The NDPS monthly club shoot was at Sizewell in Suffolk.
With a meet time of 06:25, it meant rolling out of bed at 04:50.
I arrived on time although the last part of the journey was odd with the SatNav taking me on what felt like a circular tour of the countryside. This was because of the roads being reconfigured due to the construction works for Sizewell C.
As we arrived and got our stuff ready in the car park, it was pitch black so with head torches on, we made our way onto the beach.
It appeared we were possibly here too early but it gave extra time to have a look around and while some fellow photographers milled around near the boats, some of us walked further up and began our clicks on one of the former cooling towers that sit out at sea.
I’ve been deliberately mixing up my frame sizes when taking images recently in an attempt to force myself to think more about the scene in front of me.
This notion of shooting with an intentional crop/frame ratio is under the misconception that it might just improve my compositions as I’ve identified this as an improvement area for me.
While chatting to two fellow photographers, we began to realise what potential there is at this location for a wide variety of image subjects.
We turned our tripods round and started to capture the Sizewell buildings – below is a long exposure of Sizewell A.
We were chatting about the potential of the Sizewell B dome and while a fellow photographer was grabbing a zoomed in shot of it, I was fascinated by this leading line shape in the sand so grabbed it.
I really like the swirling leading line but overall the image isn’t as good as I was hoping it would be. Too much of the frame taken up with shingle, and the dome is too small to be insignificant.
Perhaps on my next visit, I will try a different angle to see if I can do something to improve the capture.
While we continued to chat about the potential for different types of images, my friend Pat suggested I try and use a long lens to capture the birds circling on one of the posts out at sea.
He suggested I capture them with a shutter speed such that the birds are blurred. This sounded like an interesting concept so I gave it a try.
I’ve tidied up the image and sharpened the post, and removed some of the birds.
I also felt the image looked better as a monochrome image.
The sky was a lovely colour now with the sunrise in full sing so I did another shot of the same tower but this time I wanted more drama in the waves.
With shots of waves aplenty, and my penchant for swooshery, I was really getting into the groove and enjoying this shoot.
I thought I ought to shoot the other cooling tower so with the waves crashing into the shore and my wellies keeping my feet and legs dry, I shot along the edge of the shingle.
A fellow photographer grabbed an action shot of Pat and I…
The rest of the group wandered over to see what we were up to and it seemed we were all done.
That was a wrap.
A debrief while supping our coffees was had in the car park and I resisted any bacon offerings from the on site café.
We had a very enjoyable morning and had been taken aback by the wide range potential of what can be captured at this location.
As we departed, it seemed the attractive cloudy sky could’ve meant spending more time here. We would at a later date discuss that we should have done but that’s hindsight.
On the way home, I drank tea from another flask and resisted those menacing Golden Arches fairly easily and when I got home, I had a most enjoyable nap.
All in all, a really good shoot.
Onwards and upwards…