Cuckmere Haven, 2015
At this time of year, Cuckmere Haven is quite busy with people enjoying later summer evening walks before the sunsets. The area is famous for this stunning meander running through the valley towards the sea. It’s officially part of the Seven Sister’s country park, and there’s great car parking and tourist facilities close by. I started from the car park, walking up the eastern slope near the sheep in order to get better view of the river and to get shots of the sun going down as we approached the magic hour.
I also found this funny black sheep staring straight at me in such a peculiar way. Hello sheep.
Cuckmere Haven Meander, 2015
Rushing with tripod in hand across the hill, I wanted to catch the sunlight reflecting twice off the water in the meander, before it dipped behind the clouds. Reflecting* on this image afterwards, some HDR work may have helped keep the light and contrast in the shot. There’s only a graduated filter here to help regulate the exposure.
Cuckmere River at Sunset, 2015
When working at sunset, unlike sunrise, you’re battling the time and fading light. This shot, using a Big Stopper filter to slow the exposure time, was very difficult to achieve the correct exposure. The long exposure was used to smooth out the river and create streaked lines in the sky from the cloud movement. I realised mid way through the 16 minute shutter time that the fading light would reduce exposure time even more than I had calculated. The sunset also only lasted about 3 minutes of this exposure. Again, HDR imaging or photo merging through bracketing might have helped get a better image here. I also couldn’t quite get the composition I wanted as the ground was quite boggy.
