Morcombe bay

Sunday 22nd Nov 2015 (1184)

A full morning, then it was a quick lunch and change. I had bought myself a birthday treat in the form of an After Dark Photography Workshop in Morcombe. 

I've seen some wonderful photographs shot after dark and have wanted to try them but my camera has a limit of 15 secs exposure and no bulb setting. For this photography you need longer. In August I finally plucked up courage to try the Canon Hack Development Kit. I thought I'd cracked it so booked the workshop but then hit a problem and couldn't get it to work with long exposures. I finally managed to sort it last night! So now I can override the shutter setting and give it as long as I want.   

There were six people on the workshop. We met at 3pm on the stone jetty. The first hour was spent checking out the area and thinking about future composition, as well as capturing some lovely sunset shots. We were so lucky with the sunset! As the light dropped the colours were amazing and Jason encouraged us to look at different areas of the sky not just the actual sunset. 

It got to the point when normally I would pack up because of lack of light but then the workshop got even more interesting. I am amazed how much detail the camera can pick up with extra long exposures and what interesting effects it creates, like milky sea. The hardest part is composition as you can't see! This shot was taken in darkness with just a faint glow on the horizon. I couldn't see more than a couple of feet in front of me. 

As well as seascapes we got some great shots of the building at the end of the jetty and some of the sculptures. I also loved getting lots of stars in the photos. I've learnt so much tonight and it has opened up a whole new aspect of photography for me. We were out just over four hours and it was the quickest four hours ever, it felt like half an hour. We only stopped then because of the icy cold wind coming off the sea. A great afternoon/evening!