At the time of writing this article, I was still in Spain. It's been three weeks now that I'm on the roads of Galicia and Asturias. When I received the announcement of the new assignment, I was elated because sea stacks were the very reason I drove the 1500 km or so from my home town in the northwest of France to this part of Spain.
I had planned to change location every week and focused on 2 or 3 maximum in order to capture the best I could get from them according to the weather, for it was the only thing I wasn't able to foresee. I checked the tides, the time of sunrise and sunset for each location I would visit, looked at the maps, etc. I was able to find every bit of information on the internet.
This picture wasn't taken during the first days of my stay on the north coast of Spain but during the second week when I was in Asturias, near Cudillero. Why? Because there's a gap between what you've read, the photos you've seen and reality. I was shocked after walking down the short trail leading to the stairs to this small beach. Those sea stacks appear as sharp as the teeth of some deadly animal, surrounded by cliffs as high as a 15-store building and, in the distance, those even bigger sea stacks. Well, I must admit I stayed a few minutes without moving, overwhelmed by the scenery. It was the afternoon of my arrival, and it was just a simple location scouting to check the access and look for a few compositions for the following day. That's why I chose to start this assignment with it.
The following day, I left my car by the road because there was no actual car park, just a little space with just enough room for 3 or 4 cars. I turned on my headlamp and set out on the path. I wanted to be ready to shoot for the blue hour. This was shot 10mn or so after the end of it, but the cloud coverage that day made it last a bit longer. I kept shooting until the sun was high, looking for new compositions and trying different focal lengths because I wanted to return the next morning.
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Dimitri Vasileiou • Editor