Yesterday, with an afternoon off at same time as my wife and with sunny but cold weather forecast, I planned a trip to Selsey with the hope of capturing some sunset photos. Sunset in Winter months is out to sea rather than along the coastline, so I also hoped that I would capture movement in any incoming waves due to longer exposure for the photos.
We parked at the West Beach car park in plenty of time and conditions looked very favourable for my plans. Some small clouds were evident and they tend to add to the overall image at sunset. The tide was receding and there looked a good chance of the movement I was hoping for.
This first photo was while the sun was still a little too bright and I was initially experimenting with composition.
I decided that I wanted to be nearer to the incoming waves, though needing to be careful as some were washing in quite a way up the beach, and I wanted to position the groyne so that it created a natural lead-in line from the corner of the picture.
I was quite happy with this photo, retaining foreground interest and detail while keeping the colours in the sky - Yes, I did use a reverse grad nd filter.
The image below is the same photo, but with a sunset preset added in Lightroom.
I continued to move around the beach to vary my composition and chose to take some without the groyne being included.
I particularly like the foreground in this one, with the ebb and flow of the waves creating patterns and movement.
Again, I tried sunset preset in Lightroom - result below
Please remember with these Lightroom edits, I am not the best at the editing and am still learning what works best but it's an interesting avenue to explore once I have taken the initial images.
It was definitely cold when the sun went down, but a very worthwhile trip and was my first trip out with camera this year. I also had the beach to myself while shooting.
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