El Cotillo Lighthouse - a photo on Flickriver

            I'm not very happy with today's image. Not because the image is terrible but I'm unhappy with it because I know what it should have been. I planned this shot out a couple of years back during my previous visit to the Canary Isles and this was the first chance I've had to execute. 

The sky needed to be bright and clear and the wind reasonably calm. The lighthouse is on the coast, surprisingly enough, and too much spray would be a real problem. This shot works best when there is a little low cloud to catch the light and although that was not likely I held out some hope. 

I checked the forecast for the conditions I needed and one night of the week was looking good. I set the alarm for 2am and drove for about an hour to the site. 

When I get there I can't see a thing with the naked eye apart from the brightest of stars and a little glow from the distant towns. The light level looks good so all set, here we go. 

I grab the first long exposure shots just to have a quick look at the level of detail I'm achieving. I have no real expectation that these are going to be keepers but when I see them I am gutted. My heart sank when I saw the lighthouse in detail for the first time. After all the planning and preparation, not to mention the thousands of miles travelled, I see that the lighthouse was completely covered in ugly ass scaffolding. 

I know I'm probably over-reacting to this but ...

If the lighthouse had been an hour from home and I could take a trip anytime that I thought the conditions were right then I'd have shrugged it off. If it had been a once in a lifetime and the condition weren't right I would have said "not mean't to be" and let it go. But I was so sure I had it planned out and that knew what to expect. Boy did I kick myself that night.

Well I wasn't going to use the images I did take because I was so unhappy with them but instead I've forced my self to process them as a reminder that there is always something that can go wrong even when you think everything is covered. You always need to have a plan B and a contingency in place. 

Lesson learned!

Taken in: España / Islas Canarias / La Oliva (show map)

Taken on: December 11, 2015

Tags:

Fuerteventura

El Cotillo

Milky Way

Stars

Night Shot

Night

Long Exposure

Grant Morris

Grant Morris Photography

Canon

Sigma

17-35 « less

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Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, f/2.8, 30 sec, 17mm, ISO 3200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Lens:	17-35mm
Aperture:	f/2.8
Exposure Time:	30
Focal Length:	17mm
ISO:	3200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)
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