Afternoon of Photography - Jurassic Coast - Durdle Door.

I’m very fortunate to live in Dorset - only a short drive to the Jurassic Coast. I recently drove to Durdle Door, only a 45-minute drive. I reached the Durdle Door car park, without a specific plan, and I headed down to enjoy the coastal wonder, without the mass of tourists that flock during the summer months, in hopes of capturing some nice images. I’ve been to this location a few times with the idea for nice imagery, usually it would be a sunrise, but I have never been quite happy enough with what I capture, either rushing to get too many compositions, or the light just didn’t hit how I would have liked.

I knew I had to grab some shots up on the steep cliff front looking back onto Durdle Door and the beach. Behind me, the sun was slowly setting in the distance beyond Portland, and the light was hitting right onto the beach, creating a nice contrast between the beach, cliffs and the Durdle Door arch itself. The most idyllic conditions.

Most of the images I shot between f4 and f8 - I find I enjoy the results from using f5.6 on a lot of my images. Luckily for shutter speed it wasn’t the biggest concern on this day, alot of the time this coastline can be very windy, with rough waters - but this day was completely still. allowing for the choice of shutterspeed to suit. The only thing i had to keep in mind is i shoot everything handheld, i dont tend to use a tripod - infact im not sure the last time i did use one. I enjoy a minimalist approach to my shooting, so adding things like tripods on a spontaneous shoot may create too much friction for me.

The first photo I want to share is my favourite from the day, yes, it’s a classic composition you have probably encountered before, but the lighting, the few people along the beach, the long shadows of some of the people all coming together, adding to the frame, the colours also coming out just how I hoped too.

The Gear:

I shot with my New Sony A7CR - mostly on the Sigma 35 mm f/2. I love this combo, and I am sure it’s likely to be the setup I use a lot of the time going forward. I bought the Sony A7CR for its small form factor, but I found I really enjoyed using it with the extension grip, a solid grip, along with the left-sided EVF seems to work perfectly for me.

I also took with me the Zeiss 55mm - 1.8. I shot a few images with this, but I am recently finding the 55mm to be a little too tight for the way i am enjoying to shoot.

I really enjoy the contrast in this image and its simplicity.

If I could add anything, it would be some kind of subject in the frame, possibly someone walking through the frame, or something in the distance to create more interest.

The landscape is one thing to capture, but the additional subjects really bring it all together. I used the white cliff to make the subjects pop and stand out, and the shape of the cliff face frames them nicely. You can also notice the leading lines pulling you into the centre subject.

I would love to hear thoughts and feedback on my images - if you’d like to, feel free to comment on anything posted over on my Instagram.

Portland

If you have more time and want to explore this area further, you can also walk along the coastline up on the cliff, which takes you to Lulworth Cove, another stunning location to visit and photograph. In the distance from Durdle Door, you will see Portland, which is also a great location to visit.