Photographer
Bexhill Beach.
Some fabulous rock formations are exposed when the tide is out and yes I was stood in the water, wellies on of course. It was this shot that I believe the second of my tripod’s rubber feet got lost!
Filters used: ND4 + ND4 Grad. Processed in Lightroom 5.
Thanks for stopping by.
Yes, your truly managed to pull himself out of bed for another mornings shoot. This time I wanted to make some images at a stretch of beach between Hastings and Bexhill, having passed this beach many times on the train and seeing the large amount of rock exposed while the tide is out I had to make a visit. Once again the sky was too clear for my liking but this was not that much of a problem as there was more than enough going on in the foreground. I arrived at the beach while it was still dark to give me plenty of time to look for the best spot, and just as it was starting to get light I happened upon this area, where there was a nice mix of rock, sand ripples and water. Happy with my location I went about trying to find the best composition.
I was most pleased to find this patch where the sand and water seems to sweep around the bottom of the picture. I took this landscape version first then took the vertical shot (above). I like both versions but there is something about the vertical one that seems to connect the viewer to the scene even more, a greater sense of ‘being there’ perhaps. Maybe that’s just me though.
Having tried a few different compositions I headed out to the waters edge in an attempt to get some misty water action, but alas the tide (once again) was too calm. Due to the increase in light my exposures were rapidly getting shorter and by the time I found this group of rocks I was lucky if I got a couple of seconds at f22.
All of this happened before the sun had got over the horizon; in fact when it did rise the atmosphere had all but evaporated and I ended up tripping the shutter only a couple more times. Happy with my results I packed up and headed for home and a nice mug of coffee.
‘iso200 50mm 4sec at f16’
So it’s 5.30am Sunday morning and my alarm had just gone off. With one thing and another it has been quite a while since I’ve had the chance to get up early to do some photography, but today I’m making a concerted effort to get out there. The weather this past week has been absolutely superb and is due to continue for a few days more, so I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to make the most of it. With camera bag all packed and ready to go I threw on some clothes, grabbed my hiking shoes and set off out.
‘iso200 50mm 4sec at f22’
Winchelsea beach is only about a 15-20 min drive from my house but even so, by the time I reached the car park it was already beginning to get light, though sunrise still was still some time to go. I grabbed my bag and tripod and quickly headed for the beach. Great, the tide was in and the waves were still gently lapping around the now rather worn wooden posts. This is one of those locations where you want the tide to be in if you want to get nice shots of water around the posts. It’s a great location when the tide is out too if long stretches of sandy beach is what you’re after.
I was a little worried about how the sky would look as there wasn’t a cloud to be seen, but there was just enough transition in colour to keep it interesting as long as I composed to have the horizon around a third down from the top. In fact this is what I wanted as my aim was to get some long exposures to try to turn the water misty and add more atmosphere to the already gorgeous colours. The exposures for the most part were around 4-6 seconds at either f16 orf22, so certainly long enough for the water to blur but the sea was just a little too calm for my liking and I didn’t get as much mist as I would’ve liked, larger waves would’ve done the job.
‘iso200 50mm 4sec at f22’
As you can see I did move around a bit trying slightly different compositions, and after about half an hour or so and being quite pleased with some of the results I packed up my gear and headed back towards Pett Level and the old WW2 pill box…
Last Tuesday I met up with my cousin Steve and his friend Graham for a spot of photography down at Birling Gap. The tide was set to be going out during our evening and so would maximise our opportunity for getting some nice shots both before and after sunset. The weather had different plans though and was changing every couple of hours, though this was not a problem as it had the potential to produce a lot of different lighting situations for us to work with. In the end it just turned a flat grey with all the atmosphere disappearing, however, when we arrived there was a lovely slightly golden colour to the light, though it was rather windy. We decided that it was perhaps a little too bright to start taking pictures towards the sun and so we started walking in the opposite direction looking for shots. After a short while the three of us had spread out to look for our own shots which is when I spotted this old buoy in the distance ( thought at the time I wasn’t exactly sure what it was). Being a dereliction fan I decided I must go and photograph it and so with camera and tripod slung over my shoulder I started to walk very carefully towards it. The terrain was quite awkward to navigate with the rocks being covered by seaweed, making it very slippery under foot and could’ve had me end up with quite a bruised bottom or worse had I not been paying attention. After about five minutes I safely reached my destination. I was so glad I made the trip out, if nothing else I would come away happy having just got these shots.
I decided that the best way to approach the subject would be to get down low and so I went about setting my tripod to its lowest position with the legs spread right out and the bottom of the centre column removed; a nice feature of my Velbon Sherpa. Although the low position was good for my composition the same could not be said for how comfortable I was, being crouched down with feet balanced precariously on the rocks trying to look through the viewfinder without putting my back out. One of those angle finder thingys would’ve been very useful indeed.
Though I could’ve got away without it I decided that I would bracket my shots, which turned out to be the right move as there was just enough exposure latitude to blow out the sky if I composed shots with mostly ground filling the frame. I could’ve used a graduated filter but I need to purchase a new adapter ring to fit my filter holder onto my Sigma. I processed all three shots you see here both normally and by using Photomatix, but comparing them side by side in Lightroom I ended up preferring the HDR versions as they seem to have a little more punch.
More to come from Birling Gap soon. Thanks for stopping by.
Edit: since posting I’ve come to the conclusion that it is more likely to be an old boiler, rather than a buoy.
Dave Wares 