[photoshelter-img i_id="I0000hBCUt1i55DM" buy="1" caption="Corfe Castle at dawn. Photograph by Andrew Tobin/Tobinators Ltd (Andrew Tobin/Tobinators Ltd)" width="800" height="553"]Sunday saw me up at 4am for a trip with a few pals down to Dorset to shoot at Corfe Castle for dawn, and then onto Kimmeridge Bay. Both are well known "trophy image" locations, but who cares about that. Not me. Weather looked good for the morning, with overnight temperature below freezing promising frosty start, but high winds and rain from midday. Plus, the tides were wrong as well, with high tide mid morning at Kimmeridge when I'd much prefer shooting there on a falling tide with wet rocks.Still, you make the most of what you've got.I was hoping for a bit of mist around the castle when we got there just after 6am, but it wasn't to be. However, sunrise was just lovely and it's fantastic being out and about early before everyone gets up. Of course, it's tempting to try and reproduce Anthony Spencer's gorgeous Landscape Photographer of the Year winning shot from 2010, which is beautifully composed. He has managed to find a foreground made up of three big triangular shapes that bring attention straight onto the castle which sits in a misty, frosted landscape with a fantastic sky. Somehow, none of the cars, road or other detritus that are around the area appear in his shot, such is the care taken to position the camera.Try as I might, I couldn't find anywhere with such a simple foreground, so settled for a longer and more elevated viewpoint. And with little mist around and fairly brown grass, silhouettes looked much more attractive.[photoshelter-img i_id="I0000AYfjE6O1QBU" buy="1" caption="Corfe Castle at dawn. Photograph by Andrew Tobin/Tobinators Ltd (Andrew Tobin/Tobinators Ltd)" width="533" height="800"]I was using my Sony A7R with a mixture of the Sony 16-35 f/4, Sony 55 f/1.8 and Canon FD 85 f/1.2. The A7R continues to impress - a lovely camera with oodles of detail. The following shot is with the 16-35 and is both focus and exposure blended from two frames. In order to get the very close snowdrops in focus as well as the distant castle, it was necessary to have both near and far focus settings, as well as handling the darker foreground area and the much brighter hillside. Blending the two images in Photoshop is pretty simple - import them both, layer them, and then align the layers as there is a bit of change of the image as the focus point changes. Then mask the top layer and paint the mask to reveal the lower layer accordingly. 2-3 minutes max.[photoshelter-img i_id="I00008erqbqLOYaQ" buy="1" caption="Corfe Castle seen above flowering snowdrops. Photograph by Andrew Tobin/Tobinators Ltd (Andrew Tobin/Tobinators Ltd)" width="533" height="800"]Then it was on to Kimmeridge Bay which is about 5 miles away. A very high tide was in, covering the very cool rock ledges completely. This left just a concrete pillbox to photograph in as many ways as possible. My pal Gordon Fraser had already arrived and set up his amazingly complex wet plate collodion gear and darkroom, and was busy photographing said pillbox down on the beach.[photoshelter-img i_id="I0000kzU4JxjGt_k" buy="1" caption="Wet plate collodion photographer Gordon Fraser in action at Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset. Photograph by Andrew Tobin/Tobinators Ltd (Andrew Tobin/Tobinators Ltd)" width="800" height="553"]The situation called for a Lee "Big Stopper" filter to try and make a rather dull, dreary scene look more interesting. Of course it was important to get the little opening in the far wall of the pillbox in shot.[photoshelter-img i_id="I0000dlVcH3lRexE" buy="1" caption="A concrete pillbox at Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset. Photograph by Andrew Tobin/Tobinators Ltd (Andrew Tobin/Tobinators Ltd)" width="800" height="553"]After much faffing about, I ended up with the picture I like most from the day - a much wider shot from up on the crumbling cliff edge, this one shot with my Olympus 21mm f/3.5 (as my Lee RF75 filters don't fit the much larger Sony 16-35 lens). It sort of looks like the pillbox is either coming out of water or dipping a toe in on the way for a swim.[photoshelter-img i_id="I0000d8cjEnEQ7Fo" buy="1" caption="A concrete pillbox at Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset. Photograph by Andrew Tobin/Tobinators Ltd (Andrew Tobin/Tobinators Ltd)" width="800" height="553"]Then the weather drew in, with lashing rain and high winds, so after a rather fantastic breakfast at excellent Clavell's Cafe in Kimmeridge we headed off for a long drive back in appalling weather. Despite the early curtailment, and being unable to explore the fascinating rock ledges at lower tide, it was a really lovely day out. Being up and about before dawn and watching the sun come up is really excellent and I recommend it wholeheartedly.[photoshelter-img i_id="I00001fYjv0ke4sE" buy="1" caption="Photograph by Andrew Tobin/Tobinators Ltd (Andrew Tobin/Tobinators Ltd)" width="800" height="553"]