Autumn Storm Over The Bay

I went out for a stroll along the quay at Wells-Next-The-sea a couple of weeks ago with the intention of capturing a nice shot of the boats and surrounding sand banks as the tide was out. The weather had looked promising as I prepared my camera gear but leaving the house, I noticed the clouds rolling in. Arriving at the quay the camera was attached to a tripod, composition set. And so I waited... and waited. The light which had looked so promising not half and hour before was now dark and flat, a huge cloud obscuring the low sun. At this time of year with the sun being pretty much at its lowest, it's all about the timing. The sun was disappearing fast behind the buildings on the quay and this large cloud didn't look as though it was going to budge. I was toasty and warm, wearing a thick jacket, but Emma wasn't so lucky and was starting to get cold. ( I did offer her my jacket and have since left it with her before you ask ) I was aware that if we didn't capture an image within the next 10 minutes or so it would be all too late as the light would be gone and Emma would be just too cold to continue. The sun finally disappeared behind one of the buildings and all seemed lost until I noticed a large bank of clouds moving in behind the scene I was trying to photograph. I could see that the sun, while not lighting the quay and boats directly was bouncing light off the large cloud bank back towards the scene just like a giant reflector. As it moved into position behind the boats the wind suddenly whipped up forcing me to up the ISO to increase shutter speed. I could see through the viewfinder that there was slight camera shake caused by the wind even though I was using a trusty and solid old Manfrotto tripod. I needed to make sure any vibration was negated by upping the shutter speed in the camera. Luckily ISO 800 is a walk in the park for the Nikon D4, the image is super clean with a huge dynamic range still possible. ( I only normally choose low ISO's simply because it's good practice and ultimately will result in the cleanest of images with the highest dynamic range ) The sky was turning a lovely yellow orange colour and this light was reflecting off the boats, the water and the sand. I took about six images across a period of 30 seconds before the cloud had moved out of frame and the moment gone.

I love the final image. It will always remind me of a beautiful fleeting moment of a lovely little seaside resort... I just hope Emma agrees.

Nikon D4 with Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8