Dunstanburgh Castle

New Journal 66 – Dunstanburgh Castle

I’d arrived at Dunstanburgh castle just before sunset, 3 hours before my photographer buddies were due to join me in our hopeful hunt for the Aurora. I made a rather stupid decision. As I left the car I decided to keep my waterproof boots on rather than replacing them with more appropriate wellingtons that were in my car. Confident that I wouldn’t be stupid enough to go into the freezing north sea on this occasion since I could see the lighting wouldn’t be that great, I scaled the rocks and started shooting. Unfortunately, after 20 minutes I saw the water cradling a collection of rocks – the ones you see in the image above. Before I knew it, I was ankle deep in cold water trying to get the shot.

Already shivering, I knew I’d have to change into my wellies. Unfortunately, while I’d brought two pairs of socks, I was wearing both of them, which were equally wet and cold. In the end, I forced my unwilling, sock-less feet into the wellies, knowing full well that the next 6 hours, in which the temperature would drop dramatically, would be a challenge that I didn’t wish to engage in. I still had a couple of hours before anyone would I arrive so I sought shelter in a cozy little village pub.

The night didn’t go brilliantly. Although it was nice to meet other local photographers, the Aurora decided not to show, and my feet felt almost frost-bitten. The cold, however, was masking something slightly more sinister.

As I headed back to the car at the end of the shoot, I felt sensitivity in my feet and ankles. It was only after I took my wellies off in the car that I realised my feet were caked in blood. The friction of the wellies on my bare feet had created large blisters that happily popped and left a nasty sight. Once the numbness in my feel began to subside, the pain of the blistering became evermore apparent, and I learned a valuable lesson: I have no capacity to think intelligently when I’m taking photos so in order to counter my own idiocy I should plan properly beforehand!

Today’s Photo – Dunstanburgh

This image is a composite. The sky was extremely flat in the original image so I replaced it with a different sky. Hopefully I can capture the ‘true’ image in all of its sunrise glory in the next few weeks.

In terms of processing, after the sky replacement, there wasn’t much to it. I dodged the water around the rocks to brighten it up. I added a warm filter to the foreground, but not the rocks, to be consistent with the pink sky, and I added a vignette around the whole the image to increase the mood.