I've been trying to catch up on some processing so I have a few photos to upload, the first batch of which is a mix of old and new images from my local area of the Suffolk coast. 

The first this month is a view that has become pretty well known amongst photographers and the scene of what i would imagine is my best known image. You don't often see this in colour though and I've been meaning to do a version myself for some time and in the end, just like my mono version the opportunity was pretty spur of the moment.

The weather forecast for the morning in question wasn't looking particularly promising and I almost didn't bother going out, but my usual tactic for days like that is to go somewhere local to reduce my grumpiness if I come home without any photos. So on a morning that looked very grey and cloudy I found myself on a windswept Felixstowe seafront witnessing the most unexpected show of dawn colour I've ever seen. The tide was as close to perfect as one could possibly hope for on a last minute trip like this so I was very excited as I got out of the car. The big challenge was the wind or rather what it carried… sea spray. I managed to get my colour shots but there was no time to consider or tweak compositions because within seconds of fitting a graduated filter in front of the lens it was coated with spray and a long exposure was definitely out of the question. Cleaning filters on location is far from practical so even though I have a pretty good selection of them I managed about 10 shots before they were all unusable but by that time the sun had risen into the clouds and the show was over.

The next new addition is from Waldringfield, a tiny village on the River Deben in Suffolk. This was taken on a beautifully calm and misty dawn trip back in June (a time of year when dawn actually means the middle of the night). The sky was almost totally clear so as I was walking along the river I knew it was never going to be a spectacular sunrise, as is often the case int he summer, but it did mean there would be some nice warm sidelight as the sun came up. With that in mind I decided to concentrate the composition on the foreground boats and their mirror like reflections keeping the fairly boring sky to a minimum. The sun didn't disappoint and I spent a good 45 minutes shooting boats and reflections before heading home for a quick sleep before work.

The last image for this post is from Shingle Street which, as it's name suggests, is a row of cottages bordering the large shingle beach on this fairly remote part of the Suffolk coast. This area of coastline has an interesting history but it's now important for the rare and protected habitat. It's a place I haven't photographed for some time possibly because it's somewhere that I have found difficult to capture well but or maybe just because, as a photographer who likes to dash about looking at every angle, it's rather laborious to walk across.

This was another of those last minute visits and without a particular plan in mind I wandered (trudged) across the beach looking for a starting point. The shingle had shifted a lot since my last visit here, probably caused by last winter's tidal surges, and a whole new mini peninsular has been created which is where my trudging took me. With views back to the beach and cottages beyond there was no shortage of interesting compositions but there was a distinct lack of interesting light. After some time spent waiting for something to happen and idly wondering whether the incoming tide would cut me off or not, I decided it was a lost cause and headed back up the beach to have a quick look around before going home.

As you would expect this is when the sun decided to make a brief appearance and as warm light raked across the beach a pink tinge appeared in the distant clouds. I was caught between going back and carrying on to the classic view of the shingle street coastguard cottages and, well you can see what I decided.

You'll find this and more of my images from the Suffolk coast here

So there you have it, my latest new and not so new work. As always let me know what you think, would you like to see more info or more images and less info etc.?