A weather window of just a few hours in early December 2021 had my wife Liz and I scrambling into the car, desperate to get out of the house after having been cooped up for seemingly forever under almost constant rainfall.
Checking the forecast, things seem to get better the further west we could get (west is almost always best for us!), so we headed out along the North Wales coast towards the (sometimes) sun-kissed Isle of Anglesey.
Our chosen destination for a walk in some fresh sea air was the Breakwater Country Park on the far side of Holyhead, with paths that take you right along the rocky shoreline.
So after an extremely windy, but very invigorating seaside walk, and yes - the sun was shining, we continued our drive up to the top of the magnificent cliffs at South Stack.
This is an amazing place, best visited towards sunset, and with stunning views out over the iconic South Stack lighthouse towards the far horizon on the Irish Sea, its just an amazing place to photograph from.
So while Liz sheltered from the gale in our car with her knitting, I braved the exposed cliff face with my camera and tripod in order to capture the 2000+ still images needed to created this rather longer than usual time lapse video, featuring a dramatic sunset with cloud play over the lighthouse.
I kept on filming for quite a while past the actual sunset, as the colours in the sky along the horizon got more intense until finally starting to fade.
Then it was back to the car for a drive down to Trearddur Bay and an excellent seafood tagliatelli at the Sea Shanty beachside cafe, thankfully still open in the middle of winter!
Filename - south stack sunset timelapse 01
Camera - Canon EOS 6DMK2
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 24mm
Exposure (start of sequence) - 1/200 sec @ f/8, ISO100
Exposure (end of sequence) - 1/6 sec @ f/8, ISO100
Filters - 2 stop neutral density graduated filter used to reduce the brightness if the sky relative to the sea and land.
Shooting interval - 2 seconds
Music - 're The Ocean' by Andy Litherland.
Location - South Stack, Anglesey, North Wales
This clip - HD 720p, 30fps (4K and 1080p HD formats also available)
Clip duration - 69 seconds
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2023 unless otherwise stated.