Dunure in high winds

fine art photography on Scotland’s Ayrshire coast

 

Location: Dunure, 5 miles south of Ayr, South Ayrshire, Scotland
Location type: Coastal
Park (what3words): ///catchers.stand.gambles (main castle car park) - parking charge
What to shoot: Waterfall, Castle, Harbour, Sea, rocky foreshore, Dunure Labyrinth
When to visit: any time of year, for best light make the trip in late afternoon

There was a forecast for strong winds when I set off to visit Dunure on the South Ayrshire coast. I had timed the trip to arrive just after high tide as I wanted to capture some images of the rocky shoreline below the castle for a project I’m working on and to scout the area between the castle and the harbour ahead of a 1-2-1 workshop I have scheduled with a client in March. (Did you know you can book photo sessions with me? See here for details)

I was also in the area to research some locations in preparation for a book I hope to begin writing this spring, so I had a busy day planned.

I hit my first hurdle as soon as I arrived at the location. I usually leave my car in Kennedy Park which overlooks the Castle but on this trip the park was closed. A few people had already left vehicles close to the gate and there was no other obvious spot which wouldn’t also block access to the park, or the through road.
Apart from some very limited spaces down by the Harbour (free, max stay 2hrs) and the Dunure Inn parking area (limited to residents only) I was not aware of any other parking in the village, so I headed around to the Harbour more in hope than expectation but I was in luck as there was one remaining space. I parked up, changed my footwear and headed down to the foreshore to the north of the castle, aware that I was now working against the clock and my two hour count-down had started.

The tide may have passed high point, but it wasn’t obvious as huge waves slammed up the length of the beach, driven by high winds and a 2m storm surge from the approaching Storm Dudley which was forecast to hit the west coast within the next 36 hrs.

Dunure Castle and Dovecot from near the Harbour

I worked my way southwards along the coast, hugging the high water mark to avoid the frequent large waves until I reached my intended first view, a small waterfall, which pours down onto the beach directly in front of the castle and dovecot which sit on the rocks above.

The sky above was clear which brought my first photographic problem. Dynamic Range. The waterfall and foreshore were in shadow while the castle was in brilliant sunshine. The white surf which periodically slammed far enough up the shore to mix with the lower reaches of the falls didn’t help either!

It was impossible to find a single exposure which captured the waterfall and castle and with the rocky and irregular skyline around the castle a graduated filter was useless too. I decided instead to bracket my exposures hoping to blend these together later in post processing. The range in the scene was so high that it took 8 stops of exposure to avoid burning the highlights while retaining shadow detail.

Castle, Dovecot and falls, Dunure

I grabbed a series of images (horizontal and vertical profiles), each of 5 bracketed exposures before moving on to my next location.

I had intended to work around the rocks directly below the castle for my on-going project as I need some images of rocks and crashing waves, ideally with the castle in the background, but the storm surge kept the water levels too high for me to make my way out to the rocks (hopefully I can try again on my next visit in March), so instead I opted to work with the conditions to take some images of the castle and rocks from the shore instead. Not what I needed for the project but still good fun!

I decided to work with the high waves by making some long exposure images of the rocks and waves with the intention of smoothing out the crashing waves, hopefully resulting in a series of ethereal images where the cold hard rocks are left swimming in a milky dreamy sea. Of course the problems associated with trying this type of photography in high winds and crashing waves are obvious. Camera shake was a major problem, and with 30 second exposure times, my 2hr window of opportunity was slipping away fast.

Time and again I thought I’d nailed a shot only to have a wave sweep up the beach 25 seconds into a 30s exposure and shift the tripod slightly. On two separate shots I had to actually physically snatch the camera and tripod from the surf to avoid them being washed out into the deeper waters.

Rocks below Dunure Castle

My wellies were filled with seawater and my trousers soaked by the time I finally gave up and made my way up a small path next to the waterfall towards the castle.

The wind was even more bracing higher up on the rocks so I took a few reference shots of the castle, dovecot and rocks below then made my way back towards the Harbour and the car.

I arrived back at the car with 5 minutes of my 2hr max-stay period remaining. The car park was full and with several cars passing me on their way down and then back out again disappointed that there was no space I decided to jump in the car and move away from the area to free up some space.

I have no idea if the 2hr max stay is enforced; with no ticketing system or way of monitoring when cars arrive, I doubt it could be but I’d had my walk, got some images and felt it was only fair that I move on and gave someone else the opportunity.

I just hope the main car park is open again in March when I return…