Katy & David – Beachy Head pre-wedding shoot

Beachy Head on a very windy but sunny summer’s evening and a pre-wedding shoot for Katy and David.

An iconic Sussex landscape, near the seaside town of Eastbourne. Lush undulating countryside abruptly falling away to the sea with the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain. 162 metres or 531 ft above sea level – it’s dramatic and a very English backdrop.

We had arranged to meet at Birling Gap in the early evening, hoping for some warm sunlight on a summer’s evening. Hoping for the ‘magic hour’, although it’s not usually an hour, more like twenty minutes. When the sun is low and the intensity of the light has softened. We got the sunlight and it was strong – if not a cloudless sky. So strong, that on the beach, the white cliffs acted as a giant reflector with a bit too much reflective power. Too much and all you can do is squint.

A small fly in the ointment was traffic congestion on the coast road due to a broken down Ford Mondeo, right on the apex of the hill towards Seaford. Katy and David were caught up in this, as it tailed back to Eastbourne. But that was fine, the light was still strong and bit by bit the headland was losing the daytrippers, as they headed off to the traffic chaos.

So some pictures down on the shingle beach beneath the cliffs and then as the clouds threatened, up onto the headland and near the Belle Tout lighthouse, as the sun started to dip over the hill.

I’m not sure I like the term, ‘Engagement shoot’. For me it conjures up an idea of stiff, ‘Edwardian’ posed portraits intended for formal announcements. Anyhow, when we tend to do these shoots, let’s call them pre-wedding shoots, couples have been long engaged. So they are not only a chance to sometimes meet for the first time, as with Katy and David, and ‘rehearse’ some posing for the wedding day, I also like to then get something a bit different. Hence why I sent Katy and David up on the long slog to the top of Beachy Head and asked them to stand at the top. ( Lots of frantic hand waving semaphore involved ). I wanted to show them, albeit as almost dots, as a couple IN that landscape. The scale, colour and drama of that location. Hopefully they will like it.

I’ll start the selection of images from the shoot, with one of those atop Beachy Head, just before the sun disappeared behind a cloudbank and fell over the horizon….