On a Dull Day..
When you’re cooped up inside looking at a wall to wall dull grey day, the last thing you want to hear from somebody whilst feeling sorry for yourself is that there is always a photograph to be had, regardless of the conditions. As landscape photographers we thrive on dramatic light and flat grey skies just do not provide the light we crave however, there is always a photograph to be found and on dull days, long exposures are always an option.
I mentioned before that there is a good reason why the Azores are so green. Moist warm air from the southern United States finds landfall in the Azores and has a tendency to condense over the mountains. Remember the water cycle from high school geography? The Azores provide a classic case in point.
All that said, the weather wasn’t perfect during my two-week stay on the island of São Miguel but we only had one, really dull day and armed with a Lee big stopper, I headed for the beach. The beach at Mosteiros was strewn with lava and rocks that would have been thrown up by the Sete Cidades volcano not so very far away. I loved the colours and textures of the different types of rocks found here and after finding my spot on the beach with a composition I was happy with, this is the photograph that I managed to get..
24mm f/22 90 sec. ISO-100
When creating pictures like this one, it’s a good idea to make sure you’re facing into the wind. I picked this spot on the island as I knew here, I would be facing directly into the north-westerly wind that was blowing and I would be able to capture the nice streaked cloud effect you see here. Despite having a Lee Big Stopper filter, I still had to close down the aperture to f/22 to extend the exposure as much as I could.
Cornwall Photographic 