From studying various weather and tide apps, the conditions looked right for a morning sunrise shoot on Hastings seafront. With the tide revealing rocks in the foreground and the sun rising behind Hastings pier, should make a dramatic seascape composition.

Visualisation

I had visualised this seascape shoot over a year previous. While one morning walking along Hastings seafront I noticed the rocks revealed by the low receding tide. What wonderful foreground interest and leading lines the rocks would provide with the sun rising behind the silhouette of Hastings pier.

Receding Tide

You can park up free for two hours around Saint Leonards beach, there is always spaces along the marina A259. On arrival on the beach the rocks were still submerged by the tide. So set up high on a concrete ledge.

An element wanted to include in the composition was the silhouette of the first Norman castle built in 1070 on the top of west hill. The castle, the pier and the rocks undeniable identifies Hastings seafront!

The sea was still a bit rough and tide high to get down at ground level. To get a better composition of just the rocks and pier had to exclude west hill and the castle. There was low cloud on the horizon behind the pier which not help separate it clearly.

Lots to Consider

In these conditions the light is changing every minute, there is a lot to consider. What to include and exclude from the composition. Need to take multiple exposures due to dynamic range of light. Focus stacking due to detail in the foreground. Long exposure motion blur of the water over the submerged rocks.

Long Exposure Flying Seagulls

Another consideration was wanted to include some seagulls flying overhead, but my small brain could not accommodate all this at the same time. Problem with this that I experienced recently with crows, due to low light and long exposures, any flying birds overhead would just be a blur.

One trick I learned recently on Youtube to include flying birds is to quickly switch to auto mode on your camera. Auto mode always uses settings that would avoid motion blur. I tried this at the time and my flash popped up! I not even know my Canon 80D had a flash! Missed the shot but experience taught me a lesson, be better prepared next time.

Sunrise on the Rocks

As the sun rose the tide was receding rapidly. It was now safe to setup at ground level on the beach amongst the rocks. At beach level the composition was much stronger and balanced. The rocks provide great foreground interest and strong leading line to the rising sun and pier.

Was focus stacking two images, one exposed for the foreground rocks, another on the background, the contrast between the pier and orange sky. The intention then to blend in Photoshop post processing.

Long Exposure Motion Blur

With the tide receding wanted to capture some motion blur of the sea water running off the rocks. Needed a few seconds at least exposure time. With the sun rising it was getting lighter every minute now. Even at F/16 exposure time was no way long enough.

Usually you only use a polariser when the sun is at a 45 degree angle to you but a polariser has other uses. It always removes reflections off the water and doubles up as a two stop ND filter. But two stops was not enough so after fluffing around with the polariser switched to a 6 stop ND filter which was enough.

Final Composition

So the final composition on Hastings seafront captures everything included in the original visualisation. Sunrise behind Hastings pier, motion blur of the sea water over the rocks in the foreground and the ruins of Hastings castle in the background.

This is another in my series of locations visited before and capture a much better seascape or landscape photograph.