Introduction

November brought a mix of short weather windows, local walks, and a few longer trips around the High Weald and South Downs. Most of the month was dominated by grey skies and fast-moving fronts, so every break in the weather turned into an opportunity to get out with the camera. From minimalist coastal scenes at Broomhill Sands, to long-exposure evenings on the Romney Marsh, to a series of drive-by shoots across the High Weald, the month produced a varied set of images and a lot of useful scouting for future locations. The final days brought clearer conditions on the cliffs at Birling Gap, rounding off the month with a couple of clean views across the Seven Sisters.

The full November 2025 video review is now live on my YouTube channel. It brings together all the locations covered in this post, along with extra footage from the walks and drives throughout the month. You can watch it below before scrolling through the full write-up.

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Broomhill Sands — Minimalist Layers at Low Tide

Broomhill Sands was my first stop of the month, and the conditions lined up perfectly for a minimalist coastal shot. Low tide exposed long stretches of sand, the morning mist softened the distant Hastings cliffs and Cliff End, and a single groyne provided the foreground contrast needed to anchor the frame. The scene naturally divided into layers — wet sand, tidal pools, the pale sea, and the faint silhouette of the headland beyond.

It was a bright, high-key morning with calm winds, and the softness of the light suited the composition. Looking back, this was a perfect moment for a long exposure to smooth out the sea and the shallow pools and to lift the sky into an even cleaner gradient. One to revisit.

St Thomas à Becket, Fairfield — Long Exposure on the Marsh

For this visit to St Thomas à Becket Church on the Romney Marsh, the plan was simple: wait for a break in the cloud and catch some golden-hour light from behind. Instead, a heavy bank of cloud rolled in, blocking the sun completely. Rather than leave, I waited for the thicker cloud to drift overhead and used the conditions to my advantage.

This final frame is a 25-second long exposure that smooths both the moving clouds and the waterway in front of the church, leaving the building crisp and still as the focal point. The long exposure added a calm, quiet atmosphere that suits the isolation of this church in the middle of the marsh.

For the full story behind this place — and the other forgotten churches in the area — see Lost Churches of Romney Marsh:

Penhurst Lane — High Weald to the South Downs

This was taken during a morning drive around the High Weald, looking for pockets of good light breaking through the cloud. From Penhurst Lane, the view opened up perfectly across rolling autumn woodland, with layers of colour running all the way to the South Downs and Butts Brow on the horizon.

It’s one of my favourite viewpoints in the area — classic High Weald contours, old oaks catching the light, and that deep mix of greens, browns, and oranges that only appear in mid-November.

Crowhurst Park — Clear Autumn Layers to the South Downs

From Crowhurst Park I had a more elevated, straight-on view across the High Weald, with the autumn canopy running west towards the South Downs and Butts Brow.

The line of sight from here naturally tapers down towards Beachy Head, and on a clear morning the Polegate wind turbines stand out cleanly on the horizon. It’s a classic Sussex sweep of colour and distance — rich woodland in the foreground, open farmland beyond, and the Downs forming the final layer.

Misty Morning at Woods Corner – Autumn Oaks on the High Weald

Given some morning mist, I made my way up to the Woods Corner high weald viewpoint. I was hoping the mist would lift enough to reveal the South Downs, but the visibility never fully cleared.

Instead, the mid-ground became the focus — a line of oak trees and autumn woodland rising out of the mist with soft light catching the tops. Even without the long view, the conditions worked well for tighter compositions and simple, layered shots across the fields.

In both these photos there were distracting telegraph poles and lines, even more so as catching the morning light. I removed them in Lightroom. The key was to check Generative AI but not object then just select the lines and poles in sections. Worked well.

Belle Tout — Evening Sunlight Over Beachy Head

I finished the day with another drive-by shoot, this time checking a few of my usual South Downs locations for evening mist or a decent sunset. I looped around Wilmington Hill, High and Over, Birling Gap and finally Beachy Head, but most of the light was fading behind cloud.

What I ended up capturing was a clean, sunlight-flooded view of Belle Tout Lighthouse, sitting above the cliffs with sheep grazing in the foreground. No mist, no dramatic sky, but strong warmth and a simple, calm scene that worked well for the end of the day.

Broomhill Sands Shipwreck

One of the more unusual subjects this month was the old wooden wreck at Broomhill Sands. After recent storms the shingle has shifted again, revealing most of the lower hull and ribs at low tide. It sits in the inter-tidal zone facing back towards Rye Bay, slowly sinking and reappearing as the beach reshapes itself.

Photographically it is not an easy subject to line up with the light. On this visit the best colour was at sunset, which meant shooting a side view of the wreck or the hull with the sun dropping over the distant headland rather than directly behind the bow. The first image is a wide panorama, using the rippled foreground sand and the curve of the timbers to lead the eye out towards the horizon.

During blue hour, when the light was softer and the wreck sat in a still pool of water. A vertical composition works well here, from the bow, emphasising the curve of the hull against the flat expanse of beach and the pastel sky. The trade-off is that the timber groynes overlap the wreck, but they also help place it in the wider context of this very engineered stretch of coastline. Sunrise could work better from this angle and a long exposure of a retreating tide over the hull.

A close up shot using a wide angle lens may have worked better here accentuating the length of the vessel. Being back a bit to get some height but zooming in slightly has compressed the length of the boat from the bow to the stern. But this is what we learn in the field shooting different objects and backgrounds.

Seven Sisters – Late-November Walk from Birling Gap

The final outing of the month was a walk along the Seven Sisters from Birling Gap towards Cuckmere Haven. After a long run of grey weather, the afternoon finally cleared into bright, crisp sunshine — perfect conditions for a cliff-top route.

The plan was to find a strong composition for sunset and then stay on into blue hour, but with the sun dropping directly out to sea there was no workable foreground for a west-facing shot.

Instead, the better options were looking east. I settled on two views pulling in the chalk cliffs towards Belle Tout Lighthouse and Birling Gap, using the side-light on the cliffs and the long sweep of coastline for structure. It’s a deceptively long walk with all the dips and climbs between the brows, and in the end I should have started earlier, but the light held long enough to finish November with a couple of clean coastal images.

Summary & Conclusion

November ended up being one of those months where the conditions dictated everything — short breaks between weather fronts, pockets of clear light, and a lot of scouting in between. The strongest results came from working with what was available: misty High Weald mornings, brief sunlight on the coast, and a couple of reliable long-range viewpoints when the cloud finally lifted. The mix of walks, drives, and quick stops also helped build a clearer picture of locations worth returning to later in winter, especially around Woods Corner, Beauport, and the Seven Sisters.

Overall, the month delivered a solid set of images despite the limited light, and it set up a good foundation for the colder, clearer conditions that usually arrive in December.