The North Devon Coast
APRIL 7, 2023
This is another one of those locations that has been on my list to visit for a while. It is a long journey from London to the North Devon Coast but I finally decide to make te trip, firstly visiting Blackchurch Rock and then Hartland Quay.
Blackchurch Rock
Blackchurch Rock is an impressive arched sea stack found at Mouthmill, its unique layers form this amazing sedimentary stack and the surrounding areas geological make up is of wave erosion. I arrived a couple of hours before sunset and the walk from the car park is around half an hour to 40 minutes. There are many viewpoints of the sea stack but the classic view point is capturing the image with the two arches showing in the middle of the stack. Timing is key to this as the tide has to be out but not too far to capture the scene.
This first image is a six shot pano, although it does not look like a normal panorama image, I used this technique as I could not go any further back as the tide had come in. My 16mm wide angle lens could not capture the whole stack and there was no option to go further back without having a dip in the sea. I wanted to capture this scene at sunset but this was the shot I could capture with the tide coming in fast.
This second image is a bit further back from the stack and I used the surrounding rock formations as a leading line to the stack. After taking the image it was a bit of a struggle to get back to the shore due to the incoming tide.
After the second image the tide had completely come in at a furious rate and that was the last opportunity to take that classic shot. I moved further down the coast to see if I could get a few more compositions of Blackchurch Rock. This third image was just as the sun was hitting the stack and long with the clouds moving just above the as well I found this to be a nice composition, although I did have to wait around ten minutes for the clouds to be just above the stack. I also wanted some foreground interest so again I went for a longer shutter to speed to enphasise the movement in the sea.
I always like to get different compositions of the same locations so I captured a few more images. This time again further down the coastline I came across some dark rocks which left a nice sheen to the rocks. I went quite low with the tripod to emphasise the foreground rocks and waited for a nice wave to come along to get that nice movement in the sea. I was very happy with this image.
This last image was taken a bit further down the coast, I spotted these rounded rocks and watched the waves move through them. I lowered my tripod quite low to exaggerate the foreground and used the surrounding elements to lead to the stack, using a long shutter speed of around 0.5 secs I also wanted to capture some movement in the water.
Hartland Quay
I left Blackchurch Rock just after sunset and with plenty of time I decided to visit Hartland Quay, which is about a 45 minute drive. It would be sort of a scouting trip for the next day and also my location for some astro photography. Hartland Quay is a very dramatic coastline and there is evidence of geological events which took place 300 million years ago to shape this amazing coastline.
Upon arrival at the Quay, I was met with a very harsh flood light in the car park which had illuminated the cliffs in the distance. There weren't many options for a composition so I decided to take the image from the car park. I waited for the clouds to clear but unfortunately I didn't get that clear sky. You can see the only image I managed to capture above and there is a slight glimpse of the milky way to the right of the image but ultimately the cloud coverage was too much so I had to abandon the shoot.
Unfortunately the next morning the cloud was ever present and with no chance of a decent sunrise. I still headed down to the coastline and this first image is of some of the rocks which are made of sandstone and mudstones that were laid down millions of years ago. The composition is fairly straightforward with the rocks leading to the outgoing sea. Although the light was flat I still liked the composition.
This second image was taken from the cliff top to the left of the above image. I loved all the flora along the ciff and wanted to catch some of the colour along the moody coastline. The Tripod is quite close to the flowers and sweeps across the scene to add that splash of colour in the scene.
This last image is of the dramatic cliffs along this amazing coastline. The cliffs show striking patterns on the face of the cliff and this tells the tales of how the elements have shaped the Earth as we see it today. This is another simple composition and I wanted to capture the patterns in the cliff face which look amazing.
It's a shame that the weather was bad and with limited time at this location I think another trip is most likely on the cards to see it in all its glory.
I hope you enjoyed the images and if you would like to see more of my adventures please do follow me on my social media pages.