Club members met for an evening shoot at Stiffkey Salt Marshes on the North Norfolk coast, on what turned out to be the hottest day on record in the UK.
The annual trip for the club at this time of year is usually somewhere in North Norfolk to capture the sea lavender.
Sitting on the coast within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the village of Stiffkey is renowned for its saltmarsh, one of the country’s richest in wildlife. This is due to the twisting muddy creeks which are flooded daily by the tide.
Stiffkey (or Stookey) a it’s known locally sits between Blakeney and Wells-next-the-Sea. The muddy areas of the marsh are perfect for cockle beds to grow. One of the famous outputs to those in the know are the Stookey Blue, cockles whose shell has a blue tinge.
Protected by many national and international designations, the vast expanse of pristine saltmarsh and huge horizons, owned by the National Trust, form part of the Blakeney National Nature Reserve.
I’d never been to the marshes before having only really driven through Stiffkey on the way to somewhere else.
We set off from the car park to find the hot weather had dried to top surface of the marsh, but underneath that was slippery mud so care was needed under foot.
Once you reach the marshes, you have to find a path, or wind your way over the marsh being careful of water pools.
I immediately spotted several long narrow wooden bridges which would provide some potential mid or background interest of sea lavender was to be the prominent foreground.
Next up, I quite liked this pool of water surrounded by sea lavender and the path to the left leading to the first bridge.
I moved round to another larger water pool and as the sun was starting to drop, it made a lovely backdrop. Out came the graduated filters as I needed to calm down the really bright sky.
We had plenty of time here as sunset was this side of 9:30pm. I noticed around 8:30pm-ish, both the temperature and light dropped.
The heat we felt on arriving was now a more pleasant warm temperature with a gentle breeze.
I found I needed to raise my ISO setting in order to keep the shutter speed up to avoid blur in the sea lavender which did move around in the breeze.
Moving further round, I got the shot below which I like due to the winding leading line provided by the water.
I decided to switch from my 14-30mm wide angle to a more versatile 24-120mm.
In the same area, I really liked this patch of cracked mud where a water pool had dried up. The sun was beginning to set and really like the sky in this shot.
I decided to stay in this spot as the sun was dipping really quickly now, so I did several more shots zooming in, trying to catch the sun.
And that was that – the colour and light in the sky had gone and we were at dusk.
Heading back to the car park chatting, it was going to late by the time we all got home so we left.
I really enjoyed Stiffkey and can’t believe I’d never been before. Definitely worth more visits again, especially as I didn’t venture further up beyond that first footbridge!
Onwards and upwards…