Day's Bay, Eastbourne

After the sunset.

Today's images are starting at the end. Yesterday evening we went round to Day's Bay in Eastbourne to capture another sunset. Once the sun had gone and the sky grew dark I got to play with long exposures to smooth out the water. I really enjoyed the contrast between the wharf and the water, and the muted soft colours of the hills in the background.  The long exposure has given this image light where there was none and I like it a lot!

The sun starting to drop behind the hills.

The sun was just going down when I finished setting up my camera and chair. This was the only opportunity I had to get the colours reflected on the water itself. The brightness of the sun made the image darker than it actually was and rather than correct it I decided I liked it this way.

Gulls soaking up the last of the sun.

I am a fan of silhouettes and when I saw the gulls lined up on the wharf I couldn't resist a shot or three. They were soaking up the last of the sunshine. As the sun went down behind the hills the sky found its golden glow. I love this time of night and was very happy with the image below.

Sunset at Day's Bay, Eastbourne

Something Different

Just before sunset the light was golden.

A friend of mine has been photographing lots of sunsets just lately, she is particularly good at it and her images are beautiful to look at. Last night I decided it was time I gave it another go myself. The last time I was photographing sunsets I was still using P mode on the camera, so this was an exercise in doing it in manual.

As the sun went down we were treated to pinks and reds in the sky and in the reflections.

I am constantly amazed at how quickly the sky changes at sunset and how many different changes there are in that short space of time. All of these images were taken on the same evening, yet they look so totally different. They are shown here in chronological order.

I moved to a slightly different spot to change the image foreground.

I played around with the shutter speed trying to soften the water while still keeping some of the birds in focus. Very tricky as the birds wouldn't hover exactly where I wanted them to.In the end I gave up on the birds - this time they were not my primary focus!

Same spot just looking in the other direction

These last couple of images are probably my favourites. I am really pleased with the results of the evening's shoot. I enjoyed the company of friends, had a few laughs and came away with my own beautiful sunset images. An exercise I definitely plan to repeat before the summer is gone.

After the sun was gone I played a bit more with shutter speeds to soften the water.