Revealed: Stunning Photos of Our Coastline

From wave-buffeted piers and lighthouses to flower-covered cliffs and the Jurassic coast under snow, this year’s Landscape Photographer of the Year awards feature some astonishingly beautiful images of the British seaside. Below we reveal some of our favourites.

 

Held in association with VisitBritain and Countryside is GREAT, Landscape Photographer of the Year has run annually since 2006 and is open to anyone to enter. All images must be of landscapes in the UK, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands. The overall winner is awarded with a £10,000 prize, while the individual category winners are awarded £1,000.

 

The winning and commended images from the 2015 competition are currently on display at London Waterloo station until 7 February 2016. They also feature in the coffee table book Landscape Photographer of the Year: Collection 9 (AA Publishing, £25), out now. For more information on the competition, see take-a-view.co.uk.

 

‘A day of typically dramatic weather produced this atmospheric scene with the storm-force wind blowing the tops off the waves against the forbidding sky and the impressive mountains of Harris,’ remembers Brian Clark, the photographer behind this shot in the ‘Classic View’ category of Landscape Photographer of the Year awards.

 

‘I had seen Rattray Head shots before, but wanted to put my own mark on it,’ says Martin Steele whose photograph, below, is in the ‘Classic View’ category of  the Landscape Photographer of the Year awards. ‘Seeing the lovely weather giving a nice bit of light on the lighthouse and the size of the waves rolling in, I wanted to capture the motion but also create a smoother look, so I knew I needed a slightly longer exposure.’

 

This shot, captured by Peter Stevens, is in the ‘Classic View’ category of the Landscape Photographer of the Year awards. ‘It was impossible not to stop and stare at these starlings as they performed their murmurations,’ remembers Peter.

 

‘I chose to include people standing on the end of the promenade to give scale to this huge wave and add to the drama of the image,’ says Robert Harvey, whose photograph below is in the ‘Living the View’ category of the Landscape Photographer of the Year awards.

 

This image, taken by Nick Hanson, was highly commended in the ‘Classic View’ category of Landscape Photographer of the Year awards. Nick recalls, ‘During the summer months, the cliffs from RSPB Bempton all the way to Buckton Cliffs are covered in red campion.' 

 

Taken by Jonathan Martin, this image is in the ‘Living the View’ category of the Landscape Photographer of the Year awards. Jonathan says, ‘I loved the look of the storm blowing across the horizon as I approached the beach and the Lowry-esque people added another dimension to the scene.’

 

Another photograph by Jonathan Martin, this image is in the ‘Your View’ category of the Landscape Photographer of the Year awards. ‘Cromer Pier is one of my favourite places to photograph in Norfolk,’ says Jonathan.

 

Lynn Fotheringham photographed this image, which is in the ‘Your View’ category of the Landscape Photographer of the Year awards. ‘I love this slipway because it suggests the entrance and exit to the whole of the bay,’ says Lynn. ‘This was taken on a typical Morecambe day: bright and blustery with clouds rushing by.’

 

‘This shot shows a section of the longest bench in the UK on the seafront at Littlehampton,’ says Eunice Bergin, whose shot below is in the ‘Your View’ category of the Landscape Photographer of the Year awards. ‘I was fascinated by all the shapes that the loops made inside this shelter area of the bench. As I was shooting, two girls climbed up into the top loop.’

 

Taken by Andy Farrer, this image was the overall winner of the 2015 Landscape Photographer of the Year awards. Andy says, ‘Snow this far south on the Jurassic Coast is a fairly uncommon event. As incredible as it was to the see the arch of Durdle Door covered in snow, this view, looking in the opposite direction, was very bit as captivating.’