I'm mixing up my submissions at the moment with older and newer shots. I want to have some variety in my gallery and the shots I upload.

The Photo

This is from my only outing with my camera this year, and along with recent submissions like [link] and [link] is a direction I’m really enjoying exploring at the moment. I still love wide angle land/waterscapes, but I feel that it’s time to try to expand my vision and train my eye to see in different ways.

This shot was taken as I was driving out to Cabo do Roca, mainland Europe’s most westerly point. At one point, the road snakes along next to some very steep drops to the ocean a couple of hundred meters below. The sun had been obscured by cloud all day, and I noticed these beams breaking through the low lying cloud, so I pulled the car to the side of the road, and got my camera and tripod.

At the point of the headland, there is an inscription by Portuguese poet Camões “Aqui, onde a terra se acaba e começa o mar” (Here, where the land ends and the ocean begins) and standing here, it’s easy to believe that this really was once the end of the known world. The wind is incredibly fierce and can take you off your feet, the Atlantic Ocean rages far below and the whole of continental Europe and Asia extends behind you.

I wanted to capture the beams and the way they appeared like pillars of light shining on the sea. The scene was very far away, perhaps a couple of kilometers out to sea, so I zoomed out to 400mm and metered off the water, underexposing by a stop to darken the ocean and clouds, and bring out the light beams. I wanted a fast shutter speed to preserve as much detail as possible in the water, and also to ensure the wind didn’t make the camera shake during the exposure, so I opened the aperture up as wide as possible.

After this, the sun disappeared for good and the end of the day reverted to the flat, overcast greyness that we’d had all day.

The final image has been cropped, and then sharpened for the web.

Metadata

Taken near Cabo do Roca, Sintra, Portugal
Nikon D3 | Nikkor 80-400 ED VR
1/4000 | f5 | 400mm | ISO200

Workflow in Apple Aperture 2. Title in PS CS3

Thanks in advance for any comments or faves. Sadly, I no longer have time to reply to individual comments, but I do appreciate people taking the time to look.
Any questions, please note me.