The Grand Pier

Grand Pier, Weston-super-Mare North Somerset, England

Making the most of a three-day long weekend, I decided to go on a roadtrip to Wells, Cheddar Gorge and Weston-super-Mare with a few friends. Having been living away from the beach for quite some time, it was nice to experience the smell of the sea and feel of the sand. Unfortunately, the tide was out and what's left was a few hundred meters of slushy mudflats. The wind was also picking up as the sun started to set.

With a band of dark clouds on the horizon, I was uncertain about the prospect of a good sunset. Thankfully, there was still a gap above that band of clouds to allow the warm sunlight through. I tried capturing a sun star framed between the pillars of the pier with mixed success. The higher level clouds started to catch the light too, creating an interesting pattern of orange and blues in the sky. Due to the large dynamic range and complicated foreground, I had to blend two exposure in post-process as graduated filters were useless in this scenario. Overall, it was a really enjoyable day out exploring new places with friends.

2 exp shot, edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.