Club members chose Gorleston as the next school night sunset trip.
We are now having to bring our meet times forward due to the increasingly rapid drawing in of the nights, and earlier sunset times. This signals a coming end to these weekday evening trips which is really sad but necessary.
We parked on the cliff top road which, just like the car park is free. Yes, you aren’t misreading this, Free! I’ve no idea how or why since every other car park across Norfolk is chargeable and the fees been ramped up last couple of years. Enjoy it while you can at this location!
The reason we parked on the road not the car park is because they lock the gate to the car park at around 9pm and we didn’t want to risk our cars being locked in.
I last did a shoot here in April 2021 which was a very early sunrise shoot.
About Gorleston
Gorleston-on-Sea, historically and colloquially known as Gorleston, is a seaside town in the borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England. It lies to the south of Great Yarmouth town centre, on the opposite side of the mouth of the River Yare.
Historically in Suffolk, it was a port town at the time of the Domesday Book. It was incorporated into Great Yarmouth in 1836. Gorleston’s port became a centre of fishing for herring along with salt pans used for the production of salt to preserve the fish.
In Edwardian times the fishing industry rapidly declined and the town’s role changed to that of a seaside resort.
The Beach
There’s a 2 mile stretch of beach and it’s the most Southerly part we would head for, walking down to the promenade from the car park and clifftop which only takes 5-10 minutes.
We got to the beach and headed for the groynes, the spread out to choose our own spots. I picked a spot on the beach in-between two groynes just to take in the views and take my time in deciding what to shoot.
Since I took a shot looking down one of the groynes and out to see on my last visit, I think I wanted a different view this time round.
I spotted the familiar shape of a cormorant sitting proud on top of a post in the distance, so switched to my long lens and grabbed a couple of shots.
I decided to get a shot across the beach as there were some signs of a reflection in the residual water on the beach, although it wasn’t going to replicate the recent epic shot from Happisburgh.
Quite a lot of tidying up was needed in post production to reduce the distracting elements on the sand and it’s a passable shot I think.
I then moved along one groyne to the next beach and couldn’t help myself by doing my favourite coastal shooting which is playing around with different shutter speeds to achieve patterns in the water.
When I’m doing these shots, I get carried away and totally lose myself shooting image after image. I knew I was spending a lot of time on these shots, and part of me felt I should stop and go and find something different, but what the heck? I was loving it, so why stop?
This next shot would be my choice to throw up on Instagram and I liked the sense of motion as well as the narrative that Sonic the Hedgehog was going for a swim!
The large expanse of foam was drifting around near me, and I quite liked the shot below which made my shortlist.
I think this might’ve been my overall favourite and I just wished I’d had a little more space between myself and the foam, or I had time to slightly reposition the tripod downwards to catch the whole foam in the shot.
With that, we declared it a wrap, packed up and headed back to the cars for a debrief. The sunset hadn’t been great, but as always the opportunity to meet up, shoot, chat, relax and enjoy the sea air was worth the drive.
I’ve had some epic shots recently that I think I’m expecting them every time I go out so there’s an element of needing to chill a bit, enjoy and appreciate the moment, and just enjoy the experience.
Onwards and upwards…