Three of us met at Hopton for sunrise at low tide.
The forecast wasn’t great but there appeared to be less rain and a small window of no rain if we wanted to risk it.
We went down the metallic staircase to the beach and walked along the beach past some of the curvy rock sea defences until we reached the one with the posts.
I set up, launching a bit too quickly into seascape shooting mode.
It was handy that one of my fellow photographers was in front of me which meant I had to pause and slow down, and this made me think a little about what I wanted to aim for this morning.
While my camera was on the tripod ready to get a seascape and some swooshery, I reached for my other camera and decided to shoot some ICM shots.
The first shot was a up/down style capture.
I really like this shot – in my rush to share it to my fan base, I subsequently thought perhaps I should lose one of the posts and make it five not six, but this wasn’t a competition entry.
The next image was a zoom burst and you can see I wanted a pastel tone and I’ve tried to make the sky as uniform to the foreground as I can.
I had recently bought a photobook “Ethereal” by the photographer Mark Cornick, which has provided inspiration to try more ICM seascapes.
I was shooting with a left/right movement, and was excited to see some really good images as a result.
Below is an image I’m really pleased with and a nod to Mark’s book.
I have since wondered if the sky is a little to garish or overdone, but I think it adds to the drama of it.
Now it was time to capture a traditional seascape as the sunrise was moving up above the horizon.
Below is the best of the bunch, combining layers, swooshery of the waves (with texture as I prefer) and a decent sky.
I decided to crop in for a simpler and potentially a stronger image.
I’m on a continuous journey to improve my editing, being a little less aggressive on the sliders, leaving dehaze, texture and clarity, as well as contrast alone but running my images through Nik Colour Efex.
As the sun was up now, and knowing I had some really good ICM images on my memory card, I couldn’t help but try some more, thinking I could now grab excellent captures every time!
And one more…
These were nowhere near as good, but pleasant enough.
It appears that, other than technique, luck and conditions, the lighting you have at the time you attempt the ICM really does feed into what you get.
That’s probably an obvious statement, but I think it can be easy to think ICM is an “anytime” genre of photography, something you do as a sideline or afterthought, and it doesn’t matter what the condition are – I feel from this shoot, I have learnt this is most definitely not the case.
It had started to rain so we packed up, and agreed that it was a wrap.
Back to the car for coffee and debrief.
On my way home, I succumbed to the hypnotic lure of the Golden Arches at Great Yarmouth, anonymity a dead cert, and shaving another few minutes off my lifespan for that succulent bacon and egg McMuffin, and that gloriously salty hash brown.
What is the charge? Eating a meal? A succulent Maccie D’s meal? Ah Yes, I see that you know your UPFs well…
In terms of image yield, this had been a fantastic opportunistic trip.
Onwards and upwards.