Following on from my last trip to Flamborough in November http://theweatheroutlook.com/twocommunity/forums/t/29405.aspx I decided to go again last weekend and here are some of the results.

It was a little more difficult this time for a number of reasons.

1. It had snowed and it was absolutely bloody bitter. By the time I left at 8pm the car thermo was reading -4C and my legs and feet felt as though they had been cut off even though I had 2 pairs of trousers and 2 pairs of socks on.

2. The sea was rather rough and the tide was in. It was crashing over the cliffs as you will see in some of my experiments at stupidly high ISO shots to try and capture the waves in the dark.

3. It was a full moon this time which made getting a good exposure hard. (If that's even possible in the dark). Most of these were a maximum exposure time of between 30 - 45 seconds whereas before it was around 90 seconds. The bright full moon made it hard to get any detail in the land without blowing out the sky.

The bright 'star' above the moon in these shots is the planet Mars.

Anyway, see what you think. 

A few minutes before sunset. It was already -1C.

Someone must have been in trouble. This Search & Rescue chopper was combing the sea well into darkness.

This was taken from the cliff top just before dark but it doesn't really give away the fact that these waves were crashing over the cliff tops further round the bay.

A few minutes after moon rise.

The 'white' in the water here is the effect a 30 second exposure has on rough sea in the light of a full moon.

In this one you can begin to see how far up the cliffs the waves are crashing by the ghostly white effect of the long exposure.

This ones sees my camera set at a ridiculous ISO12800! Now you can see how high the waves were crashing. Much effort went into removing the sensor noise in this image.

The height of these cliffs is roughly 400ft.

Once the moon had risen higher and the clouds had gone it really made life hard getting a decent exposure.

On the way back up to the car Orion looked stunning high in the sky above the lighthouse. I don't know why but I find Orion strangely compelling and these two photos alone almost made the trip worthwhile. The Orion nebula is clearly visible in both photos.

Finally a panorama of the cliff tops taken on the way down eariler on. The moon was just up and again Orion is visible in the centre.

Thanks for looking.

One word; BRILLIANT.

lee:

One word; BRILLIANT.

Am adding QUALITY, STUNNING and AMAZING to the list.

EXCELLENT (there's another word) use of night time photography. I remember seeing your first lots and how I was blown away by them.
  Once again you put the P back into Photography. Good work!

EDIT: That last sentence did sound a bit wrong!

nice photos paul,i have to go and turn on the heating now,you can feel the cold comeing across from those photos,cheers for posting them.topman

beautiful pictures....its like you are there......looking at them

Those are very,very good Paul Did you use a graduated filter at all to help control the brightness of the moon? How much of a problem was the wind, I know it can be a real nuisance with long exposures.

The pictures look so much like fantasy and yet don't look in the slightest bit artificial - you've done a good job there

Marigold:

Those are very,very good Paul Did you use a graduated filter at all to help control the brightness of the moon? How much of a problem was the wind, I know it can be a real nuisance with long exposures.

The pictures look so much like fantasy and yet don't look in the slightest bit artificial - you've done a good job there

Ditto, I thoroughly enjoyed viewing those pictures. Stunning effort once more Paul 

Marigold:

Those are very,very good Paul Did you use a graduated filter at all to help control the brightness of the moon? How much of a problem was the wind, I know it can be a real nuisance with long exposures.

The pictures look so much like fantasy and yet don't look in the slightest bit artificial - you've done a good job there

Thanks to all for the comments.

Chrissie, I used no filters at all. These are just pot luck with regard to exposures. I binned around 180 shots that were unusable, these are a selection from about 50 of the 'keepers'. That's the beauty of digital. No waste.

As for the wind, you have to go to Flamborough at the right time. In this instance the wind was coming from the North and whilst it was a bit nippy on the cliff tops once you get down onto the rocks in this particular bay it is very sheltered so it wasn't much of a problem. It wouldn't be much fun in a howling Easterly! Other than that, I rely on a home made electronic shutter release (Which I broke on this trip and must mend. Fortunately I was on my way back up to he car.) and sturdy tripod and keep it as low to the ground as possible to minimise vibrations. 

Paul, they are stunning

The best I have ever seen,

Outstanding

Well done

You are an artist, these photos are beautiful and breathtaking.

Really good pictures Paul of the highest quality. They look like they are from another planet.

Paul, those are gorgeous.

Daff