As part of my series of returning to iconic landscape and seascape locations and capturing better and more dramatic compositions, a return visit to Rye on the east Sussex coast was next. The plan was for the Mary Stanford lighthouse to be the main focal point during a sunrise.

Missed Opportunity

There is a free carpark at Rye Harbour but gates not open until after 7:30am. You can park in the village or the road nearby. Arrived at Rye Harbour around 6AM, it was clear was not going to have the same dramatic light we had yesterday when on the beachfront at Hastings. The Rye nature reserve is a good place to ride a bike. Its a long walk to the Mary Stanford Lighthouse.

Memorial

Arrived in front of the Mary Stanford boathouse before sunrise and setup and took some dawn shots. Despite the mindless graffiti on the walls there is something very haunting about the Mary Stanford boathouse, the tragedy it remembers.

Focused on the pastel colours of the doors with their flaking paint. The pinkish purples tones of the dawn sky blended in with the boathouse.

Three Dimensional HDR

Tried a few different compositions and angles from the front. Its amazing how many potential compositions there are just in the vicinity of the boathouse. With the sun rising, not have much time to experiment.

Bracketed 3 shots, two stops apart and blended using HDR merge in Lightroom post processing. Was aware wanted to capture the boathouse from the sides and back too, so went down to the beach.

Rye Beach Sunrise

On the beach in front of the Mary Stanford boathouse were three other photographers! Must have been hoping for a repeat of that vivid red dawn the morning before. We were getting in each others way. Wanted to photograph the boathouse whereas they were pointing in the direction of the rising sun.

It was low tide so got on the beach behind the boathouse and framed up some compositions trying to exclude the other photographers. Frantically rushing around not realising I was creating lots of footprints in the sand. When the sun rose those footprints were everywhere!

Two Dimensional

After the sun rose above the horizon and went from red to orange, returned to the front of the Mary Stanford lighthouse too include this in the composition with the sunrise behind.

Shooting a building straight on like the above looks so two dimensional! In photography you are always trying to convey depth of field and three dimensions on a two dimensional plane. So making lots of rookie mistakes down on Rye beach that morning. Was only thinking of the door and the rising sun and not dimensions! Stood out like a sore thumb post processing on the big screen, back home.

Golden Hour Low Tide

With the best of the sunrise over I had the golden hour to shoot next. With low tide at its peak could descend onto the beach and compose the Mary Stanford boathouse within its environment and surroundings.

Framing up the composition from the beach was all about inclusion. Wanted the ripples in the sand, the groynes and Cliff End in the background and of course the boathouse as the main focal point.

Remote Isolation

From framing the boathouse down on the beach you begin to get an idea of how remote and isolated the Mary Stanford is. Still, in hindsight, should have caught more of the vastness of Rye beach at low tide stretching out to Camber Sands in the east.

During sunrise and low tide, with a good focal point like the Mary Stanford there were lots of possible compositions to frame and capture, all within a small area.

Focusing Technique

My focusing technique was improving, the images sharper as a consequence. I use back button focusing on my camera. When the shutter button is pressed it only takes a photo, does not meter and focus. I use back button focus with auto focus, this gets me in the ball park.

Using a loupe with 2x magnification, then manually adjust the lens focus ring, this makes a noticeable difference to the image on the back of the small screen. Using this technique don’t need to switch the lens to manual focus, as using back button focus, will not attempt to refocus when depressing the shutter button.

Acceptable Focus

Having everything in acceptable focus from the focus point is greatly aided by using a tripod, timer release, mirror lockup, smaller aperture F11 up and smaller focal length or wide angle.

Beach Walk Back

Once golden hour was over had some breakfast on the beach and hot coffee, having packed my camping stove. Then took a long walk back along the beach, soaking my face in the sunshine, getting some much needed vitamin D.

Retrospective

Even confined to the small location of just the Mary Stanford boathouse made lots of mistakes. Two dimensional image of the building. Footprints in the sand. Composition not showing the vastness and remoteness of Rye beach during low tide. The best composition would have been the boathouse together with the red sun just poking over the horizon out to sea. So a return visit would yield better results based on this retrospective.