Sunday looked the most favourable this weekend and with the sunrise time getting later and later, a more sociable meet time of 06:30 was set.
The location this week was Corton near Lowestoft, although on return from the shoot, my wife Kathryn (who knows the Lowestoft area very well having lived there for a considerable amount of her life) advised me that the location of our shoot was actually Gunton, not Corton.
I have told the guys of this fact, although to many it’s a mute point, and to others I think they know it as Corton. Even Pro Photographer Gary Gough has just released a YouTube video from this same spot and refers to it as Corton.
About Gunton
Gunton is a suburb of Lowestoft, in the East Suffolk district, in the English county of Suffolk. Gunton was a small coastal village, but over the years it has been suburbanised. Gunton has an estimated population of 6,640. The main A12 or Yarmouth Road runs through the area. The eastern part of Gunton, from Yarmouth Road to Gunton Cliff, is one of the most affluent parts of Lowestoft, after the North Broads area of Oulton Broad.
Gunton was home to Roland Leighton and his family, and it is described by Vera Brittain in her First World War autobiography Testament of Youth.
The Shoot
We parked on the large and free car park near the beach and wandered down to see lots of groynes. There is one specific groyne that has a wonky post sticking out and it was this one that grabbed our interest.
I managed to get an early shot with a sunstar by setting an aperture of f/18:
This next shot makes the water appear like cling film.
As usual, I took loads of shots playing around with different shutter speeds.
It was time to move so I walked to the other side of the groyne to capture some images from a different side.
Before I started taking straight shots, I thought I’d try some ICM zoom burst shots:
For my final shot, I just grabbed a bit more Swooshery.
That’s a Wrap!
With the final shots in the bag, I wandered up the beach back to the car park and we chatted about what a good sunrise shoot this had been.
We agreed this was a location to return to many times again due to the photographic potential.
Lastly, I think it’s worth providing a little bit of information on Corton since this part of the beach is what most folks call Corton but it’s Gunton – have I mentioned this before?
About Corton
Corton is a village and civil parish in the north of the English county of Suffolk. It is 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the centre of Lowestoft in the East Suffolk district. The village is on the North Sea coast with the county border with Norfolk to the north. It is a seaside holiday centre, with a number of facilities for visitors. Great Yarmouth is 6 miles (9.7 km) to the north.
At the 2011 United Kingdom census the parish had a population of 1,099. It borders the Suffolk parishes of Lound, Blundeston and Flixton as well as the Lowestoft suburb of Gunton and, to the north, the Norfolk parish of Hopton-on-Sea.
Now we’ve got the geography straight, that’s all folks!
Onwards and upwards…