NDPS club members met at Happisburgh for a sunset shoot.
A quick Look at my blog will show nine previous shoots at Happisburgh with six being at sunset.
My best shots of this evening, or rather the ones I like appear to have happened at the start and end of the shoot.
While many members went straight for a lighthouse shot, myself and a fellow photographer decided to walk along the clifftop path to see what our eyes could find.
For my first shot, and possibly my favourite of the evening, I shot this plant sticking up near the edge of the clifftop, and deliberately in focus with a passing ship in the background out of focus.
I have a version of this same composition with the plant out of focus and the ship in focus but for no reason, other than I can!
After spending quite a lot of time on this scene, I decided to look around more, but I didn’t see much else that looked worthy of a click.
The fields behind me are crops and there are some pleasing slopes and channels but nothing wow – the following shot demonstrates this point.
It was time to walk back along the clifftop, but before we did, I thought the path to the top of the hill looked like a decent leading line.
The lady walking her dog was a handy point of interest, so I shot as quickly as I could to capture her.
I then spotted from distance, a couple walking along the beach, and thought it may be good to have beach shot with those folks in the scene.
We wandered back up the path to where the rest of club members were gathering to shoot the lighthouse as the sun started to drop.
When in Happisburgh, it’s hard to ignore the lighthouse shot, especially if there’s a good sky!
As I fired off some shots here, a fellow photographer suggested I turn around and consider a shot of the flowers and pillbox.
I quite like this shot, maybe as a second choice to the first shot of the evening as mentioned at the start of this blog.
However, on further viewing, I think there are issues with the capture.
There’s too much grass. There’s not really a strong enough focal point. Is it the pillbox? Is it the ship? Is it one or more specific flowers? What’s the story?
Following another recommendation, I shot these flowers lit by the LED torch on my phone.
And that was a wrap.
We packed up, headed back to our cars for the usual debrief.
It had been a good evening, and one in which some of us had made efforts to capture different things.
One member had asked us on arrival at Happisburgh: “So, what are we going shoot?” My reply was “Anything you like…”
This made us realise that regular outings were making us think of, and find new things, new ideas, be more creative.
Fellow photographers should embrace trying to get out more, shoot, then shoot some more.
It reminds of the following lyric within the song Accept Yourself by The Smiths:
Anything is hard to find, when you will not open your eyes. (1983, Morrissey & Marr).
Onwards and upwards…