Godrevy Beach Visit -25th February
Godrevy Beach on the North Coast of Cornwall is somewhere I have visited countless times. Partly because it’s such a stunning location, offering everything from sandy beaches to seals resting on shore, rocks with waves crashing over them, and of course the lighthouse. Secondly, it’s close to home, and I am unfortunately a lazy photographer!
Godrevy Lightouse
On this particular day, I drove down with the idea of getting a long exposure of the lighthouse, something around 3 minutes with a totally flat sea. However, the high winds stopped that idea, as I didn’t think my tripod would be stable enough in the wind. So instead, I headed down onto the rocks. It was high tide, so I didn’t have to worry about getting cut off or stuck anywhere in the maze of rock gullies.
Wave watching at Godrevy Beach.
This was one of the first photos I took. A couple had come down to the beach to watch the waves and perfectly lined up with the island. I took this shot at 109mm, giving some compression to the island to draw it in closer.
Crashing waves at Godrevy.
This was the next photo and the one that took most of my time! After scrabbling around for a bit, avoiding sea spray and checking I wasn’t about to get washed away, I found this composition with the island framed by two rocks.
Initially, this was going to be my shot, but then waves started crashing on the rocks, and I got the idea of framing the island in the waves. Since waves rarely do what you want, I had to wait and capture a series of waves to achieve what I imagined in my head. This final image was a blend of three photos: one for the left rock with a wave hitting it, one for the right-hand rock, and finally one for the foreground.
By now it was getting close the sunset and I was about to go looking for the ‘sunset’ shot, but then it clouded over…I waited for about 20 minutes but made the fatal error of assuming all was lost and head back to the car!
Gulls watching the sunset at Godrevy Beach
Halfway back to the car, the sun found a gap in the clouds, casting incredible light over the bay. There was a flock of gulls on the beach I had noticed a few hours earlier when I arrived; surprisingly, they were still there. Now, with the sun setting, it was almost as if they were watching the sunset with me!
Sunset over St Ive’s Bay
The sunset only lasted about 10 minutes, and whilst I was gutted I had left the beach ( these shots are from the cliff tops ) I loved these photos with the birds on the sand.
Sunset over St Ive’s Bay
…in case you want to visit Godrevy! There is parking (National Trust ) but it’s limited and gets VERY busy in the summer!