Club members with an interest in landscape photography met at Stiffkey Saltmarshes for sunset.
We visited this location last year at a similar time (blog post here) and it was very memorable for two reasons:
Firstly, it was the hottest ever day in the UK since records began.
Secondly, a shot from this location (below) would make it into the club’s 2022 annual exhibition at Norwich Cathedral, and I sold two prints of it during that event.
As far as the weather was concerned, this year was most certainly was different.
The forecast did not look favourable and one or two members decided to skip this one. I was tempted not to bother but really wanted to get out so I did. And I ended up being very pleased I made the effort.
En route, it started to rain and did not look good at all. However, we all had our waterproof coats and wellies/boots and made our way across the marsh.
As we had discovered last year, even during an extended hot period the surface can appear fine as in it looks dry, the marsh is perilously slippery under foot and care needs to be taken.
A club member who shall remain nameless did slip over last year and thankfully lived for another day!
The shoot
Below is the first shot most of us set up to take. A really pleasant golden light with some nice shapes on the marsh and signs of the sea lavender.
Although I try not to use them, a graduated filter was needed for this location and conditions as we had that classic issue of a bright sky and a dark foreground.
For the odd image where I couldn’t quite along the filter precisely on the horizon, a little brush work in Lightroom was used to lift the darkness caused by the filter.
As it was a little congested with photographers and tripods, some of us moved along the path and I wanted to capture this water pool with the reflection of the sky, and the wonderful sun rays displaying through the clouds.
We had a couple of pauses due to rain showers, one of which threw the water down at quite a speed.
Although I hadn’t brought my Goretex hooded waterproof that I wear most of the sunrise season, I did have a brolly that’s always in the boot of the car so had that to hand.
I grabbed a phone shot of the downpour which demonstrates how changeable the weather, conditions and light were on this evening.
A little further up the path and it was time to get the tripod down lower and rally grab a shot of that lovely sea lavender.
About Sea Lavender
Limonium vulgare, called common sea-lavender, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Limonium. A clumping perennial found in salt marshes and other maritime habitats
One benefit of cooler temperatures this year compared to last is that the sea lavender is more vibrant and in full bloom. Whereas last year, it was effectively scorched and quite dry.
The bridges
We then decided to navigate over to the bridges as that is usually where some more compositions can be had using a bridge as a subject of interest.
A few near miss slips and groin strain inducing leaps over water channels saw us reach that part of the marsh, and the vicinity of my exhibition shot from last year.
I didn’t want to do the same scene and composition again so looked for a different spot.
I quite liked the scene below which reminded me of a bunker on a gold course.
With hindsight, I should’ve moved my tripod a little to the right so as to avoid cutting of the right hand edge of the bunker.
Never mind, something to learn from for next time! I have self-confessed many times before that my compositional skills are one main area for me to improve on.
Next up, I grabbed my favourite shot of the evening below. We have an S curve leading line, reflections in the water, the bridge and a sun star with lovely colours. We have hints of sea lavender but maybe could’ve done with more?
Finally, with the desire to grab and capture sea lavender (have I mentioned that enough? 😂), I put my camera in portrait mode and took the shot below.
I really cannot be doing with focus stacking so I set an aperture of f/14 and try to obtain decent focus throughout the scene.
And that was a wrap
With the sun rapidly dropping, we declared that as a wrap and carefully made our way back across the slippery marshland and back to the car park.
A debrief back there led us to agreeing this had been a most enjoyable evening and this location is definitely worth repeat visits.
It’s surprising to think that before last years visit, I had never been to these marshes. In fact, I had in mind I would visit again but didn’t so I was pleased to go again this year.
I wonder what it’s like in Winter? One thing is for sure, it’s so slippery I think wellies and maybe even walking poles are highly recommended.
A lovely evening out with fellow club members and some keeper images in the bag!
Onwards and upwards…