Thornham and Hunstanton
SEPTEMBER 2, 2023
I live in London and although I love my home, there is only so much you can photograph in the city and my love for nature always draws me out to explore the surrounding counties. Norfolk is a county to the east of London and the Norfolk coast has some stunning locations to photograph along with some beautiful windmills. Unfortunately the county is very large and still quite a considerable drive away from the centre of London. I decide to visit the coastal town of Hunstanton to view some extraordinary coastal cliffs and Thornham to capture an old disused barn.
Thornham
I decided to visit Thornham first to photograph the disused barn as Hunstanton would be my sunset location. I arrived around 2 hours before sunset to the barn which seems to have been kept in a very good state and from my understanding it used to be a coal barn. The barn sits next to a small creek around the marshes and after walking around the to find a composition, I decide to capture the image below.
The cloud coverage looked stunning and was constantly changing as it was quite windy. Although I like this composition with the path as a leading line to the barn, I wanted a bit more in the foreground so tried another composition with the emphasis on the heather as the foreground element in the image below. I like this composition as well where the barn is slightly larger in the frame along with the creek and some stunning light to the left of the images next to the tree.
Unfortunately, it was difficult to find other compositions but I did take a few more shots but they weren't very compelling. As I was leaving the barn on the way to explore the surrounding marshes I noticed some water had pooled from the rain in front of the barn which had a beautiful reflection which I managed to capture below.
The marshes surrounding the creek was dotted with landing stages and due to the low tide they were visible and made for a nice image. After wondering around I found a small group of what looked like old landing posts, the low tide had created some small islands which made for a good composition. I also loved the reflections of the sky in the water and I managed to capture the image below. I felt the main post closest to the left made a strong starting focal point leading with the water to the 2nd post and then to the distant boat and the sky above. I also capture a second composition, which was standing a bit further back, which do you like?
Hunstanton Beach
My sunset location for the trip was Hunstanton Beach which is about a ten minute drive from Thornham. There are a few opportunities for photo locations around the beach area but the main attraction is the coloured cliff face. These colours are produced by carrstone which consists of sandstone, sand cemented together by iron oxide (rust) and chalk being the white layer. When I got to the location unfortunately it had turned very cloudy and I didn't think there would be much of a sunset. However through the clouds some colour tried to burst through and I played with a couple of different compositions with the ever changing light and managed to capture the resulting images below.
The sun was setting behind the me dipping into the sea but the cloud coverage was so intense that the sun was completely covered and there was no light hitting the cliffs. However, as always with landscape photography you have that one moment when for a minute or two, everything changes and the sun showed itself and the light started hitting the cliffs and changing the white cliff into an intense red. This moment was fleeting past with little or no time to get a great composition but here are the images I captured.
This was a great location to visit and I only wish I had arrived a bit earlier to explore the location as there were other photo opportunities along the beach. It is difficult to fit in both locations if you want to get that nice evening or morning light so you may have to choose only one of these locations. This was my first time at this location and I will certainly return at some point in the future but I would highly recommend a visit.
I hope you enjoyed the images and if you would like to see more of my adventures please do follow me on my social media pages.