Sunset at West Beach

The forecast and tide conditions pointed to this evening being suitable for sunset at West Beach. The low tide had been an hour and a half earlier and it quickly became obvious that the best angle to get the sun in the photo was going to be standing in the shallow water and looking along the shore.

I started by setting up on the wet sand looking towards the setting sun, with the sand ripples in the foreground catching the sunlight.

In my mind, there were a few problems with this viewpoint - the sun was still too bright and high, I didn't like the two areas of dark within the composition and I wasn't likely to get foreground reflections. At this time of year, the sun sets behind the sand dunes - so inland rather than over the sea.

So, I moved into the shallow water of the incoming tide to include some water in my composition. Watching the small waves washing ashore in front of my newly chosen spot, it soon transpired that it was possible to take photos where the setting sun highlighted the leading edge of those small waves.

The positioning of those leading edges depended on my timing as I had the camera set to 2secs delay after pressing the shutter, so my eyes were looking left at the incoming waves and trying to judge when to press the shutter.

I fired off quite a few at this spot, with each being a bit different and then the sun set below the horizon, giving some glow and leaving me looking for a slightly different spot to shoot from, particularly as the water I was stood in was getting a little higher.