Rapeseed Year
For the first time for a few years, we have rapeseed in the fields at Happisburgh surrounding the iconic lighthouse.
This brings beautiful bright golden vibrant yellow colours to the visitors eye.
We’re not totally bereft of golden colour tones as some years there’s been wheat/corn in the fields, but this cannot match the wow factor of rapeseed colour.
Visits
This appearance of rapeseed made it desirable to visit on multiple occasions where myself and some other photographers attempted to try and obtain some half-decent images.
In the end, I did three sunset visits and one sunrise visit.
Hipster Happisburgh
We have the benefit of this location being local to us so repeat visits should be an advantage.
I did smile when I observed Nigel Danson flew by as word had got around, although it feels as though he was rushing to finish his counties project, and that Norfolk and Suffolk perhaps got left until last.
Gary Gough also visited although he too was met with a plain sky, as we were on the sunrise shoot and one of the sunset shoots.
Aims
So the main aim obviously was capturing the gorgeous colours on show with the yellow rapeseed fields offsetting the red and white lighthouse.
A casual snapper can get a decent shot here as can be witnessed on social media, so what can more serious photographers do?
My theme of capturing something different is embedded in me where I think this will now stick as a permanent objective.
It’s common for photographers to want to capture some movement in the rapeseed, impressive sky with either good clouds, golden hour colours, or both.
So, did I meet my aim?
First Sunset
The first sunset provided some decent clouds and lovely sunset colours, and the shot below is my best of the evening.
I shot quite a few ICM images handheld – shall we call them “experimental”? Yes, let’s do that! 😳
We bumped into a fellow club photographer and I’ve captured them in this scene at the end of the evening.
Second Sunset
The second visit also presented some clouds and started with a classic shot trying to get some movement in the rapeseed.
I then got arguably my best shot of this visit with this ICM zoom burst.
I got the drone up to get this next shot.
Third Sunset
The third sunset saw a plain (cloud free) sky with a long-lasting bright sun.
We spent quite a while waiting around so I got the drone up.
I think the image above is one of my best.
As the sun dropped, I grabbed a bracketed shot.
Sunrise Shoot
We had a club visiting at sunrise which ended up being quite disappointing as there was no cloud and quite flat conditions.
I once again started with a standard scene trying to blur the rapeseed.
Since the conditions were flag, I tried an infrared shot and have tried to play with the colour channels to see if I could produce something different.
It was time to get the drone up and I started by trying to shoot the lighthouse by hovering just above the rapeseed.
I don’t think it produced anything wow, but I am pleased with the next shot.
All in all, I’m pleased that I grabbed a couple of half decent drone images plus something different in the zoom burst, which has been well received online.
Getting something different is doubly important since so many photographers have descended on Happisburgh to capture the rapeseed, so shots of just the rapeseed field in front of the lighthouse are ten a penny.
Until next time, when it will likely be seascapes on the beach.
Onwards and upwards…