Another trip further afield was chosen for the latest sunrise trip.
Dovercourt in Essex was the location and with a meet time of 07:15, it meant a roll out of bed at 05:00. Ouch!
About Dovercourt
Dovercourt is a seaside town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Harwich, in the Tendring district, in the county of Essex, England. It is older than its smaller but better-known neighbour, the port of Harwich, and appears in the Domesday Book of 1086. Today the towns are contiguous. In 1921 the parish had a population of 7695.
Dovercourt is a seaside resort which offers shops and cafes for visitors and residents. The main shopping area is The High Street, with shops from independents to the national chains. The town is served by Dovercourt railway station.
Dovercourt lighthouses
In 1863 Trinity House erected a pair of cast iron screw-pile lighthouses on the beach, used until 1917 to guide ships around Landguard Point. They served as leading lights and functioned in conjunction with a third lighthouse (a sector light established in 1861) on Landguard Point itself: from seaward the two Dovercourt lights aligned indicated the initial course of approach; vessels would keep to this course until the colour of the Landguard light was seen to change from red to white, whereupon the vessel would take a northerly course into Harwich Haven.
When first built the Dovercourt lights used oil lamps and reflectors, and both displayed a fixed (i.e. steady) light. In 1878 the High Light was improved with the installation of a prismatic lens assembly, and in the early 1900s it was given a flashing characteristic following the introduction of gas, in place of oil, as the illuminant for both lights.
In 1917 Harwich Harbour Board took over responsibility for navigation marks in the vicinity and chose to mark the deep-water channel with a series of lighted buoys, rendering the lighthouses redundant. The lights were discontinued, but the structures left in situ.
In 1975 both lighthouses were designated as a scheduled monument, together with the stone causeway which runs between them. They were restored in the 1980s; however, following a detailed survey they were placed on Historic England‘s Heritage at Risk Register in 2019.
The Shoot
Free car parking is available alongside the beach promenade which is handy as it’s only a few steps to walk to get onto the beach.
Obviously, the lighthouse structure is the main target and I’ve only been here once before back in 2020.
2020 Shots
2024 Shots
The guys had all strolled quickly onto the beach and we were in pre-sunrise blue hour.
I decided to get some shots of Felixstowe docks, and noticed there were some reflections of the cranes in the water.
I wanted to get a shot with more of the cranes in view so grabbed the one below:
I stayed on the promenade slope to grab my first capture of the lighthouse.
I was enjoying taking a few shots from the slope near the promenade while my fellow photographers were all on the beach.
I saw this dog walker and their dog and thought it was worth grabbing a shot.
I decided to try a few ICM shots…
This next one might be the best given how prominent the lighthouse part of the image has come out?
I moved down onto the beach and got closer to the reflection in the water.
Trying to think more carefully about my composition, I took the following shot deliberately getting the sand/shingle to arc down the bottom of the scene to the corner.
Moving closer to the rocks, there were some amazing reflections in the water, as well as ripples in the sand.
I did quite a lot of shots here, and found the groyne to the right very irritating and challenging.
It was time to turn my camera to portrait mode (L brackets come into their own here) and I think this next shot is a winner.
I had reached for the polariser but realised I hardly ever think to do that for seascapes.
The tide was racing in fast and the reflection was long gone. I grabbed the shot below using the seaweed as foreground interest.
I had to retreat as the tide was moving fast so I got the following shot, again trying to get a nice curvature in the shingle – it probably needs another crop to take out a little more of the right hand side.
As the light was now a lot brighter, the filters were out and I decided to do some longer exposures.
I really like these shots, but I think thanks to the blown out nature of the sun, they will not be ones I put into a club competition.
I have another variation on this shot where I’ve captured a sunstar too but I think the over exposed sunlight across the water has spoilt it – well, as in a photography judge wouldn’t like it but casual viewers may find it agreeable.
The sun light casting across the water is quite extreme in terms of blow out and also impact on the edit. Both of the above images make it appear like I’ve aggressively edited that part of the image, but I haven’t. I’ve done nothing.
This is disappointing as I think a winning image could’ve been grabbed from this if only I could’ve controlled that light. I’m not sure if I could’ve achieved it though.
The morning light was harsh at this point and I didn’t check the exposure as diligently as I could’ve done. I also don’t have any stronger filters, and I didn’t think to take multiple exposures as another option!
Thoughts on the Shoot
I was initially quite sceptical about this location.
It’s a long journey of 3.5-4 hours round trip and I thought that we would be limited in shots of just the lighthouse. However, the sunrise was great and the morning light lovely so we had plenty of compositions and choices for shots.
Yes, the lighthouse invariably features but it’s more about what else is in the shot, the scene, and its supporting features.
We made our way back to our cars to decamp, get our flasks and have a debrief.
I saw a fellow photographer was getting his last few shots.
We all agreed it has been a fabulous morning.
It was time for the drive home and guess what was next?
Yes, the nearest Golden Arches was found on the SatNav and a stop off for a comfort break, a coffee, and a mighty muffin was a good prep for the drive back.
I got home and had a couple of hours catch up kip and was pleased with what I achieved and learnt from this outing.
Onwards and upwards…