kent Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Stewart Mckeown Photography

Landscape Photographer

Jan 01

by stew in field report 0 comments tags: aonb, fog, kent, kent downs, landscape, mist, photography, summerhouse hill

Behind the shot: A Kent Downs Cloud Inversion

Behind the scenes look at a photograph I took at the beginning of December 2019 on the Kent Downs. As I write this on New Year’s Eve, there has not been much winterly weather so far here in Kent with the only real spell of cold weather occurring at the start of the month. This brief 3-day spell did produce some fantastic mist and frost though which I am always keen to make use of in my landscape photography. I have been shooting this area of the Kent Downs nr Folkestone quite a bit over the past couple of years and I had a list of the views I wanted to capture in the forecasted cold snap. The first shot I got on that initial cold morning was this panoramic from Farthing Common. I could see the landscape was covered in a frost as I passed in the car and with sunrise only a few minutes away I decided to grab this rather than risk missing out around the corner. The next morning had very similar conditions. Low winds and low temperatures overnight is usually a good indicator for mist but again it did not occur on the Downs. Perhaps […]

Nov 08

by stew in field report, Uncategorized 0 comments tags: dungeness, fishing boat, kent, landscape, romney marsh

behind the shot – dungeness fishing boat

Dungeness is a vast shingle headland located on the tip of Romney Marsh in Kent. The abandoned fishing boats and huts of Dungeness’ fishing past are popular subjects for photographers and I am no different. I have been visiting here for years, often coming in bad and changeable weather to utilise another of the locations best features; its huge skies! On my more recent trips, I have been focussing on the small fleet of charter fishing boats that are still in use here. These well maintained, colourful boats are often in prime unobstructed positions on the very edge of the shingle heaps next to the coast. I took this above shot in November 2018. It had been a clear, bitterly cold and windy day. As the day came to an end, I made my way to the fishing boats where I spotted potential in the incoming clouds to the south. As I made my way there I kept stopping to take a shot as the light changed. These shots below show my attempts to make sense of the scene with these improving conditions. By the time I made it up close to the boat I was buzzing as I found […]

Mar 19

by stew in location guide 0 comments tags: herne bay, kent, north kent coast

Herne Bay Location Guide

Herne Bay is a seaside town on the North Kent coast which has a lot to offer the photographer and all within a tight area. In this guide I have compiled my favourite views in and around Herne Bay to shoot, I live nearby so it has become a go-to spot for me when the light is right. This is in no way exhaustive as I have a few more angles on my to-do list also! Herne Bay Pier Herne Bay used to have the second longest pier in the country before storms collapsed the central section in 1978, leaving the pier head isolated out to sea. This only makes the view of the pier leading towards the detached head in the distance all the more interesting and unique in my opinion though. The pier can be shot well from either side depending on the direction of the light. For example, during the Summer it can be effective to shoot the setting sun in between the pillars of the pier; just be careful of standing too long in the mud. That stuff is treacherous! Pier Head The detached pier head can make for an ideal subject in its own right. […]

Dec 08

by stew in location guide 0 comments tags: botany bay, broadstairs, kent, kent coast

Botany Bay, Broadstairs

For this blog I’ll go through some of my best shots from Botany Bay on the Kent coast. Botany Bay is one of seven sandy beaches in the town of Broadstairs on the Isle of Thanet. It is an especially good sunrise location and one which I have regularly visited over the years and continue to. One of the reasons I like this location so much is its potential for an uncluttered, minimalist shot. With this example above, I was able to strip the scene back completely to include just the elements I wanted of sea, cliffs and sky. It was a very high tide that morning so by going in a few feet I was able to fill my foreground with water. An exposure time of 15 seconds has made the water smooth and reflected the colour in the sky. I positioned the cliffs to the right hand side and tried to make an interesting shape out of them. Now, it gets a little trickier with the final element of the sky. Between the months of March – October, the sun will rise out to the left of the cliffs from this view. If the […]

Aug 30

by stew in location guide 0 comments tags: herne bay, kent, location guide, north kent coast, photography, reculver

Reculver Location Guide

Welcome to my photography location guide for Reculver on the North Kent coast. Located a few miles away from Herne Bay, Reculver is a very small village consisting of a pub, a new coffee shop and a few hundred holiday caravans. For us photographers though the iconic twin towers of the medieval church built on the site of an early Roman fort will be the main purpose for a visit. I live in nearby Canterbury and have thousands of images taken here; it must be my most visited location. The Reculver Towers dominate the skyline for miles and so naturally they will also dominate this guide although they are other things to shoot here as you’ll see. I have split this guide into 3 sections; front of the towers, behind the towers and the other things to shoot. Front The front face of the towers can be best photographed from down on the beach. Walk westerly along the sea wall from the car park and you’ll find the small slope down onto the beach in front of the sandstone cliffs. Access is available to this section under the cliffs even at high tide but to get out […]

Apr 13

by stew in field report 0 comments tags: kent, kent downs, photography, snow, winter

Snow Day 2018

Welcome! In this blog I’ll be going over what I did during the recent snow spell on the Kent Downs. According to my Lightroom catalogue, there hadn’t been a sustained period of snow in Kent that I could get out to photograph since 2013. Shortly afterwards I remember writing a list of all the places I should visit next time to fully make use of the fluffy white stuff. Good planning, except that 5 years later when the list could finally be utilised, we got so much snow that the locations were inaccessible anyway! So, on the morning of the 27th February I wasn’t left with much choice where to visit. I decided to go to the nearby Chartham Downs as I knew the area well and I was fairly sure I could get there safely. On arrival the layby I usually park in looked like a disaster waiting to happen so I had to park at the end of the road and make the walk through the fields to get to the spot I had in mind. It was a bit of a slog as you can see from the video On route through the […]

Mar 07

by stew in field report 0 comments tags: dungeness, greatstone, kent, kent coast

Greatstone to Dungeness Day Trip

Thanks for visiting and reading my write-up of a recent dawn to dusk photo trip. I’ve included the best photos from the day which started in Greatstone and ended in Dungeness as well as my favourites from earlier trips to give readers a more rounded view of the locations. Hope you enjoy..! Greatstone is a coastal village on Romney Marsh which I like to visit for it’s sand dunes. The dunes are not as tall as those found at nearby Camber Sands but it is a much quieter and more peaceful location. The beach faces due east so it is a perfect sunrise spot all year round and therefore an ideal place to start this morning. I arrived before dawn, hopeful of a colourful sunrise like the one I encountered above on a previous trip. That morning was also quite special because of the ‘sandblasted’ beach caused by the receding tide, I haven’t come across this again. The sunrise on this Saturday morning however was one of those ‘nothing special’ occasions. I used this time instead to test out my new 2x teleconverter for my 70-200 lens by looking south towards Dungeness. Unfortunately most of these shots […]

Jan 14

by stew in field report 0 comments tags: field report, folkestone, kent, kent coast

Folkestone Photographic Guide

Folkestone is an increasingly popular town on the East Kent coast which I have visited many times and so I thought I would share my tips for any visiting photographer. The main areas can be broken down into three sections; the harbour arches at Sunny Sands the harbour arm and lighthouse The harbour The rows of brightly coloured fishing boats in the harbour can make for an attractive shot from either direction. My favourite image here was taken just after sunrise with the old railway bridge which intersects the harbour beautifully side lit by golden light. The harbour can completely empty out at low tide which is something to beware of if you are interested in shooting reflections. Blue hour shots can also work well here using the illuminated town and seafront restaurants in the background. Arches at Sunny Sands beach The arches underneath the promenade on Sunny Sands beach are ideal for when the weather or light is not the best. Typical shots include shooting through the gaps to show the arches fade off into infinity, also shooting out to sea towards the harbour arm can work well. The […]

Oct 18

by stew in field report 0 comments tags: blog, blue hour, dusk, kent, kent coast, margate, photography, reflections, twilight

Margate Seafront: In pursuit of perfect reflections

I thought I’d share with you my pursuit of the above shot taken on Margate seafront at dusk. Those familiar with the area will know there is a small bathing pool on the beach that you can walk along at all but the highest tides which is where I (eventually) got these reflections. It did take me a few dedicated trips though to find it myself, as in the past I have tended to neglect Margate for the nearby beaches in Broadstairs which I am slowly correcting. When I did finally explore one evening I found my way to the pool just a bit too late and with the wind slightly too strong for mirror-like reflections but the game was on. Over the next weeks and months I kept an eye on the forecast waiting for an evening with very low wind. With the location being quite exposed on the coast, these conditions didn’t occur that often and even when they were forecast to, the slightest side wind would make things ‘interesting’..! I was quite happy with these results but I would need to go back again for the panoramic view of the seafront. Shooting […]

Nov 24

by stew in field report 0 comments tags: coast, dover, field report, kent, landscape, long exposure, photography, seascape, st. margaret's bay, white cliffs

St. Margaret’s Bay Field Report

St. Margaret’s Bay Field Report The other week I made two trips down to St. Margaret’s Bay nr Dover at sunrise. It’s a place I’ve been to many times before and in the past I’ve come back with some nice images. I wanted to visit again as at this time of year the sun rises directly out to the middle of the sea and with a high tide forecast I thought I could get some good shots of the incoming waves at sunrise. Of course that didn’t quite work out did it…! The tide turned out to be so high and rough that I couldn’t get down onto the beach far enough to reach the nice round pebbles this bay has. I persisted probably a bit too long before admitting defeat and moving on. By now the sun was coming up and casting nice golden light onto the far cliffs so I quickly shifted to a tried and tested shot to make use of the light. Although its a view I’ve shot before I’m glad I did as the rough waves have really add something different. As it happens a few minutes after this the clouds rolled in and the […]

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