2022 - A Year in Review

Another year has flown by, and I find myself, once again, looking back over my landscape photography from the past twelve months. Whilst I have been out and about capturing seascapes photos as usual, I have been very slack in blogging about the shoots themselves, for which I can only apologise. Finding time to write properly has been an issue this year, but I promise to try harder in 2023. However, I have tried to post images on my social media so it hasn’t been a total blackout!
Talking of social media, I began to post on a Vero account this year, for those that are on Vero my account can be found here vero.co/mjpphotos
I haven’t strayed too far this year. As previously mentioned, time has been limited this year, so getting out to shoot has often been a last minute dash, hence why I have stayed quite local.
I’ve concentrated on seascapes again in 2022, always so satisfying, and even in less than ideal lighting conditions, I always seem to get at least one interesting image from a shoot, and if I don’t, then time spent beside the sea is always a joy…what ever the weather!
Overall I managed to get out over 20 times this year, editing shots from 16, which is not a bad hit rate. As to be expected I had a a few blanks; a few fruitless shoots at Burgh Castle, promising forecasts with less than promising outcomes, and also a few at Hopton beach, where tides and overly clam seas put pay to anything interesting. On the whole I’m pleased with what I’ve managed to capture, particularly the dawn shoots at Gorleston Beach, where I was lucky enough get some beautiful morning light.
As usual in these posts I’m sharing some of my favourite shots of the past year. They are in no particular order, and don’t correspond to my ‘most liked’ from Instagram and like.

January 2022 - Gorleston Beach at Sunset
The first outing of the year was a sunset shoot at my local Gorleston beach, just an excuse to get out blow away the cobwebs. As always, any images I get are a bonus, it’s the process that’s important. I did get a few nice shots of the rushing waves and my favourite Groyne structures being engulfed by the the sea.





January 2022 - Caister Beach
A dull and dismal shoot at Caister around sunset. The conditions could have perfect (couldn’t they always!) but a faster moving bank of cloud and a slower incoming tide made it a race for some decent conditions. I did get a couple of passable shots, so not a completely wasted journey.


January 2022 - Gorleston Beach at Sunrise
What an amazing shoot this was! Braving the early morning cold was definitely worthwhile. I was treated to some stunning dawn colours and interesting waves patterns on the beach, what was not to like?



January 2022 - Gunton Beach at Sunset
I’d never had much luck at Gunton, weather conditions wise anyway, but this shoot was the best yet. The best display of colour for sure, and I even managed to find some foreground interest washing amongst the waves too.





February 2022 - Caister Beach Sunset
I don’t really have a photographic bucket list, particularly of the honeypot locations we have in East Anglia and beyond. However, one spot which has fascinated me for a long time has been the peculiar zig-zag groynes at Caister. Until recently they have been quite unobtainable, being buried under sand, but to my delight this winter (probably due to an aggressive spring tide) they appeared again. I managed to get down and have a look and get some fairly decent images.





March 2022 - Burgh Castle (Breydon Water)
A favourite location of mine, but one I haven’t had much success with over the last year. A good sky sky is essential to get a great image, along with (in my opinion) a very low tide to reveal the mudflats. Filled with my usual hope I headed out to my usual spot alongside Breydon Water to see what I could capture. There was quite the crowd of photographers when I arrived, so I had to look for another spot to shoot from. I found something a bit different from my usual composition, it did involve a bit of clambering up and down a steep bank, but it was worth the potential slip to get the shot. I got down low and used the little pools in the exposed mud for the foreground interest, and cut out a large proportion the large bank of grey cloud which was dominating the background. I took a few frames of this composition before any colour disappeared. Short but sweet, not bad to get something when I expected nothing!



April 2022 - Hopton Beach Sunrise
Not the most productive of shoots, it started off ok, but the colours never really materialised. The sky was too clear in the most part, and the tide did prevent too many opportunities to move around for some better compositions at sunrise itself. This shot is one of the first compositions, taken around 40 minutes before sunrise. It’s probably my favourite time during dawn shoots, as blue hour begins to turn to the golden hour without the harsh glare of the sun.



As the sun began to appear on the horizon, I worked this composition. I was balanced rather precariously on some rocks to get this shot. The sun had just appeared over the cloud bank on the horizon, so was working quickly to capture shots before the highlights became too unmanageable. I did get four or five frames of this before getting wet from a wave hitting the rock reef to my left. That was me and the camera covered in seawater, which, in effect, ended the shoot there and then! Such is the beauty of seascape photography.



April 2022 - Gorleston Beach Sunrise
One last effort to get out at sunrise before the time became too anti-social. It was a 5.00am alarm for this shoot at Gorleston Beach, but was so worth the effort it took to haul myself out of bed. There are one or two images taken which I am really quite in love with!
The area of the beach I worked was close to the crooked Groyne marker. I did hope too shoot further south of this spot, but the tide wasn’t as high as I had hoped which meant the beach looked quite stony in other places, I preferred the smooth clean sand in this area. Given the reflections of the water in the sand, I’m glad I made that decision.





April 2022 - Gorleston Beach Sunset

This shoot took place after a prolonged period of clear blue skies that dominated the weather on the East Coast during April. I was treated to some ominous looking clouds gathering at the end of this particular day. The downside is that it was much colder of course, but it is worth wrapping up a bit more to get these kind of images. Moody skies over the North Sea at sunset, coupled with long exposure waves, what could be better?





May 2022 - Caister Beach Sunset

With opportunities to shoot becoming more infrequent as summer takes hold, I headed at for sunset to Caister Beach to see what I could capture. This time of year doesn’t seem to have the same dramatic seas and conditions, but being at the coast is always a joy. I did still have to employ the wellies for this shoot, as I was standing in water for the entirety of the shoot to get close enough to the rocks, but just having to wear jeans and a t-shirt was a pleasant change.
The sky didn’t really develop as I had hoped, a big bank of cloud in front of the setting sun, limiting the colour show, but the sea did throw up a few big waves around the rocks to give me some foreground interest.



October 2022 - Gorleston Beach Sunset
Back after a five month break and out to Gorleston to blow away the cobwebs from my camera. It was a very overcast sky, so I was quite surprised to see a little bit of reflected colour appear in the sky as the sun set. Always a great place to visit, and it was surprisingly mild too, so I was able to feel my hands and fingers throughout!



October 2022 - Gorleston Beach Sunset
Another trip to Gorleston, but it was very last minute and low tide, so I didn’t expect too much. I was pleasantly surprised with what I did manage to capture. Although it did take me a bit of to-ing and fro-ing to find the spots where the waves broke highest up the beach.





October 2022 - Gorleston Beach Sunrise
One of the highlights of the year was this sunrise shoot ay Gorleston. The light was incredible and combined with some fast moving cloud and a high tide I was able to get some beautiful shots. This one of the groyne posts in front of an atmospheric sky is my particular favourite.





November 2022 - Gorleston Beach Sunset
Hoping for a typical winter sunset on the beach, I headed out to Gorleston Beach. I’d captured a stunning image a year earlier, but this time it wasn’t to be. The beach was very busy, so I headed further south towards Hopton to find a more secluded area. I managed to find quite a few compositions to work, with some nice light/ Nothing amazing, but not bad either!





November 2022 - Gorleston Beach Sunset
The final shoot (for this review anyway) was at Gorleston again. and, much like many of my autumn shoots, were a last minute affair. Quite a subtle pastel sky on this occasion, and some nice movement in the sea meant that I had a few compositions to play with. As you can probably tell from the photos, wellies were essential for this shoot as I needed to stand in the incoming waves at times.





I'm not sure what 2023 will bring, hopefully some seascapes from some other locations. There a few along the East Anglian Coast I have my eye on, but my usual local haunts always seem to deliver, so I'm sure I'll be back at those places as a matter of course. Other water based locations may also get a visit, after all I am close to the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, and they definitely deserve a happy, healthy and peaceful 2023.
Until next time!!


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