A rare day off work in early December found me braving the early morning elements at Penmon Point on the wonderful Isle of Anglesey, just off the North Wales coast.
Penmon Point is one of my favourite places to go in the world, not only for its unspoilt beauty, but also for the wonderful atmosphere of peace and calm that normally pervades the place.
Mind you, I normally visit and photograph here in calm summer conditions, but things were markedly different on this occasion.
A cold front had just passed over, leaving large waves and a freezing cold gale in its wake, so before I ventured from the car to shoot the stills for this time lapse I put on every stitch of survival clothing I normally carry in the boot, including, I'm glad to say, a pair of wellies.
It was always my intention to capture the 7 metre incoming tide as a time lapse sequence, and I thought I could set the camera up on its tripod and retire to the warmth of my car while the intervalometer did its thing, but that was not to be.
As soon as I'd set up my tripod and camera for the first sequence of stills and then let go of it, the wind immediately blew it over.
Fortunately I caught the assembly before it landed on the sharp rocks at my feet, and I had to spend the next four hours holding my equipment down as the waves and tide boomed ever closer.
It's a good job I'd put on all those layers of clothing, especially the wellies as things got decidedly wet at the end of the shoot!
So, not exactly the calm and peaceful Penmon experience I'm used to, but I'm really glad I stuck at it and encountered this amazing place when the Irish Sea gets angry.
It took quite a while to get all the dried on salt off my filters though.
Filename - penmon timelapse 04.mp4
Camera - Canon EOS 6D
Lens (1st sequence) - 17-40 zoom @ 17mm
Lens (2nd sequence) - 17-40 zoom @ 24mm
Exposure (1st sequence) - 4secs @f16, ISO100
Exposure (2nd sequence) - 1/2sec @f22, ISO100
Shooting interval (1st sequence) - 15 seconds
Shooting interval (2nd sequence) - 15 seconds
Location - Penmon Point, Anglesey, North Wales
This clip - HD 720p
Clip duration - 18 seconds at 25 frames per second.
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