Tag Archives: Beachy Head
Coastguards Cottages
On a recent trip down to East Dean I popped over to Hope Gap to take a few shots of the beach and cliffs in that area. On my walk back from there to the Golden Galleon in Seaford where I was due to have a spot of lunch I stopped to take a photo of these cottages.
The other shots I had taken of these cliffs from this area pretty much had no focal interest to the right of them due to the fact it was nothing but sea, so it was nice here to be able to get a glimpse of them and use the cottages as the main area of interest, and to squeeze in the bench for that little something else.
Although there is still quite a bit that is not really doing anything, the sky and the grass, I still feel that there are three very separate areas of interest at different depths with the bench, cottages and then cliffs.
Again the overcast day was doing nothing for the colour in this image so turning it to black and white seemed to do the trick for me.
Relax
Sometimes on a hot day you want nothing more than to sit beside the ocean, listening to the waves crashing, and watching as the clouds go by. I gather this young lady wanted nothing more, as she sat on the edge of this cliff with her handbag as a pillow.
The lighthouse you see below may be familiar to regular visitors to the blog as I have taken a few shots of it previously, both from up on the cliff and down at the base. It’s in Beachy Head down on the South Coast of England.
Those with especially good memories will also recall that it’s the #3 suicide hotspot in the world. However on this beautiful, and very hot, summer day I think those getting close to the edge were simply there for the view, be it of the lighthouse, the cliff, or a pretty girl trying to take a nap.
I’m a photographer, your honour, not a pervert.
Post-apocalyptic Property
The end (of the week) is nigh!
This is another shot taken from my weekend away a few weeks ago and was taken from the edge of a cliff looking back inland. I liked the sign and rickety fence which was (badly) guarding the spot of an old lighthouse which has been moved inland slightly due to erosion. That lighthouse is the one you see in the image, and is Belle Tout which also serves as a bed and breakfast.
As I was processing this shot I didn’t really warm to the colours of the rolling fields in comparison to the grey cloudy sky, and so I opted to give it a more apocalyptic feel by pretty much washing out all of the colour within and leaving a nice orange tint in the sky.
I did take a photo of the same sign but looking the other way, over the cliffs to the ocean, but there isn’t really enough in that image to warrant processing, and the effect of the private property sign is lost due to the fact there is no real land in the image. I much prefer it looking in this direction where you can see that there is actually something behind the fence.
The Beacon
Here’s another shot from the Beachy Head lighthouse series, and the third which I’ve published to date.
Considering the lighthouse was only really viewable from one side, due to the ocean on the other, I’m finding that I was able to take quite a few unique shots at this location, especially as the trip was split over two days and were taken firstly from the foot of the lighthouse itself, and then from the cliff edge on day two.
The way the images are processed also helps to make the images different of course, and for this one I opted to get rid of most of the colour, which wasn’t a great range anyway, and draw the eye to the red and white stripes of the lighthouse itself. I think the addition of a little vignette also makes it a more moody landscape.
This was one of the last shots I took on the Saturday morning; it wasn’t the best sunrise we could have had, but at this point we could see that the sun really was trying to penetrate the clouds and break through for the day. The fog had pretty much lifted fully by this point.
My hangover was setting in a little bit more at this point, and the lack of breakfast wasn’t helping (I had left my cold sausages and hard boiled egg in the car) so I was not relishing the prospect of walking back over the rocks for an hour to get to the part of the cliff we could climb up to get home.
As mentioned previously though; I’m really glad to have made the trip to the base of the lighthouse as it did certainly offer a more unique view than people would normally get from this location…and that’s what I think photography is all about.
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Beachy Head
The Lighthouse
Beachy Head
This image was taken, as you can see, standing on the cliff edge of Beachy Head in East Sussex. It’s very picturesque, and the third highest rated suicide jump spot in the world. You have to wonder why someone who is in a position to kill themselves has it in their mind to do so at such a beautiful spot. Do they wish to see one last bit of beauty in their life before they go…or do they just know that there is a high success rate here?
My boss grew up in this area so wanted an image to use as a screensaver for his laptop; I’m hoping this is sufficient – though would be willing for him to schedule a ‘work trip’ to the top two suicide hot spots if they are more desirable…I hear San Francisco is nice.
I’ve made it sound like my boss has a desire to have a photo of a suicide hotspot – that’s not the case…I hope.
In other news, I’m finally getting organised with my images. With a new blog comes new responsibility, and what with coming back from a weekend away with around 1500 images (sure, mostly bracketed) I thought it about time I actually figure out a system to store, process and – more importantly – retrieve my images.
I must at this point give credit to Brian Matiash and his HDR Best Practices Guide, especially Part Two which covers image management. I read Part One when I started learning HDR and it was a great help. Give it another 6 months and I’ll be ready to grasp Part Three! I certainly recommend this to anyone learning HDR. I know the go to guide is the Stuck In Customs one, which I read also and did learn a lot from, but I’m finding the one from Brian has a lot more depth to it and is the one I’ve returned to after learning the basics.
Over time I think image management will be easier, perhaps second nature. All I know is that it’s currently a mess but getting better. I’m moving my photos over to a new 1TB drive and tagging them, etc, in the process. It’ll take a while to go through the historical stuff, but it’s a good thing to do and at least I’m doing it one year in, and only 6 months into my HDR stuff, so that’s better than having many years worth of images built up before I finally grow up and get it done.
The Lighthouse
Saturday morning; a day for rest and relaxation. A day to have a nice long lie in after a long week at work and, quite possibly, a few drinks to round it all off. Wake up, have a nice cup of coffee and watch a bit of trashy television before may showing around mid day and having a nice spot of lunch.
Not this past Saturday; that was entirely different.
I was staying in a cottage in East Dean for the weekend and was being joined by my friend John. I know he often gets up early to take photos, but my plan for this weekend was to use the cottage as a nice base to then drive to a few different UrbEx locations in East Sussex and Kent. I imagined we would get up and take the dogs for a nice walk and then head off to various places on the Saturday and Sunday. 8am was my intended entry time to the locations, so figured getting up at 7am, would be doable. It was possible that we could walk on the nearby cliffs at Beachy Head and take a few shots looking down at the lighthouse below…that would have been nice.
John had other ideas.
He agreed that it would indeed be nice to take shots of the lighthouse, but to do so from the base. Checking out the tides he noted that they were, by some coincidence, going out on the Saturday morning and it would be possible to get to the lighthouse around dawn to take some nice shots.
‘Okay…that’s doable’ I thought. ‘um…what time do we need to get up then?’
Roll on Saturday morning and I’m crawling out of bed at 5.30am and walking in a zombie like state to the kitchen to try and find caffeine. A quick coffee and shower later and we were in the car heading to Beachy Head and trying to find a way down the cliffs to the shoreline below. We find a suitable route and slip most of the way down the greasy chalk surface to arrive on some rocks; water to one side – cliff to the other. We scramble our way over the rocks, which was pretty exhausting – especially so early in the morning, and head towards the lighthouse that we can only just see the light of in the early morning fog.
Eventually we arrive at the lighthouse itself and start snapping away; the rain has stopped by this point, though I’m a little wet, and the fog is lifting so we were pretty lucky with the weather in that regard. I’m not an ocean person, so am a little apprehensive about whether the tide was going in or out. I know the sea is a harsh mistress and don’t fancy a rushed trip back along the rocks with the tide coming in, even with a former coastguard to hand. When I can actually see the tide is receding I feel a lot better and can finally relax. With relaxation comes hunger and a lack of breakfast is very apparent at this stage, so I’m glad I packed an energy bar and some water for the journey. I also have hard boiled eggs and cold sausages, but these are back in the car and there was no way I was heading back there for food at this stage.
In all we managed to get about an hour and a half shooting the lighthouse from various angles. The sky could have been a little kinder and more colourful for us, but all in all it was a great morning.
Once done the walk back was a lot easier. The tide had gone out by this time so we were able to hop along smaller rocks and, in places, actual parts of the beach itself! This made the going much easier until we had to clamber and walk back up the cliff slope to the car – the first part being slippery again, the second just being very steep and exhausting.
I was surprised to enjoy it as much as I did, and on a weekend that took in a pier, a little light painting in a forest, a castle, an abandoned hospital and a derelict school – this first trip to the lighthouse was the one I enjoyed the most over the whole weekend.
It was also the debut location for my new UrbEx mask (photo below taken by John Esslinger)…
