portland bill cheyne weares dorset

Portland Cheyne Weares Dorset

It was a Saturday and my first landscape photography shoot of early August and I was heading to Portland Bill in Dorset from my base in Bournemouth.
I do prefer a coastal walk and Dorset has some great coastline and I wanted to walk and photograph as much of it as possible during my limited stay here. It was over 40 miles to Portland from Bournemouth and over an hours drive.

Portland Busy

I left later than usual as I wanted to stick around and maybe catch a sunset and low directional light.  On arrival at Portland Bill there was too many people around for me and some festival going on.  I drove around and stopped off in a car park on the Southwell landslip  north of Freshwater bay on the west side of the Portland and area known as Cheyne Weares.

southwell landslip portland
southwell landslip 1/20 sec, F/11, ISO 100, 20mm

Using my Ordnance survey maps online I could do a good coastal walk from here heading north along the south west coastal path.  Initially contrast was high between the sky land and sea but the scenery was breathtaking.

Church Ope Cove Portland
Church Ope Cove 1/15 sec, F/11, ISO 100, 18mm

I passed by a little secluded Cove with a ruined church on the cliff skyline.  Due to modern distractions also on the skyline could not get an angle I wanted to photograph the ruin.  Often the case when you are out hiking and photographing.

portland bill cheyne weares dorset
We are Sailing 1/10 sec, F/11, ISO 100, 35mm

Finally as the late afternoon passed into the evening I got the photo I wanted. Low directional light lit up the foreground rocks and in the mid section I managed to capture two sailing boats with the distant Dorset coastline in the background.  Too date one of my favourite landscape/ seascape photographs.

yachts portland dorset
sailing portland

Mission accomplished, I not get to photograph or visit Portlands iconic lighthouse popular with most visitors. But due to it being so busy I discovered an area I may have missed and got one of my best landscape photos to date.

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