Capture the coast

Drew Buckley shares his favourite pearls of wisdom for coastline scenes

- Drew Buckley

Living in Pembrokeshire, I’m lucky enough to have one of the best coastal areas in the world on my doorstep, so it’s fair to say I’m more of a coastal photographer than anything else. The coast is an ever-changing landscape, from winter storms and crumbling cliffs, to serene summer evenings with lapping waves, so locations can look different every day. Add the sun rising and setting at varying angles through the year and the tides differing in height, all this plays a massive part in your scenes and potential compositions. Most landscape scenes will need a fair amount of planning and coastal scenes are no exception, especially throwing the tides into mix too, it can make it tricky to decide when and where to go. In this article I’ll give you some of my top tips, including Canon camera settings, lens and filters advice, that will help you to get some top coastal shots too.

 

THE SETUP TAKE FANTASTIC COASTAL LANDSCAPES

Discover the core Canon camera and photo kit you need for brilliant scenic seaside shots

01 STURDY TRIPOD

Tripods are particularly great for coastal photos as they give you time to frame up, help combat camera shake in windy conditions, and also enable long exposures to be captured, to blur moving elements, such as crashing waves and clouds.

02 CANON EOS CAMERA

Either Canon EOS DSLR or mirrorless models will be ideal for landscapes and coastal shots as they use large APS-C and full-frame sensors, as well as boast great lens mounts, meaning you’ll have plenty of options to experiment with lenses.

03 FILTER CHOICES