Kent Coast and Landscape Photography
Dec 31
by stew in field report, Uncategorized 0 comments tags: 2022, kent, landscape, photography

2022 Roundup

A look back over my photography in 2022. These are not necessarily my best images but they do help to tell the story of the year… January/February The year started with a trip to Fairfield Church on Romney Marsh. There is nowhere better to go when it is frosty and despite my many visits here over the years there are still shots I have yet to capture. This panoramic was one that I can now cross of my list. The bridge that links Kent with the Isle of Sheppey, known as the Sheppey Crossing, is a site of another location that I like to visit especially in the winter. The combination of frost and fog can make the commanding concrete structures of Kingsferry Bridge and the Sheppey Crossing look evocative and mysterious. I’ve written a blogpost that delves more into this area here Alas, the south-eastern English winter is not one comprised of interesting weather events one after another! There are many dull and dreary days to contend with where the will to venture out is low. On these days it pays to match the subject to the conditions. The decaying sea defences on the Sussex coast nr Winchelsea, for […]
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Dec 17
by stew in location guide 0 comments tags: isle of sheppey, kent, kingsferry bridge, landscape, north kent, photography, sheppey crossing, swale

Kingsferry and Sheppey Crossing: A Tale of Two Bridges

There are two bridges built within close proximity that cross The Swale and link the Isle of Sheppey with mainland Kent. The Kingsferry bridge is the older of the two. It was built in the 1950’s and is a combined road and railway bridge with an interesting vertical-lift design for maritime traffic. This was superseded in 2006 by the Sheppey Crossing which is a has four lanes and reaches over 100+ feet in the air over the estuary. This location has become a firm favourite of mine over the past few years. Access along either side of The Swale is good which enables lots of different views of both bridges plus the surrounding low lying marshes are prone to mist and fog which make the bold bridge structures more enigmatic. Here a few of my efforts over the past few years:
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Jul 25
by stew in field report, location guide, Uncategorized 0 comments tags: kent, landscape, location, north kent coast, photography, whitstable

Whitstable, West Beach

A taste of the sort of photos available at this beautiful location on North Kent coast at Whitstable, West Beach. To the west of Whitstable’s harbour is a long shingle beach known as West Beach which is as good a spot as anywhere on the North Kent coast for photography. Popular with the crowds during the day, this north westerly facing location comes into it’s own especially during a summer sunset when most people will be out of the way chilling on the beach with a beer from the Old Neptune pub. There are many subjects to shoot here but my favourite are the wildflowers that grow in the shingle and sprout out in between the various boats and kayaks left on the beach. To the far end of the beach are a row of colourful wooden beach huts. Some of these have an extravagant paint job, like this hut below which I framed in the centre of my panoramic. Near these huts is an old jetty that requires a very well-timed visit to capture the tide at the desired height. Add planning around sunset into the mix and you’ve got a recipe for a lot of failed trips..! Thanks […]
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Jul 24
by stew in field report, Uncategorized 0 comments tags: deal, dover, kent, landscape, photography, ripple mill, windmill

Spring Colour at Ripple Mill, Kent

A selection of images taken in April 2022 of the yellow rapeseed fields that surround Ripple Mill; a Grade II listed smock mill in Ringwould, Kent. When a friend and fellow landscape photographer alerted me that the fields that surround the windmill were full of rapeseed this year I was more than keen to plan a visit. Ripple Mill is a location I have often passed as it is situated next to a busy road and although I had shot it from afar, I think I was always waiting for a colourful crop to accompany the scene. The night before I made my first visit I looked at the local OS map and I was pleased to find the windmill was encompassed by public footpaths. This would make it a lot easier and more relaxing to find a suitable viewpoint in the morning without worrying if the farmer would spot me. To be honest though, in all the years I have been out photographing the countryside I can only think of a couple of occasions when I have been confronted by the landowner but still, I’d rather not have to bother with them at all. This first morning turned out […]
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May 10
by stew in Canterbury, Uncategorized 0 comments tags: field report, kent, landscape, photography

Photographing Kent; my recent article for Outdoor Photography magazine

Located in the far south-east of the UK, the county of Kent is historically known as the ‘Garden of England’ for its abundance of orchards and hop gardens. Despite also being the 5th most populous county in England, a third of Kent is registered as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty including the Kent Downs, a series of chalk ridges stretching from the Surrey borders in the west to the White Cliffs of Dover in the east. As well as being home to this iconic landmark the Kent coastline also comprises unique marshlands, tidal pools and sandy beaches which together with the easily accessible countryside is what makes Kent so special for the visiting photographer. Broadstairs Broadstairs is a coastal town situated on the Isle of Thanet; a peninsula at the most easterly point in Kent that was once separated by the Wantsum Channel but which has long since silted up. The area is home to the popular towns of Margate and Ramsgate and is a renowned holiday destination due in part to the numerous sandy beaches; there are 16 beaches on Thanet and 7 in particular in Broadstairs! The options are indeed ample but I would recommend Botany Bay […]
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Jan 01
by stew in Canterbury, field report, Uncategorized 0 comments tags: canterbury, christmas lights, decorations, faversham, kent, marina, photography, ramsgate, xmas

Christmas lights!

A selection of photographs from this years Christmas decorations from Canterbury, Faversham and Ramsgate Marina. As I have been supplying images for calendars recently I thought it would be a good idea to shoot some festive images for next years designs. These images were all taken in December 2019 during the blue hour which would show the lights off at their best. Canterbury I live in Canterbury so you would have thought I’d get these images easily. However, the crowds of shoppers at this time of the year made shooting in Mercery Lane near impossible so that one required an early Sunday start! Faversham I was due to go into The Refinery to restock my greeting cards anyway so it made sense to shoot some Christmas lights here too. I was lucky that there was a light shower just before shooting which reflected the lights nicely on the town centre streets. Ramsgate The illuminations at Ramsgate Marina in aid of the RNLI have been going for years but I had never made it over to see them. If I get sunsets like this every time I’ll go every year..! Thanks and I hope you have enjoyed seeing my 2019 Christmas […]
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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 […]
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Feb 22
by stew in Uncategorized 0 comments tags: dover, english channel, ferries, photography, white cliffs

White Clifftop view

I’ve put together a series of images taken from on top of the White Cliffs of Dover. Facing East, this is a great spot to watch the sunrise from and catch the ferries as they cross the Channel to the continent. The Strait of Dover is the busiest shipping route in the world and the ferries leaving from Dover can make for great subjects as they catch the first rays of light on their sides. A simple shot of sea and sky can work nicely though when there is a gap in the traffic. It is hard to plan shots like this as you have to get lucky with the weather and then react to the light. Often I have been out with the intention of shooting something else and have just happened to turn around and change my plans. For example, this above shot was taken on a very frosty morning at South Foreland. My original plan was to capture first light on the lighthouse surrounded by frost but as you can see I got distracted by these incredible skies out to sea! Thank you for reaching the end. I hope you have enjoyed the images..!
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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 […]
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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 […]
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