The Strangford Lough coast is one of my favourite haunts in Northern Ireland. I spent a lot of time motorbiking around here in my youth. One of the nice things about being at the bottom end of the Ards Peninsula is that you can see the sun setting at the top of the lough. This one was taken in June from Portaferry.
In my never ending quest to get the best shot of Southport Pier I ended up once again peering through barred gates at the setting sun. With tripod astride the wrought iron restriction I snapped a few bracketed exposures for later post production as HDR. I do like high key shots, even when it’s going dark, so this is as light as I dared…
This is an old image, it’s been around since 2007, but it’s still got a look about it that I like. I took it with an Olympus E-400 stuck through the gates of the locked pier as the sun set. I put a graduated tobacco filter on the lens, and the image seems to have struck a chord with many people, because they all seem to think that it’s fine to just copy the image for their own commercial use!
I’m not a full time commercial photographer, but I do license images for commerical use and I did license this image some years ago to one organisation. That original license has long since expired, but the use of my image hasn’t. It’s incredibly hard to make money from landscape imagery; it’s even harder when images are taken and used without permission or payment.
I do understand that occasionally someone will see an image and like it enough to link to it, but to copy it, upload it to their own servers and then use those images for commercial purposes is wrong both morally and legally. I know this happens a lot, but that doesn’t make it right.
Anyway, the purpose of posting my image here is to reassert my copyright. This image of Southport Pier at sunset belongs to me, Peter Holloway, if you do like it please have the courtesy to contact me about useage, don’t just steal it…
If you like the images I take and wish to use them on your web site or in print, please do take a look at www.duneprints.com and a more extensive portfolio on Flickr.
Here’s another shot that belongs to me but has been used extensively without license…
Over at my new ‘favourite place’ along the big bank that runs from the top of the coast road at Crossens down towards Marshside the puddle is back. This is just a few inches of water at the side of the fence, but just enough to reflect the sky beautifully.
The wind was blowing ripples into even this shallow draft, so I took a tripod and shot a long exposure to blur the movement. The soft evening light couples well with the hint of movement in the water.
On holiday in Wexford this year we stayed 500m from the secluded cove of Carnivan Bay. It was just a short walk out of our front door and down the path to the beach. We regularly went out in the evening, to come home again as the sun began to dip behind the cliffs. This was the sight that greeted us as we topped the rise of the cliff headed for home…
