We decided it was time for a trip further afield so Felixstowe was chosen with a meet at 07:15.
The meet time with an hour and half drive meant a rise and shine time of 05:20!
It was dark as I arrived at the car park near the Felixstowe docks and although I made good time arriving at 07:10, the guys were already there and most suited and booted and ready to rock ‘n’ roll!
We sorted out our car park tickets and luckily I already had the particular app this car park demanded and £3.20 would get me 4 hours so no sweat.
As we wandered along the side of the beach, some of the guys stopped to photograph the lit up docks with a container point in dock.
Some of us didn’t fancy that so kept walking but in doing so, I glanced back to observe it look a good shot from further away than when I did this last time – see previous blog here.
A narrower aperture meant I would easily capture star lights.
Following post-production, I have wondered if the black and white version is better? However, there are such vivid colours on offer, it’s hard to turn down the colour version as the best one.
I thought it was quite amusing that three of the guys who were walking away from this scene spotted me stopping for a shot so walked back to do it themselves! Fair enough, free country.
We walked up to Landguard Point and most of my fellow photographers (there were a lot of us on this outing) decided to go for the beach view of the jetty first. So I decided to look more closely at the jetty itself.
There’s a new concrete path and railing on the earlier part of the old railway line / jetty so the approach is a lot more accessible.
The view below is a classic one I would think.
I thought while I was in this position I would try a bit of ICM, and I quite like the effect I’ve got here, even though my usual unannounced model unknowingly posed for me.
Moving to the beach, I walked a little further up to start shooting the jetty with some swooshery waves.
The sky was changing all the time, and to our advantage.
I tried a longer exposure to see if I could get movement in the sky, but I like the minimalism in this scene.
I got a few very good swooshery shots such as that shown below.
What was amazing was how the sky was bringing us different scenes. I really love the streak of sun shining through the surrounding rain clouds.
I did my last few shots in the position where many fellow photographers were standing earlier, and below is one of my favourites.
We packed up and headed back to the car park, then we went into View Point Café for breakfast.
I can highly recommend it – I had a Fishermen’s breakfast with mushrooms as an extra and that perked me up for the drive home.
Great timing as we left was that the weather turned and it started to rain, but who cares at this point?
I made my way home and no need for the Golden Arches to snatch my money as I’d had a cooked breakfast and a good chat with the guys.
An afternoon snooze caught up on shuteye and some photo editing – all in all, a great trip.
Onwards and upwards…