It has not been long since I returned from a short trip to Asturias on the northern coast of Spain. The trip was not focused on photography and the weather did its best to make taking out my camera senseless, but I still managed to bring home a few shots that I really like. Here’s one of them.

Before I tell you about the image I gotta thank José Fernandez: He supplied me with all the information about the area I could possibly need. He suggested places to visit, sent me tidetables and also took the time to go out with me for a sunset shoot. Throughout the hole trip he constantly kept me up to date with possible locations considering the current weather and tides. I felt like being guided into the right direction all the time, which was very helpful given the fact that I went on the trip without any real preparation apart from booking a flight and a car. José proofed that he knows the asturian coast like probably no one else (at least no other photographer). Make sure to take a look at his blog and website, you’ll find a lot of inspiring stuff there – but please don’t blame me if you instantly feel the urge to book a trip to Asturias.

I had been to Playa Gueirúa the evening before to do some scouting. The tide was low during this first visit and I knew, that due to the wide tidal range the beach would look way different at sunrise when the tide would be high. With that in mind I was quite excited on my way from the little village Santa Marina, where I had left my car, to the beach. I was walking through the dark of the night and dusk only slowly started painting structures onto the landscape when I reached the bottom of the steps leading down to where I had been the day before. It was just about then, when I realized that I would have to start at zero – the part of the beach I had been scouting the day before was completely submerged. I’d have to improvise.

Luckily, unlike other beaches in Asturias, Playa Gueirúa offers shooting possibilities both at low and high tide (and probably anything in between). I simply followed a short but steep path down to another part of Gueirúa, where I could see the waves crashing on a pebbly beach with a few larger rocks in between. When I arrived, I knew this was the right place to set up my camera: beautifully textured rocks and waves in the foreground, ragged cliffs in the background. The main attraction was a red-ish rock that I used as an anchor for most of my compositions. I spent a bit more than an hour shooting there, my bare feet steadily getting colder, while the waves were washing around the rocks painting a slightly different pattern onto every exposure.