Gunton Beach - Monochrome At Midday

Under the cover of overcast skies, and with my passport safely tucked in my camera bag I made a trip across the border into Suffolk. It was only just into my neighbouring county to Gunton Beach. (Note: I'm pretty sure this is what the locals call it, confusingly the car park serving this stretch of the coast is called Lowestoft North Beach).
Gunton is nestled between Corton to the north and Ness Point - Lowestoft to the south. (Ness Point is the UKs most easterly point, and is another location on my list for the winter).


This gulley formed by the groyne to the left and the concrete to the right made for some amazing wave paths.

It’s a strange experience when you first visit this location. Heading down Links Road to the beach you see Gunton Beach to your left, which typical of many beaches in this area; sandy, wide, open with timber groyne type sea defences at regular intervals. Turn right towards Lowestoft (I'll call this North Beach just for the sake of distinction) and the beach looks very different, it's narrow, with no real access from the sea wall. It is lined with large concrete blocks and old masonry, I’m assuming to act as a sea defence. There are warning signs everywhere prohibiting swimming due to dangerous structures under the water, not the most inviting of places for the beach goer it seems. However, the day I visited, it was busy with people walking along the beach to and from the south.


Just a touch further south than the previous image, is this view. The waves moving around the concrete slabs was mesmerising.

So why would I choose this place to photograph? Mainly because the skies (as previously mentioned) were heavily overcast, which to me is an opportunity to capture some black and white imagery. The rugged, discarded concrete would act as focal points and interest for the photos, so I thought it would be worth a visit.
I did have a walk along the beach as far as access would allow, before returning to the area close to where I stepped onto the beach. The masonry and concrete here made a bit of a gulley for the sea to rush into, which made some interesting receding wave patterns.


Here we are looking towars Lowestoft. I am tucked behind the wall to the right in the previous shot.

I did work both beaches, resulting in contrasting images. The North Beach were specifically black and white, and Gunton Beach much more my usual style of composition, namely waves rushing up a sandy beach and receding back to sea.
This shoot was around midday, which meant I wasn’t kerbed by the usual sunset/end of day time limit, so it could have gone on and on….again mesmerised by the wave action. Although I did manage to pull myself away….eventually.


A few hundred meters to the North is this view. You can just see the masonry/gulley area in the top right of this image.

Looking back in the shots from this session, I am more pleased with the North Beach images, being a dull overcast day, the black and white shots have a lot of impact. The Gunton Beach shots, are ok, but I feel the images from this location would suit sunrise or sunset, but it is definitely a place to revisit when a potentially good sunrise or sunset is on the cards. I have included a few of the black and white shots to show the remarkable difference between the two neighbouring locations.


Turning to look north towards Corton/Hopton and Gorleston, the wide open, dare I say, cleaner view!

Will any of these images make it into my gallery? I would say no, but then gallery images never the real purpose of this shoot. I wanted to scout the location, although it was nice to capture some ok shots from such a shoot. Ultimately an hour or two on the coast with camera in hand (or in this case - on tripod) is always a plus. Will I return? Absolutely...in fact (spoiler alert) I did return here a week or so later. SO look out for the blog on that one!


Looking directly out to sea at this groyne structure cut off by the high tide

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