St. Just

Pebble beach at low tide.

Another image from Cornwall and the old tin mine used in some scenes on BBC's 'Poldark' at Bottallack just outside of St Just.

A favourite location of mine withiun an easy 15 minute walk from a great campsite nearby the location gets some great sunsets, the bluebells at this time of the year prevalent as well adding some different foreground options.

I returned here later this night to try and shoot the stars over the old engine house.. 2 lessons learned from that trip - don't forget your GPS as a 15 min walk in the dark even with a torch can turn into 1.5 hours, and check your focus at 100% as every image I shot was annoying slightly off focus... after getting back to the caravan at gone 3am it's not a mistake I'll be making again.....

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Explore #2 - 18/07/17

The old engine houses of the Crown mine perched precariously on the cliff face, located near to the little village of Bottallack, South West Cornwall.

One of my favourite locations along the Cornish Coast, unless you were walking the coast path or came here deliberately you would never know these were here such is their position tucked away at the base of some high cliffs just above sea level, you can actually get into both of the engine houses via a little track alongside the cliff then by climbing down and old iron ladder set into the rock, I didn't bother on this occasion as I was just after better shots of the buildings since my last visit a few years ago.

With a bit of a breeze blowing along here you get a lot of movement in the waves against the cliffs, wanting to capture the detail in them I opted for a 3 stop filter / polarizer combo giving me a ideal speed of 2 seconds to capture the detailed wave movement in the sea, avoiding a longer expsoure that would render it flat.

The whole are along this stretch of coast is utterly amazing and would reccomend it to anyone who hasn't been down here, you can see why UNESCO have awarded it world heritage status.

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It was about 4 years since I had been at this location, tucked away down a small lane lies this amazing beach at Porth Nanven in the Cot Valley, last time I was here the tide was right in and the light wasn't great so I was hoping for better this time around.

On the trip I only visited here once and the light certainly played ball this time, also the tide being out allowed for more of the beach features to be included this time and also for the sunlight to cascade over the sand and rocks, I managed a few differently composed shots from this location this evening, this one being one of my favourites, this is definitely one of those locations you could visit every night for a month and come away with something unique each time.

The islands in rear are known as 'The Brisons' and (although I honestly cant see it myself...), they are said to resemble General Charles de Gaulle lying on his back.

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One more shot from the glorious County of Cornwall, this is Cargodna pumping engine house, of the former Wheal Owles Mine, there are no exact dates for when the mines were opened but it's thought that the mines here were certainly in use around the 1700's, these and other remains are all that is left of the vast tin and copper mining empire around these parts now. Although there is one saved as a working museum nearby at Geevor.

I came down to this stretch of coastline most nights on the recent visit, like they say, no sunset is ever the same... the sunset this evening was great but the afterglow was the best one of the trip with some gorgeous reds and purples producing just before dusk, in this case 10 secs being just enough to drag them out across the sky without losing too much sky detail.

A few people in the pub by where I was stopping couldn't understand why I'd get my stuff and vanish down here every night as I'd 'already done it', just being here watching it was good enough reason to me but when you add the possibility of new photo's into the equation it's a total no brainer isn't it? I guess you either 'get it' or you don't! I had the place entirely to myself each night too.

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View On Black

This one I shot an hour before sunset at Porth nanven. Why not wait till sunset you might ask.. Well I had not enough evenings to get in all the coasts I wanted so I had to do two Coasts this evening ;-) For sunset I went to the nearby Priest Cove which is also quite nice. But next time I get to Cornwall I will do a lengthly shoot at Porth Nanven for sure, and take more than 3 Pictures!! But It still came out quite good.

Here's the complete story behind this shot -> mibreit-photo.com/blog/?p=450

regards

A good friend of mine, seen here shooting the sunset, Botallack mine providing the interest, against the exploding sky here on the West coast of Cornwall, as far as sunset shooting goes this place is beyond great if the conditions are right, set up, wait, enjoy.,, there's another shot of this further down my stream, more intense colours further on into the sunset, I wanted to include this one though for the human interest, and the colours were slightly less intense, still, a very evocative image for me. Best viewed here

Here is the other version, more time has elapsed - www.flickr.com/photos/pete37038/7269490650/in/photostream... your thoughts ?