Part I: Family beach photos at Old Hunstanton cliffs | Free 52 project {June} personal work | Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Family photographer
It was my oldest son’s birthday a few weeks ago and, every year without fail, we go to the beach around this time to celebrate his birthday. I even had my maternity beach photoshoot at Wells-next-the-Sea, when I was seven months pregnant with him. So, the Norfolk coast has a special place in our hearts and where we have many fond family memories being on the beach.
With it’s beautiful coastline and long stretches of sandy beaches, we are spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing which beach to go to in north and west Norfolk. The dog-friendly beaches also makes it convenient for us to bring our Scottie dog, Barney, onto the beach all year round. We decided to go to Old Hunstanton as we had hoped it would be quieter than being by the seaside promenade at Hunstanton beach. The beach at Old Hunstanton was not quite deserted as we had thought it would be, even though it was a weekday when we went because of a school inset day. Nevertheless, we got to spend several hours on the beach, playing in the sea, climbing the rocks around Hunstanton chalk cliffs, kite-flying and even finding a jellyfish too.
It was a very good day and we had made a ton of memories by the end of our trip, as well as taken hundreds of pictures to remember this day.
My big camera was at the Nikon service centre having some repair, so I only had my D3300 that I normally use for freelensing to capture some family photographs on the beach. With the exception of a small handful of images at the end here, the rest were taken by freelensing with the lens held close but detached from the camera body. I have had friends advise me not to do this as there is a danger that grains of sand can get inside and damage the camera, especially if it was windy on the beach too (which it was!). I have been freelensing for over a year now, so I can be adept at getting my shot and quickly putting my lens back onto the camera when I want to steal a quick photo. Although it is by no means foolproof, so only attempt this at your own risk! The results, however, are worth it in my opinion and I was very happy to have made some beautiful beach photos with a dreamy blur effect that you get in freelensing.
I have a few more freelensed pictures from our beach trip to share, but I will save those for another post. Here are the images for the first part to our family beach photo session. When you have finished, go next to my talented friend Lauren Jensen's post to see her freelensing images in the month of June.
