St Annes Beach Sunset

I visited St Annes Beach to hopefully capture some thunderstorms which were developing over Cheshire, and looked to be headed this direction.

St Annes front has an excellent view towards the southwest, so if any storms were going to pass over the Ribble Estuary, this would be an ideal spot to catch them. However, as with many a storm chase this one didn't quite work out, but I was rewarded with a very welcome consolation in this amazing sunset over, (and under!) St Annes Pier.

What really made this sunset was the fact that the atmosphere was very murky, and this had the useful effect of filtering out the brightness of the sun, especially as it touched the horizon. This filtering effect by the murky atmosphere allowed me to capture detail and colour in the structure of the pier as well as the distant figures, rather than a harsh silhouette, which would happen if the seeing was much less hazy. Notice too, the inferior mirage which caused an effect known as an Omega Sunset, where the sun appears to be on a stand as it skims the horizon. This can be seen in the first image below.

Omega Sunset effect caused by an inferior mirage 

It was an amazing sight to see. I am sure the visitors were as amazed as we were to see such an stunning sunset. Below I have arranged the images in order along with a final image of the beach huts after the sun had set, when the sky simply lit up.

Going down

People stop to take a photo

At this point I had moved round so I could frame the entire half of the sun within the arch of the pier. The beach visitors really added to the image, so I was very pleased they were there. You can even see the distant offshore wind turbines of the Walney Extension.

Last glimpse of the top of the sun

Very pleased to get such an amazing sky after the sun had set, so I could grab this shot which included the beach huts. 

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