Last week it was time to pay St Abbs Head Nature reserve another visit. It is one of the most visually stunning landscapes on the Scottish East Coast, with plenty of breathtaking cliffs of up to 100m high, and sea stacks dropping straight into the crystal clear waters of the North Sea. It’s steep cliffs are home to large colonies of seabirds, such as guillemots, razorbills and fulmars, and as a result the reserve attracts countless birdwatchers. In addition, St Abbs Head and the surrounding marine reserve is one of the most popular diving spots of the country.
However, I was there for one reason and one reason only: to photograph the sunrise from the cliff tops near the lighthouse. I had recently shot sunset at the iconic jetty at Pettico Wick which is just around the corner, but never gave the cliffs the photographic attention they deserved. As it’s a one hour drive from Edinburgh, and I wanted to be there well in advance of the actual sunrise to exploit the usually fantastic light of the blue hour, this meant setting my alarm at an insane 04:00 AM!
I arrived roughly 45 minutes before sunrise, which gave me ample opportunity to scout the cliffs and craggy coastline for some compositions. I enjoyed the serenity of the location, soaking up the views, and admiring the fishing vessels which were sailing past the cliffs. The sky looked promising, as although there was a decent cloud cover, especially near the horizon, there were enough breaks in the clouds to give reasons to be optimistic about sunrise. There was already a beautiful orange/red glow on the horizon as a result of the sun making its way to end the night.
Though I have a certain fondness for truly natural landscapes, without any overly apparent signs of human impact, it would be rude not to take a few photographs of the lighthouse. The lighthouse, as so many in Scotland, had been designed by the Stevenson brothers and has been in service since 1862. Its perched on some grassy slopes above the cliffs, high above the North Sea. Note how I managed to avoid shooting with my ultra-wide in the first shot below!
The lighthouse at St Abbs head during the blue hour at dawn.
Next I wanted to capture a little more of the grassy and flower-covered foreground. Peak flower time was already behind me, but I still loved the diversity in colours and textures in the grasslands.
Lighthouse on the cliffs at St Abbs Head Nature Reserve
Enough of the lighthouse! I walked down the grassy slopes to get really close to the edge of the cliffs. I was really happy with the grip of my Inov-8 Roclites, not sure I would have survived this on my wellies! There is something really magic about the light during the blue hour, which makes such a simple photograph work. Bot shape-wise and colour-wise there’s not much going on in the photo below, but the diffuse and at the same time directional light make this a study in subtlety.
Blue hour at St Abbs head
Sunrise was now approaching quickly! I rushed a bit further down the coast to explore some other compositions. I really wanted to include one of the most majestic sea stacks in my composition.
A stack and interestingly shaped cliffs at St Abbs head Nature reserve with sunrise imminent.
I stood quite close to the edge of the clifftops to get this composition, but luckily there was only a moderate breeze and not the usual gale-force wind. I really wanted to include some of the fantastic lychen-covered rocks in the foreground, and use them a s a lead-in by pointing in the direction of the sea stacks. I found this photograph a little bit of a challenge to get it right, as I manually blended four exposures to retain detail throughout the frame.
Sunrise at the St Abbs Head Nature reserve.
All in all, I think that this trip was quite successful photographically speaking. I had to go to a party that same evening, but I was really suffering from the consequences of the third early start within four days time, so not sure how much fun chat I had for everyone. What hardship we landscape photographers must endure!
Click here to see more photographs of the Scottish East coast.
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