Belle Tout Lighthouse & Burton Mill Pond

Ok the new regime is in force so I decided I wanted to shoot the famous Belle Tout Lighthouse in East Sussex at dawn with the sun rising up behind it on Saturday the 14th of December. Unfortunately that didn’t happen, what did happen was I got there at dawn to find high winds (as in dangerous) & coin only pay & display parking for which I had no coins. What made it worse was the other cliff top location on the other side of the river Cuckmere valley was inaccessible as the access road was closed. So not a good start to the weekend, however my sat nav took me the scenic way there so I discovered some potential future locations to shoot next time.

Moving on to Sunday the 15th December. The weather was pretty changeable for the first half of the day, sunshine one minute & rain the next until the early afternoon when it settled. So looking at the potential of a good sunset I decided to go to a new location I’ve never been to before - Burton Mill Pond near Petworth in West Sussex. The last few miles of the route was a little treacherous to say the least, roads not wide enough to fit 2 vehicles side by side, lots of potholes & a lot of water everywhere. Once I got there the weather was just as I had hoped, the sun was beginning to set behind the South Downs & was lighting up the sky & clouds. I managed to get off a few good shots though they would have been better if I’d had a Circular Polarizer filter (one on order for next time).

So all in all a bit of a mixed weekend really. I have plans for next weekend already, so long as the forecast is correct Sunday will be the day. Finger crossed.