Local knowledge

Last night I went with a couple of other photographers back to Dunbriste to try and get into the cave for a "lightpainting " photo of the cave and the sea stack. Low tide was at 1.20am! Arriving at 11pm we spent some time on top of the cliff taking photos before meeting up with my friend Alistair . Alistair is local coast guard and knows the area intimately . Even though the tide was at its very lowest and the sea seemed calm there was actually a very active swell. We watched as part of the area we were intending to walk on would be dry for several minutes then would be covered as waves would suddenly breach the shore line,and we were looking at the safest part of the journey. We watched for twenty minutes or so to see if things would improve but in the end decided it was not worth the risk and we headed home. I was very grateful that Alistair had come out with us because even though we thought we had all the information, tide times, wind direction etc Alistair's local knowledge was much more important. On the journey home we stopped to photograph Ballylacken castle. This picture was taken at 1.50am !!