St. Mary's Lighthouse.

Situated just north of Whitley Bay, St Mary's Lighthouse and the adjoining keepers' cottages, are on a small island which is accessible on foot at low tide. It was built in 1898, and manned until 1984, now it has been converted into a fascinating small museum and visitor centre by North Tyneside Council. There are 137 steps to the top, though the climb is worth it - the views are spectacular! 

The top photograph was taken from the north bay using the rock pools and the reflections to add interest to an otherwise picture postcard type image.

In the second image I took a few paces to the right and used the wooden posts as an interesting fore-ground to add  interest to the photograph.

The third image was taken from a similar view point at sunrise. It is a composite of two slides. I realised after my drive in the early hours to the location, that I had forgotten to bring my ND graduated filters, so I took one image exposing for the sky and the second exposing for the rocks and lighthouse. I then combined the images in photoshop using the part of each photograph to form the image.

The bottom image was taken the same morning but I chose to zoom into a small area of rocks to the side of the lighthouse. This was a straight image exposed for the sky and leaving the rocks to form a silhoutte. 

Top - Pentax *ist D Sigma 18 - 50 mm lens.

Second - Pentax Mx3n SLR - Sigma     28 - 125 mm lens

Third - Pentax Mx3n SLR - Sigma     28 - 125 mm lens