I was already facing westwards along the coast when shooting at sunset so the image up top was taken at 9:03PM (7 minutes past sunset).

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Then a few minutes later (9:05PM) it really started to get good. The whispy clouds started going pinks and vibrant reds. It was all I could do to keep pressing the shutter as it seemed to be getting better and better.

Land the Time Forgot

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 17 mm, 13 sec at f/11, ISO 50

I wanted to change up the composition but was fearful the conditions would suddenly change. I looked behind me and saw that the subtle whispy cloud formations were going fantastic pink against a blue sky turning twilight. So I quickly turned around and ran the 50m back to where I’d first been shooting earlier looking eastwards up the coastline – 9:08PM.

Firestorm

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 17 mm, 30 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Time only for two shots before returning to this spot above this curved cove I was still drawn to. As the fire in the sky was raging overhead my foreground was falling into shadow as the day slipped more into night – 9:10PM.

Fiery Skies

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 17 mm, 25 sec at f/11, ISO 100

I moved maybe a couple metres to my left and setup a vertical composition looking down and out to sea. Even though this is the very next frame and less than two minutes later (9:12PM) already the colour was fading rapidly. Soon it would all be lost.

No Escape

NIKON D750 + 16.0-35.0 mm f/4.0 @ 17 mm, 25 sec at f/11, ISO 100

I moved around shooting a few more compositions till I was shooting natural long exposures as the light dropped rapidly. At 9:25PM I was done and the colour had almost faded.

As with much of landscape photography you spend many hours at a location looking and hoping for that brief five to ten minute period when things are just right. Today we got lucky, job done.

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