Durdle Door, Dorset

Has it really been 3 months since I've written anything on this blog???

There's been a few things happening since my last post (about my trip to Iceland):
1) I nearly moved house, but it fell through on the day of exchange :-/
2) I moved in with Melissa :-)
3) I bought a Canon 100-400mm lens :-)
4) I spent £1,100 to get my car fixed after it broke down on me :-/

On Saturday 7th Feb I went out with my friend Mark to shoot sunrise at Mupe Bay in Dorset. I had seen a beautiful picture of it on Facebook and wanted to create my own version of it. However...there's alway a "However" isn't there!...to get there you have to walk about 1.5 miles over military firing ranges which are only open at weekends and public holidays. Little did we know when we arrived there that the military ranges didn't open till about 9am! That'd be no good for sunrise!

Plan B...we drove to Lulworth and parked up with a view to walk over the South West Coastal Path to Mupe Bay. However...here we go again...the path was closed off because of a landslide! It seemed someone didn't want us to get there that day.

Plan C...Durdle Door.
All nicely wrapped up warm, camera bags on our backs and a big flask of hot coffee off we set. Apart from tripping over a rabbit hole when Mark said "Look at the moon" it was a lovely walk down to the Door. We didn't fancy the rough clamber down to the beach so we walked a bit further along the clifftop to be able to get a shot of the sun coming up over the horizon beyond the Door.

I did a few different compositions, but the 3-stitch panoramic I took really pleased me and has been retweeted loads of times on Twitter (it even got retweeted by Boycie from Only Fools And Horses...bragging rights ha ha ha).

As always this image is for sale as a canvas print on my website:
www.kevinbrownephotography.com

Speak to you soon

Kev.

Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset - A very rewarding photographic experience

After my last photo trip to Dorset a couple of weeks ago, I was struck with the bug to capture a photograph of Corfe Castle peaking out of the mist. After checking the forecasts on about three different weather apps last night myself and my friend Mark were pretty certain we would be rewarded with something good. So, it was agreed that Mark would get to my house in Southampton by 6am and I would drive us down to Corfe Castle.

Well, as many photographers who have tried the same thing at Corfe Castle on many occassions, and failed, we were to face the same result. Not a hint of mist, and very few clouds in the sky. So, having photographed there only two weeks before and the conditions looking very similar to that last trip we decided to head to Kimmeridge Bay for something different.

This was my first time at Kimmeridge, and I must admit to being slightly excited as I had seen so many wonderful images of the place on sites like Flickr, Facebook and 500px. I had looked it up on Google Maps yesterday, but what you don't realise from the satellite images is the sheer vertical cliffs that surround the beach, with only a couple of pathways leading down to the rocky beach. Once down on the beach it was very easy to see how shallow it actually is, as the flat rock formations very slowly slope downwards on their way out to sea. The tide was on its way out, but one good wave would bring it all the way back up to the high-tide line and we would have to move out of the way.

One of the many rock lines gently sloping out to sea.

When we arrived there was barely a breeze and it felt very mild, considering it is meant to be January. The sky was clear, apart from a thin line of faint cloud on the horizon. We set up the tripods to capture one of the lines of rock acting as a leading line in the images. 

The small building you can see on top of the hill near the top of both of these images is Clavell Tower, which would make a great foreground subject for a star-trail image I think :-)

Four-shot panoramic of Kimmeridge Bay

There are so many photographic possibilities at Kimmeridge that I am really looking forward to getting down there again. In the panoramic image above you can make out the tilting remains of a World War II Pill Box, which appears to be slowly making its way down the beach. This in itself could be a very interesting subject, as well as the chances for some close-up work on the interesting rocks and pebbles to be found on the beach. 

So, on my first trip to Kimmeridge I am really impressed. It is a location which could produce stunning photographs at any time of day, not just sunrise or sunset. I will definitely be back.

Oh, and on a different subject, I'm looking forward to getting a printed copy of Hampshire Life magazine so I can see what my photograph looks like on the front cover. I'm in print. I'm published. Ha ha :-)

Until next time, have fun.

Kevin.