St. Michael's Mount

St. Michael's Mount is a tidal island topped by a medieval castle and church, rising dramatically from Mount's Bay off the Cornish coast. The classic composition is from the causeway or the shoreline at Marazion, where you can use the wet sand at low tide to capture reflections of the mount in the shallow water. Shooting at golden hour gives you warm light raking across the granite walls, and sunrise from the eastern shore adds a soft glow behind the island. At high tide the causeway disappears and the mount sits fully surrounded by water, which makes for a cleaner, more isolated shot. A wide angle lens works well for capturing the full scene with foreground interest in the sand or rocks, while a short telephoto lets you compress the mount against the sky. The beach at Marazion is easy to access with parking nearby. (Marazion, Cornwall, United Kingdom)