St. Mary's Lighthouse
Photography adventures, oh I do like some every now and then…
Back in time, again, just over an year ago. I still like the image, and it comes with a bit of a story. This was going to be my second attempt to capture this picture, and I wanted to make it better than the first.
The first attempt, was taken in a bit of a hurry, and I didn’t spent as much time as I wanted to take it.
Back to the story: At the time I was visiting my good old friends in Newcastle; and considering that the lighthouse is only about half an hour away, well, just do it!
I arrived at the location around eleven in the morning, parked the car, payed the parking and grabbed my camera. Out we go! Well shock! Where in the world is the sea? I could see the lighthouse. However, the whole scenery was a bit different that what I had remembered.
Alright, let me check the tide times, how long do I need to wait for the water to come back? Only four hours? Alright, I’ll just walk around a bit, visit the location, maybe I’ll find something else interesting to shoot in these four hours.
This happened on the 30th of November 2019. November, up North! Oh, it was cold! And it was getting colder and colder. A cold that easly went through my sky trousers and jacket. Gloves? Didn’t helped much either…
I did walk about a bit, I was told off at one point, seems like I didn’t noticed an indicator and started exploring a place that I wasn’t supposed to. Sorry, it’s the cold, even my eyeballs are shaking…
And after waiting, I waited some more… got kinda bored of waiting. So I started counting how many people slipped on a bit of ice that started to form nearby. Just joking, I made them aware that it was ice. Twenty one. Twenty two now, I didn’t see it coming.
Nearly there! The water was starting to cover the road, not long now, oh look, even a rainbow… glorious!… And a pack of photographers just rolled in! Straight into my frame. No sorry, no can I, no nothing… Calin, don’t get mad, there is plenty of space for everyone. Is there? Is there really?
Yes, there was, obviously, I was just tired and frozen, or maybe frozen and tired. The sea grew and grew, pushed everybody out and just as the last sun rays were hitting the lighthouse I took my shot. Not the best, not the worse, but it was my shot.
Happy or not, I went to the car, turned on the heating on max; and just sat there to get warm for a good 15 minutes.
Photography is planning, a lot of it. And the pack of photographers, that I mentioned before, knew this. They just arrived when they knew that the light, the water, everything will make for that good picture. Me however, I’m not good with planning, but I have to get better if I want to avoid freezing or missing some shots.