It's not even 7 in the morning yet
and somehow I've already managed to have my pants and boots completely soaked
It was a beautiful and very productive day for photography
it had a little bit of everything:
fog, plenty of Sun, beautiful coast, thermal plants, windmills, cemeteries, horses and cows...
and stunning cliffs
It was such a complete day that I learned 7 lessons on that trip that I wanted to share with you today
Let's start from the beginning: on my way to the coast, I ran into some thick fog
so I decided to leave the highway and look for something to photograph
I found this field with cool trees and powerlines
I knew I was going to get wet getting onto that field, but I'd feel bad if I didn't try at least, so I went for it
I don't know if you could tell, but the grass was pretty tall and all wet from the morning mist
I didn't know at the time if the images that I had made there were worth the wet pants and boots
just bear in mind that I had the whole day ahead of me
luckily, it was pretty sunny and windy, so everything dried up really quick
Anyway, the first lesson is one that I should have learned a long time ago, but I keep making the same mistake
you should always have spare clothes with you, especially if you have a car
At least, spare socks, t-shirt and shoes
so my idea for that morning was to be at a specific viewpoint for sunrise, but I didn't make it in time
I didn't make it because I stopped quite a few times on my way there
I stopped to photograph the fog first, then the windmills, the forests waking up
and even a thermal plant that looked pretty beautiful in those pastel colors
This is a lesson I learned very early on in my photography journey: always, always, always stop
and take the photograph while you have the chance
In the past, I'd tell myself: "I'll take the photo on my way back, I'll take it tomorrow"
that never, ever happened, or the conditions were completely different
I missed a ton of shots because of this
so now, when I see something that I believe it might be worth photographing, I always take the shot
I give full priority to the image that I have in front of me, even over the images that I might have had planned for that day
For example, this day I didn't want to get to the coast to that viewpoint and find mediocre conditions
and think that I had missed shots on that foggy field
Eventually, I made it to the spot I had planned to be at for sunrise
One funny thing about this bench: people around here call it the best bench in the world
which, I don't know, sure, why not?
the thing is that "bench" in Spanish is "banco", and it's the same word for bank
so someone, I guess thinking that it'd be the same in English
wrote "the best bank in the world" here a few years ago
Actually, that was not the one, this one is "the best bank of the world"
I have to say, I'd deposit my money here, for sure
The best light was long gone at that point, so I did the only thing I could do
sit back, relax and enjoy the landscape
That's the third lesson of the day: sometimes it's better to put the camera away and just take it all in
That being said, I did record some footage, let's play it with some epic music
I'm tired!
I told you it was a long day, I didn't get much sleep the night before
I woke up at 4am, I had to drive over 2 hours to get to the coast
so I was pretty tired by noon
I had some food and a couple of coffees
which really helped me a lot: I was very awake after those coffees
sometimes, if I'm really tired I just take a nap in the car
After all, a well-rested mind is worth several tired minds
There's no point in doing all the effort of driving really far away, or going on a long hike
if when we do get there we are too tired to see any images
So get your sleep and eat your vegetables!
After a quick break, I went to a lighthouse that I had visited a couple of years ago
At this point, the day was totally sunny and the clouds were not moving much at all
I made some low exposures but they were quite a fail
Despite having better equipment and more experience, I wasn't able to make images as good as the ones
I did make there 2 years before
Conditions are everything, so this is the fifth lesson: revisit places, as much as you can
so this is going to be footage from 2020 and the images are going to be from 2018
back when global pandemics weren't a thing
After several hours without making any good images, I was more than ready to call it a day
But since I had done all that driving, I decided to visit one last spot
some beautiful cliffs, where I was expecting to take a quick walk, maybe a couple photos
and then just head back home right after that
I was wrong, very, very wrong
I found incredible conditions, with a fog that kept rolling in and out, creating different images every second
this was, no doubt, the most fun I had photographing this year so far
I completely lost track of time, I was there for more than 3 hours, it felt like 15-20 minutes
but it was more than 3 hours of me photographing a barren landscape of just rocks, grass and some cliffs
All this fog is really cool and pretty amazing, but I can't find anything to photograph here, just rocks!
That's right, as beautiful as it was, I struggle to make images because I wasn't able to find any subjects
don't get me wrong, I still love some of them, but I would've loved to have some structures
buildings, powerlines, paths... something!
There were cows and horses, but they were scary cats, and I didn't want to disturb them too much
This leads us to the seventh lesson, the last one for today
an image needs to tell a story
unless you are going for an abstract, of course
an image has to show something, and the more clear it does it, the better
that is hard to achieve when all you have is rocks, grass and cliffs
I try to capture some cool rocks, I even tried to capture myself with a self-timer
I tried to run all the way to the other side of the cliff, but I didn't get there in time, that's all I got but anyway
so try to find a clear subject
anyway, this camera keeps shutting down, it's very hot... 97F (36C) out there
that's why I'm sweating so much
if you made it all the way here, thank you so much for watching yet another video
and see you in the next one!