A minutes is a long time in photography

During the summer months I try and take advantage of the long evenings and the north westerly position of the setting sun by getting up to the Norfolk coast as often as possible. Despite the increase in tourists at this time of year the north Norfolk coastline is so spacious that it's still remarkably peaceful on many of the beaches and salt marshes. Even Blakeney, one of the more popular spots and my location last night, had an air of calm as the dying sun dipped into the distant North Sea.

My aim was to capture the carpet of sea lavender currently covering the salt marsh before it started to go past it's best but looking through the images from the trip I realised I'd inadvertently captured the difference a few moments makes to a photo and felt a quick blog coming on.

I love the feeling of anticipation when you arrive somewhere, conditions looking promising, knowing you have a couple of hours with nothing more pressing to do than wander with a camera. So as I sat on the tailgate putting my boots on I had a look around. To the west was a large strip of dense cloud which was doing a very good job of blocking the evening sunlight but leaving a nice gap waiting at the horizon for the setting sun to shine through. Plenty of time.

After a short wander I found myself back at a favourite spot, set up and worked on a few images and different compositions (one of which is below) while waiting for the sun to appear. I was fairly happy with the results but as the sun, by now hovering close to the horizon, appeared from behind the clouds it quite literally transformed the scene before me. 

Eight minutes passed between these two photos (I used a bit of artistic license in the title) but to me the difference is like night and day. Many of you will be familiar with that feeling of excitement at the appearance of those fleeting moments of light and this short blog post serves no greater purpose than to celebrate those times when we're lucky enough to be there to catch it.