First day of freedom on the south east coast and its a beautiful sunny day.  A photo walk I have wanted to do for a long time is from Eastbourne to Beachy Head lighthouse but on the coast, along the beach.

Beachy Head Low Tide

For a walk along the coast to the lighthouse at Beachy Head to be possible it must coincide with low tides.   I always check tide times with My Tide Times app.  Low tide today peaked at 15:40 with sunset just a few minutes later.

Epic Landscape

I had not done this walk before along the beach at Beachy Head, only over the cliffs and downs.  Not know how perilous it was as no clear footpath but seen many seascape photos taken at beach level of the lighthouse, so knew it was possible.  Not least Joe Cornish including the lighthouse at Beachy Head in his epic landscape set.

Being a sunset photo I desired, an associated problem was walking back in the dark so a torch was essential too.  Generally after sunset you have about 1 hour of usable light before it gets pitch black.  But the golden and blue hour are also great for landscape and seascape photography.

From Eastbourne to Beachy Head

I parked up for free in the residential area of Eastbourne at the foot of the south downs and then made my way down onto the beach.  It was a beautiful sunny winters day.  This is what is good about not working, using a weather app like the BBC you can pick and choose when to head out for a photo walk.  It was a nice break from all the rain we have been having since the beginning of Autumn.

Out of Eastbourne along the beach at Holywell and it was hard going.  All rock pools and boulders, no clear path and slippery when wet.  Also close to the cliff is the hazard of falling rocks.  This was a lot harder than the photo walk along the beach from Rock A Nore to Cliff End a few months back.

Generally its best to work out a walking line ahead rather than just looking a few steps ahead else may have to backtrack when the way is blocked.   Closer to the cliff edge and the rocks are drier so less slippery.

Cow Gap Footpath

On reaching Cow Gap, I discovered there is a easier route to get at least this far.  There is a footpath over the south downs onto the beach at Cow Gap.  There is a sign there warning to check tide times and a walk west to Birling Gap is approx 3 hours, alot longer if you keep stopping to take seascape photos.

Beachy Head Looking Up

Once under the Beachy Head cliffs and the views up were amazing. Now far fewer people have seen Beachy Head from this perspective before.

What the photo lacks is a sense of scale, a person or something of known size at the foot of the cliff face, as they are huge and awe inspiring looking up from the beach.

Too Much Polarisation

Unfortunately I was making the same mistake again with my polariser that I made on the beach at Pett Level.  Too much polarisation and the blue sky was too dark on only one side.  So many of the photos were ruined due to to much polarisation, and I took a lot.

This darkness can be remedied somewhat postprocessing in lightroom using luminosity masking and reducing saturation increasing exposure, shadows etc.

The lighthouse was now in view and that was going  to be my subject with the sun setting behind.  It felt fantastic to be down here, all alone, having this wild and beautiful place all to myself and my camera.   One problem was just the sheer number of possible compositions, it was overwhelming,  one visit was not going to be enough.

Light House, Sunset, Long Exposure

I had arrived in front of the lighthouse down on the beach at Beachy Head before sunset and had time to setup on my tripod and then just wait a little.

Without any filters I framed a composition including the cliff face, the lighthouse and the setting sun.  Adjusted the exposure using the histogram to contain the dynamic range and its come out surprisingly well.  Just a little post processing in lightroom.  Now I am not getting much sun flare and I put this down to not using filters in front of the lens.

Still, I wanted a long exposure, motion blur, of the sea, but not the sky.  Yet the sun to be properly exposed and also the lighthouse and cliff face.  This would require multiple exposure and exposure blending later post processing in Photoshop.

Beachy Head Moonrise

Turning around to check out the compositions facing the other way, surprised to see the moon rising.  Now I had not checked out the moon calendar on the Photopills app.

I was having a stellar experience down on the beach at Beachy Head, sunsets, moon rises all on an unaltered landscape by man, excluding the lighthouse.

And too top it all even some low hanging cumulus clouds separating the clear blue sky which were now turning pinks and purples as the sun set below the horizon and golden hour turned to blue hour.

Walk Back, Time to Reflect

Time to head back to Eastbourne.  It would have been a treacherous walk along the beach in the dark but now knew I could cut through Cow Gap.  I stopped off in a lovely traditional pub back in Eastbourne at the foot of the south downs called the Pilot Inn, they did an excellent pint of Ale.  Time to reflect, it had been an epic day out, down on the beach at the Lighthouse at Beachy Head.

In the future want to do the same walk but sunrise starting at Cow Gap.   Also along the beach to the Lighthouse but from Birling Gap and also along the beach from Cuckmere Haven.