Sunset & Moonrise

Last night I went out to East Beach for sunset, as conditions looked promising and it was soon after low tide. Initially I was again a little early with my arrival on the beach, as the sun was still quite bright, but colours often start ahead of the actual sunset time.

I set up my tripod and added my reverse grad ND filter to the camera to allow me to take photos looking towards the sun.

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The sun soon sank lower and started to dip below the horizon, though the hoped for colour in the thin wispy clouds didn't really materialise.

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I shifted my position on the beach, hoping for better reflection and took another shot. Noticeable in this one is the shallow water in left half being blown towards me by the breeze.

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The colours hadn't really done much by now and I remember thinking 'huhh, is that all you've got' about the sunset. Meanwhile, I had previously noticed that behind me the almost full moon was rising and reflecting the water, so I turned my attention in that direction and sought a suitable stretch of water for reflections. Seeing my initial shot on the rear screen of the camera persuaded me that I needed a different spot to shoot from. At this point though, I got a most welcome surprise when I glanced over my shoulder - the sky had suddenly lit up with sunset colour which was beautifully reflected in the shallow water and wet sand, so I turned my attention back to the East.

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The above was the scene that immediately greeted me when I turned around to see the sudden burst of colour and whereas I liked the sand patterns in the foreground, I disliked the dark drier stretch to the right and chose to moved quickly for a better reflection.

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By now the colours were getting stronger and more reddish and I noticed that a few yards to my right I could get a clearer reflection as the water was smoother there.

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I took a few more, though the above was what I had been hoping for anyway, and soon the colours started to fade away as suddenly as they had appeared. So I now turned my attention back to the rising moon. By this time, the street lights on the promenade were lit and I reckoned if I got to a calm stretch of water nearer to the shore I might get moon and the reflection plus the streetlights.

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I took a moon photo, but it didn't satisfy my desired shot, but I had noticed that I could also look the other way and get the newly light wrapped streetlights along the promenade reflected in the water - so I composed my photo of that image before returning my attention to the moon.

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This shot was looking along the shore, with promenade lights from the East Beach beach huts and along towards Rustington.

Thus ended a successful evening on the beach, with actual full moon (a Harvest Moon) due this evening if the cloudy conditions outside currently lift sufficiently.