Skip to main content

Exploring Our Local Beaches

My husband loves to make lists and challenge himself to tick every item off. This summer he has come up with a list of all the beaches worth visiting in our county and has declared that we will visit every single one of them. We love going to the beach and so naturally we were all up for this challenge. Sadly the weather has posed a challenge of its own and there have not been many beach worthy days so far. We did however manage a couple of nice visits to the coast before things got too soggy. 

Our first beach trip of the challenge was to Littlestone. This was a sweet little beach and we had a lovely day there. It was nice and quiet on the day we went. I loved the big dramatic skies. At least I didn't have to worry about harsh lighting on faces. 








I also had a lot of fun with the reflections on the sand. 





The following day we hopped into the car again to visit Hastings. We have been here before but somehow it left a bad impression that time. I think we visited on a cold rainy day in winter, which never brings out the best in any seaside town. I really enjoyed this trip to Hastings and will definitely go again. It is much busier than Littlestone and has a very different atmosphere. The town has lots of nice shops too. 









Now, this is where I have to admit that I am getting lazy... We have been on quite a few days out over the past couple of weeks and I have decided to leave the camera at home (gasp!). Mostly it is because the weather has been so awful but sometimes I just don't want the hassle. I have noticed that I am particularly loathe to take the camera when we are meeting up with friends or family. I really struggled with that during the 365 and often got pretty rubbish photos on the day. I also tend to feel self-conscious around others and frustrated that I can't loosen up and focus on getting the photos I want. Sometimes I have felt that leaving the camera at home was the right decision, but other times  I have missed it. 

I really wish that I had taken the camera to Herstmonseux Observatory Science Centre. This place was really cool and I could see so much potential for great photos. In the end I took quite a few pictures with my iPhone. It was so interesting to import these photos into Lightroom and attempt to edit them. Firstly I was able to see the settings that the camera chose and they were crazy! 

This photo was shot at ISO50; f/2.4 and ..... 1/2000. Even at ISO50 there is a lot of noise in the pictures and I just couldn't get the colours right. 






The pictures still feel worth having but I was even more frustrated when I saw that they were having a photo competition. After fiddling around in Lightroom for a while I came to the conclusion that if I was going to enter the competition, I was going to have to convert to black and white. 

Here is what I got. 










I also threw in a couple of cool science ones for good measure.




We have another day out with friends tomorrow and I am undecided about bringing the camera. We also have the bank holiday weekend coming up and hopefully I will get lots of photos to finish off the summer.


Comments