Report on the First Outdoor Photo Trip to Kilve Beach

04/07/10

Kilve Beach Trip

Ten photographers arrived at Kilve Beach around 3:00pm on Sunday 4th July. Within seconds, out came the cameras, tripods, boots and windy weather protection...Interestingly no-one applied any sun-cream. What a hardened bunch of photographers we are!

We immediately headed off to the first beach, stopping at the first photographic opportunity on the headland where everyone was in their element. The cliffs were well bedded with white limestone and dark shale that were slightly folded. Everyone spread themselves over the beach area to take all kinds of shots from wide-angle landscapes to macro, and with subjects from rocks and cloud to algae and seaweed, even some fossils were good enough to stand still for the photographers (let's hope they don't sue those who took pictures of them). The clouds in the East added to the mood in the landscapes. The rocks were fractured (jointed) and veined which gave them character all of their own. Even the sun made an appearance every now and then to lighten the scene.

After about 2 hours we headed off to the second beach, which we descended via the metal steps. There were more interesting rocks with better folding in this location, but the cloud had started to become a little denser which made for darker scenes. By the time we finished it was about 6:00pm and we headed off back to the car and onwards for some food and drink. As we descended the hill near the car park, the sun burst upon the landscape once more as the clouds started to break up. Nigel and Martin ran down the hill to our first location to try and get some shots with splashes of light on the distant cliffs.

It was pub time (around 7:00pm) and everyone decided they would return for the sunset. It was looking promising. I could taste the pint of beer from the car park as I was rather parched and hungry. The meals were lovely - but enough about the food.

Arriving back at the car park at about 8:20pm, there was sun all around and much clearer skies and we headed back to the cliff top to sights of the warm setting sun lighting up the cliffs and foreground. It was truly a spectacular sight. On the beach the sun warmed the green algae that formed between the rocky outcrops and provided some nice contrasting scenes with the rocks. The tide, although on its way in, still left an expanse of foreground interest. Soon the sun was too low to light the cliffs and a bank of low cloud in the distance prevented the up lighting of the clouds. The actual sunset itself was a little disappointing. By this time, most of the cloud had disappeared from the sky in the East, but some still remained in the West with a faint pinkish glow.
At around 9:30, eight photographers left Kilve beach (two had left a little earlier in the day) and headed home. The general feedback from those that attended said “it was a very worthwhile trip that everyone enjoyed”.

Now, all we have to do is clone out those people with pink and yellow tops that sometimes refused to get out of the way even though they knew we were waiting to take photographs!

Write-up by Martin Walters.

To see a selection of images taken on the day click on the "Gallery" tab.