Colourful Sunset at Burns Beach

During the day I didn’t think much of the sky, so I wasn’t planning on doing any landscape photography. In fact I thought it was going to be a good afternoon to sort out some of my older images that I hadn’t got round to archiving yet.

With about 2.5 hours before sunset the sky started to fill with this thin pattern of cloud. I could miss this opportunity so I quickly grabbed my camera and drove down to the coast to see if I could capture a seascape sunset.

Just as I arrived in the carpark, I noticed that the clouds were already changing. Darker cloud were starting to building and it looked like they extended all the way out to the horizon. My fear was that the clouds were going to block the majority of the light as the sun set and my seascape scene was going to been covered in a dark grey sky.

Not only did I think the light was going to be dull, the but wind had started to pick and I was going to have to endure the cool 15 degree even in just a T-shirt as I had forgotten my jumper. Despite all this I figured I was down here so I would continue with my plans (or lack of plans) and explore the beach (Burns Beach) for an interesting seascape composition.

My composition included a rock shelf that I was hoping to capture with a wave of water cascading over it. I also was hope to time the shot well enough to also capture the sea water sweep around the front of the rock to create some foreground interest.

Moments after I had set up my camera, the sun poked through the clouds just minutes before it set. The timing was perfect. I attached my polariser to the front of the 24-70mm lens to cut down the glare from the wet send and rocks and a 0.6 hard ND graduated filter to decrease the light sightly in the sky. I grab a series of shots changing my shutter speed as the light decreased. The colour and light were sensational.

Before I left a changed locations to capture a different style of image with a longer exposure creating a misty feel to the water which went well with the dark gloomy sky which now had colours of blacks and dark oranges.

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