Walking across the beach in the darkness, camera bag and tripod over my shoulder, the dog running wild, enjoying another late night on the beach. I had been searching for something. For the perfect night time beach shot. I hadn’t composed it in my mind’s eye, in fact part of the enjoyment was in searching for it, but I figured it would feature one of these old wooden groynes, built in Victorian times to prevent rough seas taking the sand away.

It’s tranquil down there so late at night. Though you never know what the shadows hold. The dog lays on the sand as I setup my tripod and camera, panting, catching her breath, and soaked, she never could stay out of the water.

Despite the title, there wasn’t a great deal visible at ground level. Too dark for the camera’s focus mechanism to lock on anything, so a little manual guesswork was needed.

Once the camera was securely mounted on the tripod, a little fiddling in the dark was required to attach the remote cable release. Then more guesswork in framing the photo, helped by a brief flicker of torchlight. And click, the shutter was open. And staying that way for a while.

I took a few steps away, in case the dog got all energetic and jumped up at me. The camera needs to be stable for these types of shots. I set a timer going on my phone. About six minutes I reckoned.

It’s a curious thing, stood alone, on the beach, in the middle of the night. Eerily calm and quite. Soothing almost. And the mind wanders. To past, to the future.

And then it is time. Another click to close the shutter. Equipment dismantled and packed away, more by touch than sight.

“Come on Tess” – she jumps up, eager to get home, needing a cool drink from her bowl. Me, I was ready for a cuppa and bed.

This image is available as a print, canvas and in other formats from my PhotoBox Gallery.