Northumberland Beach Photography: A Sunrise Experience

Last week, I shared some photos from the first day of my trip to Northumberland. This week, I want to share some from the following morning. This started with a trip down to the beach at Bamburgh to photograph the sunrise.

The plan was to get up well before sunrise and head directly to the beach. Having been to the area many times, I knew where to park and how long it would take to get into position at a set of rocks that I thought would look good. I initially wanted to visit this point on the beach as I knew where the sun would rise, the height of the tide and the tide times.

Everything worked perfectly except for one thing I hadn’t counted on. The colours in the scene before sunrise can only be described as nuclear. This made processing the RAW file extremely difficult as everything you do looks false, but the starting RAW file still needs processing.

Here’s the best image I have been able to produce so far.

This was captured using a Nikon Z7ii and Nikon 24-120 lens at 62mm. The exposure is 5 seconds at f/13.0 and ISO 64. I also used a 3-stop Reverse ND Grad filter on the sky to balance the exposure.

I tried to get down into the water for a wider, angled shot, but it was too deep. Looking back now, I like this composition more than if I had used a wide focal length. The longer focal length makes more of the Farn Islands you can see on the horizon.

Then, after a short time, the colour disappeared and was replaced by thick clouds on the horizon. I thought the sunrise was over, but you can never tell how the light will develop.

Here’s an image at the point where the sun just makes it over the cloud on the horizon.

This was also shot using the Nikon Z7ii and Nikon 24-120 lens, this time at 28mm. It’s a one-second exposure at f/11 and ISO64. I used a 3-stop reverse ND grad filter on the sky to balance the exposure. I also used a 4-stop ND filter to lengthen the exposure time, so I caught the movement in the waves.

Shortly after, once the sun was above the horizon, the thick clouds cleared. That’s when I turned my attention to the incoming waves. I think it was the pastel colours in the sky that attracted me. It’s one of my favourite shots of the morning.

This is a 0.8-second exposure with the Nikon and 24-120 lens (at 26mm). I used only a 4-stop ND filter to lengthen the exposure time.

I hope you like the photos and have a great weekend.