Field Notes
Dunstanburgh castle is an evocative place to be. The ruins of the castle, perched defiantly on the rocky outcrop and overlooking the North Sea, make for an excellent focal point. This view, from the north side, also includes Embleton Bay which is an impressive Basalt boulder field which offers plenty of foreground interest. Using my 17-40mm wide angle lens I kept the camera low to the ground to fill the bottom of the frame with the sea rolling in around the rocks. Crucial, I think, is keeping the boulders distinct from one another so that the water courses around them creating a sense of flow. With the sun rising out to sea and a clear gap on the horizon I anticipated warm side light kissing the rocks and the castle keep which lifts the scene with a pleasant colour palette from the shadows to the highlights. On a technical note, I used two exposures-one for the bright patch of sky top left and a second, longer exposure, to record both the rest of the scene and the movement in the water. This saved me fiddling with neutral density graduated filters which I find problematic this close to the sea where they quickly become glazed in water and salt particles which seriously affect image quality.