Seacliff
Lothian
3rd February 2014
It was Tantallon Castle that first attracted me to this area but there is so much more to be found here.
There is a great beach with bass rock rising out of the sea beyond.
A tiny little harbour with this rusty old winch at it’s side.
There are numerous views towards the old castle itself and most surprisingly for me was the ruin of Auldhame Castle hidden in the woods above the beach.
I’m guessing that in the Summer it gets pretty overgrown but for me here was a great subject for a technique often known as painting with light.
The traditional idea is to leave the shutter open in the dark while illuminating the subject with a hand held light source. It’s a technique I tried a few times with film but started to use with digital last year at Magpie Mine.
It’s an interesting technique and with the right subject can yield good results.
For this shot I used an old flash unit while activating the camera shutter with a remote control. An hour or so later I had a variety of frames that I could combine in the computer for the image you see here.
I’m very often on location overnight, waiting for the dawn. Sometimes I may even be shooting the night sky if it’s clear enough. This is a technique I suspect I will be finding much more use for as time goes on.