On Location Photographing Eastbourne Pier and Beachy Head

Photographing Eastbourne Pier

A few weeks ago I decided to drive down to the Sussex Coast for a sunrise shoot at the pier in Eastbourne. I’ve visited the south coast with the camera many times before but this was the first time I’ve taken the camera to Eastbourne to photograph the pier. Personally, I think this is the most photogenic pier along this particular stretch of the southern coastline as despite suffering a fire in 2014, it still has a lot of its original Victorian features and hasn’t been overrun by fair rides and illumination so I was pleased to finally be able to get down there and capture it.

After arriving and finding my first composition, I placed the bigger Fujifilm XT2 camera onto the tripod and took a couple of long exposure photos (I will share one of two of them on my site sometime soon) and used my pocket rocket X-T30 to take some handheld shots as I wandered around seeking out alternative compositions and it’s these photos I have shared below.

In the first couple of photos, I used the wooden groynes that line the beach to help with the composition and lead the eye towards the pier and although there wasn’t much in the way of a pre-sunrise show in the sky, I still really like the cool pastel tones I managed to capture.

As the sun started to rise, I made my way down to the water’s edge, right beside the pier to get a better sense of scale and to use the reflections on the wet sand as some foreground interest.

Photographing Beachy Head

After an hour or so, I was finished with the pier but not finished taking photos so I took a 10-minute drive up to Beachy Head to take a few more photos along the cliff’s edge where I spent some time playing with different compositions of the lighthouse and views out to sea using the Fujifilm X-T30 and 23mm F2 camera and lens combo.

While trying to use some of the wildflowers as foreground interest in the photos I took of the lighthouse, it was pretty obvious that I was too late in the year and most of the plant-life was long gone which means I will make a point of getting back to Beachy Head a little earlier in the year next time so there should be a lot more wildlife to choose from.

It’s posts like this that make having a blog so useful as I’m able to share a collection of photos that tell a better story of the shoot which in my opinion doesn’t work so well on social media. It’s not all about the technical details or techniques I used, it’s just a good way to share a few different shots from a shoot displayed in a way think works best for the photos.

I have a couple of posts lined up from some recent trips back into London which I will share in the next few weeks.

Take care

Trevor