First Posts of 2011 - Dorset Seascapes

Dorset Landscape & Seascape Photography : Kimmeridge Bay

My first post for 2011 as I gear up to produce some great landscape and seascape shots from our wonderful county, Dorset and further afield.

Its not been great weather this last week, so I haven't been out much taking photos, but this weekend things changed ... in all sorts of ways.

Saturday saw a high tide along with a stiff onshore breeze which caused some wild and dramatic weather down at Hive Beach and along the cliffs .... more on this later.

I also spent Saturday down at Kimmeridge with Ross Hoddinot working on an assignment for DSLR Magazine, which I can't say too much about at the moment, but all will be revealed just as soon as I can.

I decided to return to Kimmeridge again this evening as the weather was good and there was a reasonably low tide, which means the many ledges, rocks and piers are uncovered waiting to be captured.

I met up with one of my photography buddies, Mike Ayles, and we set off round under Clavell's Tower to see what we could find. Kimmeridge Bay has double low-tides and we were catching it just as it was rising from the first low, heading into the 2nd a couple of hours later. This meant that the ledges we were on were getting quite wet, so we quickly moved back round to Clavell's Pier.

The skies were completely devoid of cloud, and although they were a wonderfully deep blue, there wasn't a lot of cloud to add colour or interest to the skies. I decided to get the Lee Big Stopper out and turn the scene into a magical, misty seascape.

Using the 10 stop filter, I used an exposure time of 6 minutes which turned the water milky and misty and smoothed out the gentle waves that were lapping up the pier.

A very Happy New Year and I hope you enjoy the shots.