The Corpach Wreck (MV Dayspring)
Monday, 14th, June, 2021
This is a blog post, a simple no thrills blog post where I can place some photos of a wee wreck of a fishing boat laying on a beach that has a fantastic view and talk a wee bit about photography, because… you know! Because I’m just so exciting in that way. lol (disclaimer, not much of that view is actually on offer today! Also! I'm fully aware I'm in no way exciting! lol).
This boat has become something of a celebrity over the years, photographers coming from all over the world to see it and take a photo of it with the Iconic Ben Nevis setting majestically behind it. I’ve seen countless photos of this boat and from a multitude of different angles and foreground perspectives. Some of which are out of this world good, with incredible colour, light or atmosphere. I must have visited this beach myself maybe 8-10 times over the last few years although mostly just in passing, I’ll stop off just to see how things look but never once have I had the luck to get some fantastic atmospheric conditions while there.
Sunday morning was no different, (granted!) the light was kind of nice at times but nothing much really in the way of atmosphere. So rather than just go for the obvious compositions or try and colour grade a shot to give it maybe an Instagram feel I decided to just have a wee bit of fun spending time just looking for details, textures and colours, the wee things that together make up the boat itself… I enjoyed it more than I thought I would!
I know I said above that I didn’t want to go for the obvious compositions, but when you’re here it’s hard not to so here’s one or two compositions that I generally go for when I’m here and why I (also but not exclusively) like these.
The (1st) photo composition is one that I almost always go to first, I’ll usually start further down the beach away from the boat then I’ll work my way in towards the boat, although generally I’ll use a wider angle here to include more of Ben Nevis in the background but this time round I seen another photographer down by the boat which I thought gave a bit of scale to the boat so went for that instead. The (2nd and 3rd) photos look similar compositionally but the (3rd) I’ve centred the boat just above a little zig zag cut in the shingle beach with the north face of Ben Nevis over to the left. The little cut in the shingle is from a stream that runs down from the Caledonian Canal Locks at Corpach, and when the water is flowing a lot it can make an interesting foreground waterfall composition with the boat in the background but that area can get clogged up with a lot of detritus at times so can sometimes look a bit too busy for a long exposure shot (2nd) as mentioned is a similar composition, but this time I’ve went more on the rule of thirds by placing the boat on the bottom right third and the top of Ben Nevis on the top left third of the frame, the wee seagull just happened to be directly in the centre area of the top left third so I actually like this shot just for that as I think it gives the composition some extra balance, but the boat leaning on it's port side and the mast pointing up to Ben Nevis on the top right is what makes this composition work most, it sort of guides the eye through the scene. And in all three there was a nice wee bit of side light from the morning sun hitting the boat which always helps, side light is always nice.
I apologise if any of this is all too boring for you, But I could talk about photography all day every day and never get bored with it, but I’m not amiss to seeing the glazed eyes and yawns from other people when I get started so again, I’m so very sorry, lol.
Back to my waffling! This was just a wee log I seen laying on the ground and as I walked past the finger/teeth like branches gave me the image in my head of a hand or mouth of a sea monster reaching out and grabbing the boat… But no!!! it didn’t look anything like a sea monster reaching out and swallowing the boat, lol… it just looked like a log sitting on the beach with a boat in the background, lol. But I liked it all the same and took a few focus-stacked shots just because it was something a wee bit different from what I’d shot here before.
The “Sea Monster” log on the beach lol
So that was that, nothing more to see… or so I thought! I decided to head over to the boat and just see if I could get one or two close up shots, maybe pick up some nice details, textures and colours just because it’s something I’ve never done before, (other than for college work) and I have to say I enjoyed it a wee bit more than I thought, just walking around the boat looking for wee intimate patterns, colours and textures was kind of relaxing, I knew I didn’t have to post process them (beyond global adjustments), I knew they didn’t have to look spectacular or impressive they just had to tell a story, the story of the constituent parts of the boats that made the boat what it was, or that’s how I envisioned the narrative when taking these photos it in my head, they might not be in everyone’s interest or taste, they might not be great photos, after all they’re only snapshot photos of the small details, patterns, textures and colours that caught my eye on the boat, ones I’d never taken the time to see before, and most importantly, I enjoyed capturing them, so here they are.
'The Crows Nest! The Thrush Perch!'
'Portholes and Trebles'
'Dark Port and Lightly Stern'
'Prow-dly Aged'
‘Entwined'
'Anchored'
'Vintage'
Anyway I hope someone will have gotten at least some bit of enjoyment from any of these photos as like I mentioned at the beginning, I've not intended to take anyone’s breath away, merely just to have a space to put my photos and thoughts, and if anyone did take any inspiration from anything I shot or said here then, that in itself is a massive bonus for me and I'm very much humbled and appreciative of that..
All the best and thanks so much for reading if you did manage to get this far.
Best Regards.
Sylvan
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