A Photographic Opportunity

I was at a loose end on Sunday (11th Aug) and found myself driving North, after 2 ½ hours I ended up at Spurn Point at 11:00am, not the best time to be there I’m sure you will agree.
Spurn has always been one of my favourite places, its just so weird and there is nowhere else like it (a bit like Dungeness is different to everywhere else as well). You can do tidal stuff, groynes, lighthouses, birds, people, the list goes on and on.

I had purchased a sandwich en-route and decided on a walk before tucking in. I walked all the way around the point and I was not inspired-at all. The light was very overhead (obviously) but there were some nice fluffy clouds and a good stiff wind moving them across the sky at a rate of Knots, so maybe some opportunities later on?
I got back to the car at about 1pm and had my lunch, still little change so I decided to get my head down for an hour, the tide was also well out but was turning.
2pm came and I togged up and decided to have a go on the Humber estuary side for a change, wandered around the old tower and snapped a few off but still very uninspired, what to do? I decided to fit the 10 stop and slow my shutter down to get some cloud and sand movement, the sky had some nice blue patches and the 10 stop seemed to intensify these very well. The Canon 5D is able to ‘see through’ the 10 stop filter when in live view mode, very useful as it saves taking it on and off. I was working on 100 iso and approx 30 seconds, some cloud movement but not enough, I added a polariser and was now getting 2-3 minute exposures, much better, the intensity of the blue was amazing compared to a ‘straight shot’. I had about an hour and then went over to the other side where the better Groynes are, the tide was still a long way out though and light too harsh really, I kept the same set up and shot a few images that I am quite happy with. I hung around until 7pm but the cloud cover was 95% so decided to pack up and drive home.

All in all not a very productive day but I enjoyed being out in the fresh air.

Ian Pinn

NOPS Chairman 2013