Moments 2023 Calendar

30October

Moments – Calendar 2023

I have been producing a calendar for 6 years now. So this will be the sixth edition. As I have done before, I’m including images from the past 12 months or so. From those months there have been many moments that have been great to capture.

Throughout the last year, I’ve been exploring Suffolk. Capturing some of those moments that would have been left behind, if I didn’t go out at silly o’clock or chosen to make that journey to shoot. I’ve visited places I have been to hundreds of times, and others where I have visited a handful.

However fleeting a moment may be, the chance to capture, is left in the hands of those who put themselves in the right position to do so. Sometimes that chance might pass us by, the choice to stay in bed and skip that alarm, to choose other plans or just a preference to leave it on this occasion, can all be reasons for not being there in the moment.

On the flip side, the notion of being in the right place at the right time is banded about. But in reality, it takes planning, determination and most of all, knowledge to be able to capture what is in front of you. Some of the images I have captured have taken a lot of planning, in terms of reading tide times, weather forecasts, walking routes and others have been places I have been before and they have been in the right conditions.

If you haven’t ordered yours yet, you can today on the link below:

Moments 2023 Calendar

Please scroll down and find out about each of the images that I have included in the calendar.

Front Cover

Balletic, Shingle Street

Shingle Street is one of those places I keep going back to. And upon every trip, the conditions have been different. The sky was awash with pink and blue pastel colours on this occasion. The lagoon in front of the cottages was higher than it had been a few weeks before.

So I took my chances and framed up a portrait image with the cottage on the horizon line and aimed to capture it with a reflection of it on the pool. The light seemed to be perfect for it and I feel the image was exactly what I had been looking for. The name was chosen based on the way the light, clouds and colours seemed to dance together as the morning went on.

January

Arcadia, Iken

Iken is a magical place, that never ceases to amaze me. On most of my visits there, I’m treated with some great conditions and images. This trip didn’t disappoint. As the sun rose across the water, it was apparent that it was worth the early alarm.

I met another person admiring the sunrise as I walked along the edge of the river. This spot is somewhere I keep going back to, it will forever be this place of great joy. The view across the river is all about the way the boats are perfectly poised on the banks of the Alde. Just in the distance, you can see the church on the horizon. If you are there at the right time of year the position of the sun rising over the church makes for a great composition.

February

Windswept, Sizewell

Sizewell, has been a place that has alluded my photography really. For no real reason other than not going there. I hadn’t been for a long time, the last time would have been back in 2012 when I was doing my Duke of Edinburgh award hike along the Suffolk coast.

I set out with an idea of an image or two, inspired by some of the images that I had seen of the cooling towers. So I took those and made my way south along the coast to the fishing boats on the beach. And then took myself back towards the marram grass, and with all my sunrise trips out I finished with a coffee and a bite to eat.

As I waited for my coffee to brew, I saw this composition. I sat amongst the grass, I loved the fact it almost over powered the towers in the sea. So I framed the shot up. I was careful not to include the sun, which is just out of shot on the righthand side.

March

Hazed, Woodbridge

This was taken on a walk before I went into the office in March 2022. I work in Woodbridge one day a week, and on this particular occasion, I was nearing the end of a full on couple of months. I always go on a walk before I get into the office. Just a habit I have thankfully kept doing since getting back into the office after COVID. Without much time to go and capture my own stuff so I thought I would be good to get out and just use the time for my own work. I hadn’t been in the office for around 4 weeks due to a a job I had been doing to open our training centre at work.

The conditions were pretty hazy, the sun laying quite low in the sky. And this composition was on my mind from previously walking the same route every time I had been in to the office in the months previously. So I stopped off at the tide mill to start with, and walked along the path to this small bend where boats, canoes and dinghy’s are moored. As I had an idea for the shot, I just had to find the right spot, and set the camera up and capture the shot I wanted. Again a shot in time, that I remember because it was part of my everyday life.

April

Redolence, Ipswich

This is a patch of bluebells I have been trying to capture over the past couple of years. It’s somewhere I first visited just before COVID. Alright, I have walked the paths hundreds of times, but never knew how prolific the bluebells were here. It was down to the conditions and how good the bluebells were showing. They are one of the earlier blooming areas of bluebells within the 4 or 5 woodlands I have visited with bluebells.

My aim was to try and capture this area and do it justice. After visiting when we have been allowed to over the last few years. I wanted to capture this particular spot, looking down this line of trees. It’s one of the only vantage points that captures the woodland floor, carpeted with these spring flowers. I took my time to ensure the whole of the image was composed correctly to ensure the frame was pretty clear. On the whole, a lot was going on.

I loved the light as it started to hit through the canopy and made its way through the image. With small rays and areas of light in the centre of the composition. The timing of capturing bluebells is the biggest part of knowing when to go to a location. As every year it seems to change.

May

Lush, Suffolk

In a little pocket of woodland just up the road from where I live, is a wonderful little habitat. With bluebells and wild garlic carpeting the floor of this ancient woodland. Although it’s small it packs a punch in terms of the amount of time you could spend in there.

I took this image earlier in the year, as we walked from the river. It was a stomp up the hill. Nearing the end of the wooded area an area filled with wild garlic, there was this path that ran right into the middle. With the white flowers in bloom of the garlic, the chance to capture them carpeting the floor is about timing. As they only start around for a few weeks to be at their best.

June

Demense, Shingle Street

Shingle street is again a place I have visited loads of times, and will continue to keep going because of these moments.

After a trip along the coast to see the valerian, I took myself down to the spit of shingle that has formed. In true form, I sat and had a coffee, then proceeded to take a long exposure of the spit.

Armed with the Lee big stopper, I took my chances and photographed the spit regardless of the position of the sun and of how bright it was. I carried on photographing the spit and figured that I could make the composition work if I persisted. I ultimately extended the exposure and allowed the highlights in the sky to ‘blow out’.

When I got home to view the image I thought I would go with it. I originally thought it might work in black and white, it does! But I preferred the colour version. And that the image you see below.

July

Perquisite, Felixstowe Ferry

Having captured what I wanted near the Ferry, I walked towards the Martello tower and then started to compose a shot of the valerian on the edge of the shore. My first thoughts were towards a shot I took back in 2020. That included the valerian and the Martello tower in the background. But I was drawn more towards the view up the mouth of the Deben.

By turning 180 degrees and framing up to include the valerian and the sunrise over the tree line on the Bawdsey side. Then wait around 15 mins for the sun to just peak over the natural horizon. I was really happy to have waited and then taken a few more shots to account for the exposure and the focus of the image. In the end, this is a focus stack of two images to capture the flowers in the foreground and the scene in the background.

August

Times Like These, Aldeburgh

This was shot on a trip out for work. One of the jobs I was doing was to produce a video for an event. To start the video I chose to capture the sunrise on the coast. Two of the hotels I work for are in Aldeburgh, I felt it would be good to capture the sunrise to represent their location.

One morning in September I took myself off to the beach at Aldeburgh to capture the sunrise around The Shell. I have been a few times and have never really been lucky enough to capture the right conditions in Aldeburgh. On this occasion, I was in the right place at the right time.

September

Emerging, Bawdsey

I headed out to one of my favourite stretches of beach in Suffolk. Littered with the remnants of old sea and military defences as well as geological history. I knew there are opportunities at both high and low tide at this location. On this occasion, I planned to capture what lies beneath the natural shoreline, due to it being low tide at sunrise. As the sun broke through the clouds on the horizon, the glow started to reflect off the London clay deposits and the sea in front. The conditions were perfect to capture the incoming tide enveloping the clay and the defences surrounding me.

October

Torment, Landguard Point

This was not in my usual thoughts when taking photos on the beach at Landguard Point. Normally I aim my camera towards to the old jetty that juts out into the sea. I had finished capturing it and turned around. The sky was thick with heavy clouds, and the tide was hurtling in and pretty high. So I moved back and stood where the tide was coming in.

I aimed to try and use the cranes of Felixstowe port as the feature of the image.

November

Burnt Sienna, Suffolk

I was on a trip to a coastal shoot and decided to swing by one of my favourite patches of woodland on my way home. It was the middle of November and the autumn colours were fully out.

I had been to this patch a few weeks before to scope out the colours, the composition and the light. But I hadn’t settled until I knew the colours had burst. The composition is very much about capturing the tree on the right and its branches full of oranges and russets. This pathway has a number of compositions all the way along that I could have captured. But this one seemed perfect.

December

Gatekeepers, Suffolk

This image was one I nearly didn’t take. It was after I had been on a trip to a local wood. I’d captured bluebells and wild garlic, the conditions were cold and hazy. As I was on my way back to the car and saw this composition and thought I will go ahead and take it. I was in two minds, as I was hoping to back to the car and go home.

I loved the way the two oaks stand over the gate in the distance. Almost foreboding, but also with some care and attention. Hence the choice of name. The haze in the distance, the colours of the foliage and way the trunks and other elements of the image all help it to have balance. It’s a lesson to take those images even if your mind says no, to go for it as you’ll often come away with an image that is the best of the bunch.

Tree Planting

For every calendar sold I will be planting two trees through Ecologi. I’m conscience as an outdoor photographer of my impact on the environment. Both for what I’m doing personally but also, for the chance future generations, won’t be able to enjoy the outside world. In mid-December, I will pledge the money towards the tree planting projects. and it will be named the Moments forest. Any orders after that date will still be pledged in the new year.

Hopefully, you enjoy the calendar for the year to come, I look forward to hearing the feedback on them. I really enjoyed pulling them all together, do let me know what you think and which images are your favourites in them.

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