Photo therapy: why shooting at the coast is so damn difficult

Peter Fenech
(Image credit: Peter Fenech)

Shooting at the coast can be both a fun experience and stressful one depending on how you approach it! For landscape photographers there are few environments as satisfying as a seascape - coastlines provide almost everything you could want in an image: great light, clear levels in the composition, hard and soft textures to contrast. A wonderful combination.

That is until you take a closer look at your images and spot burnt out highlights you can't seem to shake, then notice how difficult it is to perfectly frame the scene within in a 3:2 or 4:3 shot. Exposure and composition are two of the major challenges newcomers to coastal photography (and some more experienced shooters) find can hold back the quality and impact of their photographs.  

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Peter Fenech

As the Editor for  Digital Photographer magazine, Peter is a specialist in camera tutorials and creative projects to help you get the most out of your camera, lens, tripod, filters, gimbal, lighting and other imaging equipment.

After cutting his teeth working in retail for camera specialists like Jessops, he has spent 11 years as a photography journalist and freelance writer – and he is a Getty Images-registered photographer, to boot.

No matter what you want to shoot, Peter can help you sharpen your skills and elevate your ability, whether it’s taking portraits, capturing landscapes, shooting architecture, creating macro and still life, photographing action… he can help you learn and improve.