On our return from Lisbon, it was time to pick up a local trip and get back on the trail of summer sunsets.
Fellow club member David suggested Happisburgh as the forecast looked favourable so a small group of us met there.
This visit would concentrate on shots of the lighthouse and not the beach.
We walked from the car park and along the top of the cliff, with the ongoing observations of how aggressively the cliff is being eroded and pushed back.
The evening sky and golden hour sunlight was stunning, and for this first shot I decided to leave the grasses in the foreground for a little variation rather than zoom in.
The next shot involved slowing down the shutter speed (1/10sec) to deliberately allow some movement in the crops and sky.
Moving around and away from the clifftop, I moved along and near the car park. Time to get the filters out and try a long exposure to get movement in the clouds.
For my final shot of the ending, I walked up the path that leads up to the lighthouse. I used the path as a leading line, and a long exposure to again get movement in the clouds but I also wanted to capture the lighthouse light flashing.
An 83 seconds shot did the job and I’m very pleased with the end result.
Final thoughts
Happisburgh can be viewed as a bit of cliché for many photographers as the location has been photographed so much over the years.
Even at our club, there’s sometimes been in jokes about “Please, no more Happisburgh images…”.
We chatted about this on the night and agreed that this place can never Ben photographed enough. We had an epic night of dramatic sky and clouds with a gloriously warm sunset with golden hour light and enjoyed every minute.
There are also so many composition opportunities, and we agreed we could return when the crop has turned colour.
It’s a case of there will be another Happisburgh blog and images, not if!
Onwards and upwards…