Bright sunshine sparkling on the waves on Bamburgh beach

This is another one from a walk along Bamburgh beach in the middle of a sunny day in August 2013. These are the type of conditions that you get advised not to bother taking photographs in, but I really like the effect of the bright sunshine on the water and sand.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/13, 1/160s, 55mm, hand held.

Bamburgh beach and castle

This one's from August 2013, on a very bright, contrasty day at Bamburgh. I loved how the sea was sparkling in the sunlight. whilst dark clouds passed overhead.

I experimented a bit with colour whilst processing the image. It was almost black and white without even being converted, but converting it lost the dark blue hue in the clouds, which took away some of the mood from the image. So I left it in colour, but then added a yellowish hue to the highlights, which emphasised the effect of the sunshine, and gave an overall, almost sepia hue, which I think complemented the mood.

Surfer walking into the sea at Bamburgh beach

This is another shot of the surfer who featured in my blog post of 11th Sept last year - that time with Bamburgh Castle in the background. This time he's the main subject of the picture.

I've been reading up on Lightroom techniques today - now that I've got the hang of the basics I decided it's time to learn some more! So I've made quite a few changes to this image (crop, contrast adjustment via tone curve, clarity, blue saturation...) and I'm happy with the result.

Sparkling sea below dark clouds

I took this from Holy Island, Northumberland, looking South from the beach towards Bamburgh Castle, in August 2013. The focus of the picture is the stretch of sea sparkling in a shaft of sunshine, whilst everywhere else is in the shade of the dark clouds. I also love the two very different silhouetted structures - the castle on the horizon and the little cairn of pebbles on the beach; each obviously very different in actual size, but both dwarfed by the vast sky.

In Lightroom, I cropped the image to remove some of the pebble beach in the foreground and increase the drama of the clouds dominating the sky. I also tweaked contrast and exposure to highlight the 'sparkles'.

Over the dunes between Bamburgh and Seahouses

I took this in August 2013 on our holidays. We'd spent a few hours on the beach and were heading back to the car on this path through St Aidan's dunes. I looked back after climbing over this wooden stile and thought it'd make a good picture. Typically, we then had to hang around for ages whilst other holiday-makers made their way (very slowly!) over the stile and safely out of my photo!

In Lightroom I increased overall contrast and reduced exposure in the sky with a graduated filter.

Black clouds over Bamburgh Castle

This is a perfect example of the changeability of the British weather - black clouds replace sunny skies over Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland. I loved the drama in the sky and liked the way the path lead my eye up to the castle and beyond.

Due to the huge contrasts in the sky, the image I got at the time (without filters) wasn't great, but after many post production changes to the Raw file, I managed to retrieve what I actually saw.

In Lightroom, I first increased the overall exposure (I'd under-exposed the grass to bring the bright sky areas down a bit), then used a graduated filter to sort out the sky - reducing exposure and highlights and increasing shadows. A lot of 'fiddling' but I'm happy that the final image is realistic.

Walkway through rock pools at Seahouses

This one is from Seahouses, Northumberland, from August 2013. This is in the middle of a large expanse of rock pools, near St Aiden's dunes. I left the kids and their dad looking for crabs and other creatures whilst I wandered round with my camera - love it there!

I cropped the image to put the horizon along the top third line and reduced exposure very slightly.

St Aiden's sand dunes, between Seahouses and Bamburgh, Northumberland.

Northumberland again, from Aug 2013 - this time it's the dunes at St Aiden's, between Seahouses and Bamburgh. Dramatic dark clouds with a patch of blue sky breaking through. Yet again I didn't have my grad filter with me, so had to make post-production adjustments (total reduction in highlights and slight reduction in exposure) to get the detail back in the sky.

Surfer on Bamburgh beach, Northumberland, with the castle in the background

I took this in August 2013, during a week's holiday at Seahouses, Northumberland. I hadn't been to Bamburgh beach before so went on a mission to scope it out for photographic opportunities. I didn't really expect to get any great shots as the sun was high in the sky and quite dazzling as it reflected off the sand and sea. I think this shot works well within those conditions though - everything is almost silhouetted. I was just lucky that the surfer was in the position he was at the point that I turned for the shot.

The only post-production changes I made were to crop the image from a 3:2 ratio to this size and to convert it from colour to monochrome (there was hardly any colour in it anyway due to the bright sun).