It's hard to believe that it's already a week since I was down in Cornwall, on a seascape photography road trip with friends Anthony Crothers, Andy Hughes and Mark Stapleton.
On the Friday 27th of February, Andy and Anthony made their way to my house for around about 11 a.m.
Once we’d packed the car and had a bit of a chat, it was around about midday when we headed off to Porthleven on the South Coast of Cornwall; a little over two hours away.
Quick coffee stop at Starbucks just outside of Honiton on the A30.
Arriving at Porthleven, all three of us were beaming from ear to ear as we opened the car doors and could see and hear the waves crashing in the harbour. This was going to be a great weekend for sure.
Just arrived at Porthleven
We grabbed lunch at the Harbour Inn (very nice place), and a short while later, we were joined by Mike, who was with us for the evening and the Saturday.
Kind of expected on the Friday, the weather turned and the rain started to come down, so we then headed over to the hotel in Penzance and checked in and freshened up.
Later in the evening, we headed out to a great place called the Old Life Boat House in Penzance and grabbed dinner. Definitely somewhere I'd recommend, great food and really welcoming, friendly staff.
Grabbing Dinner at The Old Lifeboat House, Penzance
The following morning, we left the hotel around about 6:00 AM and headed off to Godrevy, with fingers firmly crossed that the plans were going to slot into place with a great sunrise expected.
Arriving in the car park and opening the doors, we knew we were in for a good day. We could just about make out some great clouds, and you could hear the Atlantic roaring as it crashed into the coastline.
We then grabbed kit and made our way into position 😃
I couldn't resist getting down to the sea level
Godrevy Lighthouse
Fuji X-T5 and Fuji 10-24mm f/4 @ 10mm
f/11 , ISO 125 , 0.4sec
NiSi JetMag Pro 3 Stop ND Filter
The conditions were incredible.
The outgoing tide was still creating dramatic waves as it crashed against the rocks, and the clouds were being lit with a beautiful warm pink and golden light from the rising sun.
We couldn't have asked for a better morning of photography.
All of us were very happy indeed 😃
We eventually made our way off for a coffee and to grab some breakfast.
Then it was off back to Porthleven to have a good look around and do a recce for where we'd be taking photographs later in the day for sunset and the incoming tide.
As the day went on, we could kind of tell that conditions weren't going to be as dramatic as the day before, but no problem, we had a great afternoon anyway.
You could easily spend an entire day from dawn to dusk photographing around Porthleven; even if the conditions of the sea aren't dramatic enough for you, there’s still plenty to photograph, and, as everywhere we went, everyone was so incredibly friendly and welcoming.
I got chatting to this gentleman, and it turns out years ago he used to teach photography as a form of therapy to heroin addicts.
Eventually, we made our way over to Marazion to check out St. Michael's Mount and to see if there was any decent light and conditions and the chance of taking photographs, or to see if it would be a good location to go to on the Sunday morning.
Unfortunately, as is the way, the weather conditions changed, and although dry cloud cover came in, completely hiding the setting sun, so not to be deterred, we made plans to return the following morning for sunrise.
Mike was only with us the whole day on Saturday, so had to make his way home in the evening. So, after a great dinner at a wonderful little bistro that we found in Penzance, Mike said his goodbyes.
The following morning, there did appear to be more cloud than was expected, but the three of us, Andy, Anthony and myself, thought it would be crazy not to take the 8-minute drive back down to Marazion and just see if we could get some shots of St Michael's Mount.
So glad we did 😍
St Michael’s Mount
Fuji X-T5 and Fuji 10-24mm f/4 @ 12mm
f/11 , ISO 250 , 10 sec
NiSi JetMag Pro 3 Stop + 6 Stop ND Filters
Whilst Anthony was taking his photographs, he got chatting to a woman, Ilona, walking her dog Winston, and ended up taking a portrait of them both for her.
I grabbed the photograph below of Winston, with my iPhone using the Leica Lux app.
We all commented over the weekend how everyone we met and chatted to was so friendly. Proof again of that was that Ilona captured this photograph of the three of us walking back along the causeway, and sent it to Anthony on Whatsapp …
So, a fantastic weekend of photography in great locations with great people, but as is always the way, things that you look forward to always seem to end too quickly.
But no fear … we’re already looking at planning the next trip and getting the dates in the diary.