This weekend brought a double up, a double bubble. Back-to-back sunrise shoots! The previous blog describes the Saturday shoot at Caister-on-Sea.
For the Sunday, two of us decided against a club trip to Suffolk as it would’ve been just shy of a four hour drive all round, so we picked a location with a round trip of less than a quarter of that one.
Cart Gap was the location chosen and the forecast looked favourable, and a similar meet time to the previous day at Caister of 07:00.
About Cart Gap
Set between the better known beach of Happisburgh and ever popular Sea Palling is a somewhat unspoilt gem – Cart Gap beach.
As with all the beaches along this stretch of coast Cart Gap is lovely sandy beach. It also faces the same issues with erosion so the beach is divided up by wooden groynes and backed by a seawall.
If you fancy a stroll along the beach you can pretty much go as far as you like in either direction. The beach here may change its name every mile or so, but in reality it is one long stretch of sand most of the way around the Norfolk coast.
The beach is the site of the RNLI Happisburgh Lifeboat Station, although there is no lifeguard service at the beach. The original lifeboat station was in Happisburgh itself but the site was swallowed up by the relentless coastal erosion.
The Shoot
Parking in the car park near the lifeboat station, we walked the short distance to the ramp leading down to the beach.
The sky was looking very promising and we walked the Sea Palling side of the beach to start searching for our first composition.
The long concrete seawall is a familiar sight to those who know Cart Gap. As the sky started to unfold, we were treated to a stunning spectacle of orange, blue and pink.
I took the shot below trying to showcase the seawall and its curvature in the distance but also feature the rocks, and once again one of my earliest shots in my best one.
I walked a bit further up and grabbed another shot.
I turned to my left and decided to take a shot of the groyne and rocks. Odd shot this with the sea defence path in the foreground.
Wandering into the beach, there’s a closer shot.
I continued walking back towards Happisburgh and took this shot featuring the staircase. I don’t think much of this shot, but my wife Kathryn likes it.
As the morning advanced, the sunrise sky was evolving from the earlier deep pink to more of an orange and obviously brighter.
I felt the urge to take a shot with a similar composition to the first one of the morning but I liked the footsteps in the sand as well as the rocks for a leading line.
One of my final shots was some classic swooshery with a rock as foreground interest.
There was a ship on the horizon and I took a few shots to include that in the frame, but they weren’t anything particularly interesting.
Sharing the Beach
There had been quite a few dog walkers this morning and it’s interesting to note that when on the beach and close to the sea or groyne, often the dog owners aren’t too concerned about just walking straight in front of the camera.
I guess we don’t “own” the beach but a little hint of courtesy would occasionally be nice.
A fellow photographer talks about an incident where a dog wandered up to his camera bag and urinated on it. He is adamant that a future incident may involve his tripod being used in a way it wasn’t intended!
Having said that, as we all think of that now when a dog runs close, many of us tend to wear our rucksacks while shooting, although an incoming tide also adds to the rationale for that, as it would obviously be disastrous for sea water to run over our bags.
I know another photographer who had a jogger deliberately run right past and very close to his tripod leaving footprints in the sand and his shot when he was composing a shot with clear sand.
Although the uncaring and discourteous nature of that at the time was annoying, his shot scored from that morning earnt him maximum points in a club POTY competition.
It’s a Wrap!
A wrap was called, and we headed back to the car for a coffee and a chat.
With this shoot done, we headed home.
The Golden Arches would not receive another donation today as I decided to show some restraint and avoid a repeat Bacon experience.
Back home, I slid back into bed for a little catchup on the shuteye.
I had enjoyed this shoot and this weekend had brought me two awesome and yet different sunrise skies and shoots.
Onwards and upwards…