Photos

This old Beach Hut stands abandoned on the dunes to the north of Bamburgh, on the Northumberland Coast.

I took this shot on the same occasion as one of my earlier posts of the castle at Bamburgh (click here to see shot). The sun had gone down behind the hills to the west, and the castle itself was in shadow. Thinking that the shoot was over, I began to pack up my gear and made my way back to my car. It was as I made my way through the dunes that I saw the ruined hut - I went to investigate, thinking it might be worth a few shots on another occasion. As I was looking around, the last rays of sun from beyond the horizon caught the cloud above, turning it red and gold.

I quickly set up my tripod and composed the shot - the wind was extremely strong, so I had to shelter my gear with my jacket and body. A fairly long exposure has blurred the movement of the Marram Grass in the foreground, and the bush growing by the hut.

I used a 0.9 (3 stop) ND grad filter to balance the exposure of sky and foreground, and an 81b warm-up filter to boost the colours slighty. After scanning the original slide, I adjusted levels in photoshop to give more contrast, but the colours you see are genuine.

Just a few seconds after taking this image, there was a sudden downpour from the black cloud you can see in the top-left of the shot, and I was soaked before I could make it back to my car.