My third sunrise shoot was a fierce get up at 03:50 with a meet of 05:00 in Gorleston-on-Sea. Despite an unexpected road closure of the eastbound A47, I followed the diversion along the A146 Lowestoft road and across via Hales and made it only a few minutes late.
Meeting the guys on the cliff top at Gorleston, we made our way to the beach and set up ready for our initial shots. Although cloudy, the sun did eventually make an appearance above the horizon for some good shots with the groyne in front of us. A variety of shots were possible with longer exposures to smooth out the sea, or more natural looking waves.
My favourite shot was one with the latter style. Looking around my position, I think I’m the only one not be using graduated neutral density filters. I’ve had GND filters in previous years, but rarely used them. They are fiddly to use, and since I’ve watched a few YouTubers giving them up, I’ve decided to do that too.
Where necessary, I will take multiple shots and blend them in post production. What sold me on giving up my GNDs was that making a mistake in aligning them with the horizon, or applying the filter effect to an object in sight is a destructive process, I.e. You can’t reverse it. I’m obviously in the minority adopting this stance, and maybe one day I’ll regret it but all good so far.
Moving a few paces away, and adjusting so that the groyne was to my left, one or two shots of the inbound waves retreating back to the sea was enjoyable.
We then walked further down the beach behind the wooden sea defences to take some shots of the water crashing through. A particularly strong wave caught me out and splashed over my head and shoulder. More worryingly, I knew my camera had caught some of that wave but a quick look revealed just surface water and a wipe down showed nothing to worry about.
The new 24-200mm lens produced some good shots and the focal length flexility was very handy. An enjoyable morning with fellow NDPS members and news that the next few shoots will be sunsets rather than sunrises! Yay!
A leisurely drive back via a stop for breakfast and coffee courtesy of Ronald saw me back home around 09:00 where I crashed back to bed for a couple of hours of shut eye.