A fellow photographer and I decided to meet at Cromer for a sunrise shoot, meeting at 07:00.
I had been to Cromer recently with my wife Kathryn for an afternoon walkabout and enjoyed it so I was happy to take another look.
We parked on the clifftop with the bonus of being able to park on the road alongside the clifftop.
Walking down the staircase to the promenade, we scouted out the rocks and had a look around wondering if it was worth waiting for more light.
We noticed the pier lights were on and headed over to it – I had never got a classic early morning shot on the pier and I was excited to see if it would be possible this morning.
I went straight in to line up a composition with symmetry in mind.
I am very pleased with one of my early captures below, and many shots on the pier would grab starbursts from the lights.
As you will see from the settings above, you don’t always need a narrow aperture. Although some of the shots coming up will be f/18 or f/20.
I’ve run this image through Nik Color Efex and Silver Efex to stumble into the ‘binocular’ vibe of this image.
Having got the classic symmetrical shot, I started to move around the pier.
I grabbed the following shots for which I have produced colour and mono versions, and I really like the prominence and wet look appearance of the decking.
I walked further along the pier to take a shot looking through the tables and towards the café entrance.
I then did an about turn as I wanted to shoot back towards Cromer.
I first captured a similar scene to earlier of just one of the huts.
Then I wanted to include Cromer town in the background so grabbed the following shot.
I like this image but think next time I need to just ensure the church and the lamp post are more separated.
We were enjoying the scenes we were capturing on the pier, but could also see a lovely pink colour increasingly emerging from the morning sky.
We left the pier and wandered along the promenade scouting for things that could be a good capture.
As we reached the lifeboat café, we decided to go up to the beach huts to see if any of the morning light would shine onto and reflect off the huts.
The hoped for sunlight casting a beam onto the huts didn’t materialise so we grabbed a few shots of the huts and some of the pier and beach looking back.
It was time to launch the drone so landing mat out, a quick check of the apps for conditions and restrictions and up we went.
Cromer from the drone has been on my bucket list for a while so I was excited to fly.
I got some good video footage and flew towards the pier, and grabbed the following panoramic shot.
Although it’s a bracketed shot, and despite some failed attempts with upscaling, I would like to get a better quality image in future. However, I am pleased to have grabbed the scene.
I had just initiated a different pano shot when I suddenly got a wind warning from the drone console.
Not wanted to lose my drone in the North Sea, I initiated the ‘return home’ command and within seconds of it starting to fly back the wind warning stopped.
It appears I panicked unnecessarily but I had achieved my base level objective of getting that image, and knew there would be other opportunities in future.
After landing the drone, and with my camera still on the tripod, I took a couple of final shots from our position looking back at Cromer and the pier.
And that was a wrap.
We walked back along the promenade and back to our cars exactly the same way we had arrived.
We chatted about the morning and were both very pleased with the visit and what we had captured.
A very rewarding morning which for me included snaring some long sought after shots.
I had a coffee from my flask and then like a person hypnotised, I far too willingly drove up to worship at the church of the Golden Arches with my debit card.
”Past the pub that saps your body, and the church who’ll snatch your money, the Queen is dead boys, and it’s so lonely on a limb.”
Morrissey & Marr. (1986). The Smiths: The Queen is Dead.
Onwards and upwards…