Today is the sixth day of my photography challenge – Adventures in Photography

Following on from my visit to Bawdsey yesterday I decided to head to East Lane in Bawdsey to photograph the remains of the sea defences which are scattered all along the coast here. These range from Napoleonic martello towers to World War II pill boxes and a gun tower which looks out over a series of man made ponds.

I arrived about half and hour before sunrise and took my first shot over the ponds looking back towards the gun tower. The morning was completely still and I wanted to capture the reflections which I knew would be less clear once the breeze picked up after sunrise.

My first shot was a 5 second exposure at F16 with a 0.6 ND graduated filter. I used some of the grasses along the edge of the pond to create a leading line into the shot  and felt that the little pool of water between them pointed nicely towards the gun tower.

From here I headed to the beach where the sun was beginning to rise creating a beautiful band of orange and yellow light on the horizon. My next shot was taken looking back along the beach towards the martello tower. I loved the exposed mudstone which was visible here and used this to create a foreground to my image.

This shot was a 1.6 second exposure at F16, ISO 64 with a 0.9 ND graduated filter.

The beach here works best for photography on a falling tide when the receding waters reveal vast areas of mudstone and two fallen pill boxes just off shore. The beach is backed by Red Crag cliffs which date back to the Early Pleistocene and are rich in fossils of marine molluscs. They are also very unstable and are the reason for the fallen pill boxes on the beach.

My next shot feature the upright section of the next pill box which is situated at the base of the cliff. I loved the seaworn pattens of the brick structure and I used these to create some foreground for my shot.

This shot was a 71 second exposure at F16 with a 0.6 ND graduated filter and a 6 stop ND filter.

I had last visited this beach just after Christmas and was surprised to find that the second section of this pill box had completed collapsed in the intervening two months. My next shot shows all that remains.

This shot is taken looking along the beach towards Felixstowe and is a 13 second exposure at F16 using a 0.9 ND graduated filter and a 6 stop ND filter.

My next shot show some of the metal and concrete debris that litters the beach here. This is a 22 second exposure at F16, ISO 64, 0.6 ND graduated filter and 6 stop ND grad.

My final shot for today was taken walking back along the beach and shows another pill box which now lies submerged at high tide. I loved the stillness of the pools of water which surrounded it and the reflections that were present. This is an 18 second exposure at F16, ISO 64, using a 0.6 ND graduated filter and a 6 stop ND filter.

I hope these 6 images have captured the essence of the beach at East Lane and reveal a little bit about its fascinating past.