Made-Up Bits

a personal blog, by Sven Seebeck -

Cornwall - The Next Few Days

The alarm on my iPhone shrieks multiple times when I realize that I fell asleep on the sofa in front of the TV. It’s three o’clock and I planned to go back to the area around Prussia Cove for a shoot at sunrise. My legs and my back hurt badly after carrying all my gear yesterday for around 20 km.

I head out with all my gear, but I manage only around 500m before my legs and my back start to hurt so much again that I decide to go back to bed for another two hours and return to St.Michaels Mount at sunrise and hope for the conditions that I would like to have.

I will hate myself later for that. The conditions at St.Michaels Mount weren’t bad that morning, but it looked like it would have been good from where I planned to shoot. But a 10 km walk before breakfast simply wasn’t possible today.

This morning it’s a blue sky with some clouds. No perfect, but a good start. I get some exposures as well as some for a panoramic image and decide to head out to Land’s End in the afternoon with the bus. The conditions seem to be right. Clouds and sun. So let’s hope for the best.

During my bus ride to Land’s End I see for the first time the beautiful countryside of Cornwall. It sure is mystical and makes it even more obvious for me, why this part of England is so popular amongst photographers. Unfortunately the weather starts to change during this ride and more and more clouds show up. By the time I’m there it’s almost entirely cloudy. I look around and see some of the spots from which some of my favorite images from there were taken.

I think David Noton was standing on those rocks below me, but the path there seemed to be a little too slippery on that day for me. Basically, I chickened. ;-) Too bad it’s so cloudy and windy now. I try to make the best out of this, and do a few exposures, fighting a little against the now heavy wind, the spray from the sea and the occasional raindrops.

I’m the last and only person there it seems and I have to hurry a little to catch the last bus back to Penzance. Tomorrow morning I plan to head out to the rocky coast line of Trenow Cove, west to St.Michaels mount and again I fall asleep the sofa, which starts to become a habit. In fact, I slept in the bed only twice.

Day 5

Another 5 am rise. I pack my stuff and leave the apartment. It’s still windy, but I see stars in the still dark sky. I light my way along the path with my flashlight and climb over the rocky coast. I start by doing some long exposures, but it gets brighter so fast, that within two minutes I loose a whole stop of light.

This coast is full of nice big rocks and I climb over them to find some interesting formations to shoot before it gets too bright to do some long exposures. It’s not very easy to get from one place to the other here. I have to climb over the slippery rocks all the time and need my hands to do so. It means thatt I always have to pack and un-pack my gear, which doesn’t make me work any faster. I drop my remote shutter release into a puddle on one of those rocks. Luckily after drying and cleaning it later at home, it turns out it still works fine.

The clouds break up from time to time and the sun adds a nice tint to them. It’s a rather eventful shoot this morning and I think I got at least a few keepers here.

I return with wet clothing for breakfast at the pub. During the day the weather gets worse and worse and in the evening it’s raining badly. The weather forecast prognoses rain and clouds for the next day. Sounds nice.

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