Southwold was the chosen location this time round, and with a meet up for 06:30 for a 07:00ish sunrise, it meant a roll out of bed at 05:10.
Rather than head for pier area at Southwold which we’ve done a few times, we aimed for the famous Gun Hill beach huts.
I’ve never photographed here before other than once in passing casually with a handheld camera and that was during the daytime.
We arrived and had a good scout around for compositions before setting up and capturing images.
My first shot was a straightforward one with a diagonal leading line and the huts on view.
Moving to the left of this position probably resulted in a more pleasing composition.
The sun was rising now and we had a somewhat odd open cloud on a part of the horizon with very bright light shining through. It was like a vortex providing an gap in the sky for the sun rays to shine through.
A van drove up to our left to empty the bins near the cafe and I quite like the light from the headlamps shining on the sand.
I moved even further left alongside a fence and took another shot – a filter was needed at this point as the light over the horizon was extremely bright.
I’ve had a look at a mono conversion for a couple of these shots but I’m unsure if black and white is appropriate given the lovely colours of the huts.
Time for Drone-foolery
Having checked the relevant apps to ensure flying was permitted and the wind speed was OK, I got my drone out and prepared for take off.
There was little doubt about the wind speed being OK, as it was a very calm morning.
My intention was to capture video and stills and I’m still a little anxious as this was only my third flight. To be fair though, for simple flights, you can’t really go wrong.
I got the first still image up high and to the right looking back at where we were.
I got some interesting overhead shots of the beach huts:
I’ve got another below but with the huts straight on.
I got a capture from lower down but this one isn’t anywhere near as compelling as the ones above.
I flew the drone a bit further up the shore taking in this part of the town and beach.
While you’re flying at the coast, there must be some unwritten rules that you need to take a ‘looking down’ shot.
It’s probably a novelty at the moment, but its addictive.
It was time to hit the return to home button on the drone and get it back to base.
One last image was grabbed looking back just past the landing area.
That’s a Wrap
After landing, we got back to the car parking area, decamped and chatted over coffee.
It had been a most enjoyable morning.
I left Southwold pleased that I had stills and drone video/stills to look at later on.
Ronald snatched my money for a breakfast, although those PFY’s (Pimply-Faced Youths) managed to magic my order of a double bacon McMuffin into a sausage one.
And since I went into the Golden Arches establishment for an urgent comfort break, grabbing one of those little pots of BBQ sauce on the way back to my car, I managed to spill it down myself.
Never mind, it hit the spot eventually and later on that day, I had a couple of hours of Zzzzz to revive myself.
Onwards and upwards…