A cloudy day at the beach is not a wasted day - part 2

Every time I made it down to the beach this summer it felt like my luck was against me. Tides, the weather and the sheer volume of other beach lovers were often not in my favour and so the camera stayed firmly in its bag as I sat on the sand.

However on the odd occasion a little ray of sun crept over the scene, or some colour bloomed around the setting sun which made the repeated trips worthwhile. In those brief, lucky moments I did my best to capture the contrasts between sand, rock and waves as you can (hopefully) see below.

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The three black and white images above were shot at Praia da Santa Rita on Portugal's Silver Coast. It gets pretty popular in August but it is by far one of my favourite places to shoot seascapes.

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The three images above were shot at Praia da Malharda, not far from Lourinhã. There's a rocky reef a short distance out to sea that can only be reached when the tide is just right - sadly this year I didn't manage to make it down there when it was accessible but I did get some lovely golden hour light as the sun finally broke through the clouds on the day I was there.

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The last three images where shot at Praia da Consolação. It's incredibly busy there all summer but almost as soon as the sun has set the beach quickly becomes deserted except for fishermen and the odd photographer. The town on the right of the photos is Peniche and just beyond, barely visible in the mist, are the islands of the Berlengas archipelago that I blogged about a few months ago.

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Equipment Used

• Nikon D7000
• Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8
• Tripod and remote release
• Cokin Nuances and Cokin P-Series ND filters
• CPL
• Adobe Lightroom
• DxO Nik Collection - Color Efex Pro

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Recent posts on my blog

Fields of gold
Damselflies by the lake
Four seasons - one forest
A cloudy day at the beach is not a wasted day

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