When my wife Liz and I decided to spend our summer holidays in 2019 exploring Devon and Cornwall I got quite excited at the prospect of photographing the wild and rugged Atlantic north coast.
A friend of mine at work who knew the area advised me to pay a visit to Hartland Quay, so we took his advice and were just amazed at what we found there.
The scenery here was (and still is, no doubt) just jaw dropping, with a shoreline comprised of knife edge rocks constantly pummelled by the Atlantic ocean, backed by towering sea cliffs formed from strata twisted by huge forces into tortuous shapes.
Liz and I ended up making four visits here at various times of the day and night and in all sorts of weather and tide conditions.
One big attraction for me was the west facing aspect of Hartland Quay, giving a great view of the sunset out over the Atlantic ocean.
But on this particular evening it wasn't the sunset we'd come to see, but the new moon, just a couple of days into its cycle and chasing the sun down towards the horizon as a delicate crescent.
So while Liz plied me with hot coffee from the Hartland Quay hotel I spent a happy half hour watching and filming as the moon slowly sank towards the horizon, set against the Hartland Quay headland and the foaming waters of the Atlantic ocean below.
In the end the moon never made it all the way down, setting instead behind a bank of low cloud over the sea, but never mind, it was still a beautiful sight and well worth the effort to capture as a time lapse video.
Filename - hartland quay timelapse 03
Camera - Canon EOS 6D
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 85mm
Exposure (start of sequence) - 0.6 sec @ f4, ISO100
Exposure (end of sequence) - 4 secs @ f4, ISO200
Filters - 2 stop neutral density graduated filter used to reduce the brightness of the sky.
Shooting interval - 6 seconds
Location - Hartland Quay, Devon, England
This clip - HD 720p, 30fps (4K+, and HD formats also available)
Clip duration - 12 seconds
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2024 unless otherwise stated.