Southwold on the Suffolk coast was the location of choice for this week’s landscape group pick. Southwold is so iconic as a photography location with the Pier always being the centre of attention.
The last two visits for me have been in 2022 on Christmas Eve, and in 2021 on New Year’s Eve.
We met up before 06:00 and in the dark, wandered down to the beach to take a look either side the Pier.
As the sky started to lighten up, we started to get set up. Most of the guys were pitching at the usual spot pointed at the Pier with the rocks in the foreground.
I didn’t really want to do this shot again, so walked a little further up the beach alongside the beach huts to see what a different view may looks like.
I set up and started taking a few shots trying to get my usual ‘swooshery’ of waves and textures and then I realised that the lights from the Pier were reflecting in the wet sand. I started to experiment with different shutter speeds.
Once again, one of my first shots would be my best of the visit, and I am very pleased with this capture – something different, and my best of the shoot
The timing of the above shot had to be spot on to ensure the water was receding to catch the maximum reflections.
The following two shots are my picks from many where I was trying to get some ‘Swooshery’!
I took a lot of shots here and have converted many to black and white, and have played around with some different looks.
At this point I felt I should move to another position, and quite fancied moving to the other side of the Pier.
I said I didn’t want to do the classic shot but as I walked past, I couldn’t resist grabbing the shot below.
I walked to the other side of the Pier and set up to take several shots. There was a workshop taking place so quite a few folks on this part of the beach. Staying out meant thinking how I could make the best of the scene in front of me.
I decided to stick the filters on and see if a longer exposure would bring out some movement in the sky. The shot below is my best from this position and was a 77sec long exposure.
As my last shot, I took one of the naval ship which was anchored to the spot.
And with that, we called it a wrap.
I very much enjoyed a revisit to Southwold and I think there’s a lot of variety to be had at this location if you look hard enough.
I was thrilled to get the shot with the reflections as I feel it was something different and pretty pleased with the capture.
Onwards and upwards…