Following our visit to Cobbold’s Point, we made our way to Landguard Point.
We were excited to visit this location as we’d never been before and knew we’d be able to see the view of the Felixstowe container port.
There’s a lot to see at this location: the beach, the port, the fort, the fort museum, the radar tower, the shoreline, the nature reserve, and the remains of an old railway jetty.
As you walk onto the beach near the car park, you are met with the dramatic view of the container port. The scale of it is quite a sight with hundreds of containers, huge lifts and usually a container ship in port being loaded or unloaded.
As I had decided to walk around with my Fuji camera and do handheld shots, I grabbed a shot of the port trying to capture a small wave inbound on the shoreline.
As we were here soaking up the amazingly warm sunny day for this time of year, we stayed here for a bit and enjoyed an ice cream whilst watching what was going on.
I grabbed this shot of a container ship leaving port for its destination, probably somewhere thousands of miles away.
Kathryn wanted to go into the fort museum and I wanted to wander up the beach and explore, particularly as there is a club landscape shoot at the point here next year. So we decided to do our own thing and meet up later on.
As I walked up the beach, I did some shots of the fort along the way. The fort has a long history in protecting the port all the way back to Henry VIII – see here for more info.
As I continued, I grabbed a shot of the radar tower and tried to capture an income wave too.
There was a section of the sea wall where the waves splashed up created some interesting patterns, so I tried to catch the wave just at the right time to make an interesting shot.
I was enjoying just experimenting with different shots trying to capture details in the waves.
The Fuji camera I’ve got forces you to be creative with it’s fixed lens/focal length, and built in ND filter. The latter enables you to use a slower shutter speed, even in harsh light providing you can keep a steady hand.
Without built in image stabilisation, you have to keep a shutter speed in the order of 1/30secs or there might be image blur.
Walking further up, I noticed what looked like a sailing ship and took some images trying to get it in the right spot in the scene.
I was also trying to get the triangular top of the post in line with the horizon, as I’d seen a fellow club member produce an image where he had done this to great effect.
I walked up Landguard Point and took a few images of the old railway jetty.
The timber structure once carried rail lines to the end of the jetty. Hand pushed trucks were moved along the lines carrying mines which were then placed out to sea to protect the Port from unwanted visitors.
I didn’t do any shots at the end of the jetty as I wanted to save that for the club trip.
I met Kathryn back near the car park where we shared our respective experiences, and we both agreed that a return visit is a must do next time we’re in the area.
Onwards and upwards…