The monthly club shoot for January was Landguard at Felixstowe, Suffolk.
I and many members had not been here for a couple of years so it was good to be going back.
Members seemed very keen when it was suggested as a location, and their speed of response seemed to be related to there being a café adjacent to the car park, where we could enjoyed a cooked breakfast afterwards.
We wandered up towards the beach with only a couple of the group interested in shooting the lit-up docks.
I had captured the Felixstowe docks before so skipped it.
As we reached the beach with the row of posts, we could see the tide was out and looking more closely there was something of a curve shape to the shoreline.
We then meandered up towards the Point and started shooting the old railway jetty.
About Landguard Point Old Railway Jetty
The Old railway jetty at Landguard Point features remnants of a narrow-gauge track used in the late 19th/early 20th century to transport submerged mines to ships for protecting Harwich Harbour. The track connected to Landguard Fort, with hand-pushed trucks operating on timber baulks.
Key Details of Landguard Railway Tracks:
- Purpose: The railway was used for logistics, moving mines and equipment to the jetty for deployment in the harbor.
- Location: The remains are located at Landguard Point, near the Landguard Fort in Suffolk.
- Historical Significance: These tracks supported the defense of the harbor during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
- Current State: The Old railway track to a jetty at Landguard Point is a ruined, historical feature of the landscape.
The site is part of the broader historical area of Landguard Point, which includes the Grade I listed fort.
My first shot was a classic scene of the jetty.
I wanted to get back to where the row of posts were, and was almost sensing the tide rolling in.
I grabbed another shot of the jetty but this time close-up.
I was replicating a composition a fellow photographer had bagged on our last visit. Imitation is the best form of flattery (apparently)!
I decided to get back to the beach with the posts as I’d not photographed at that spot before while the tide was out.
I had another scout around to determine where I should stand to get the best curvature of the shoreline.
In post, I have cropped upwards and removed the remains of two of three wooden posts at the bottom of the image.
I moved a little further back and grabbed another shot.
I decided to try some ICM shots just as an experiment – my go to zoom burst didn’t really work.
When I realised the zoom burst wasn’t working, I switched to multiple exposures of three shots.
When I previewed these shots through the viewfinder, I realised although quirky and interesting, they weren’t really working.
A lot of the others guys had joined me now, and the morning was coming to a close with many having packed up their kit.
As I took my camera off the tripod, I thought I’d have one last try and decided to take some handheld ICM shots using a moving up motion.
The result is arguably my best image from the shoot!
With a suitable edit, I’m very pleased with this image and it’s very much ticking that box of producing something different.
And that was indeed a wrap.
We all headed to the café for breakfast and a debrief.
As we left Landguard, a couple of the guys headed to Cobbold Point but I was keen to head home and catch up on sleep.
Footnote: A week after this shoot, I showed a small print of the shot above to a friend who turned it upside down which made both of us realise it could work that way up.
Below is the image upside down:
All in all, a very good shoot and some good images.
Onwards and upwards…