5 easy and accessible West Sussex locations for amazing photography

Lancing College from nr Lancing Bowl

Best Time to Shoot : Sunrise

Best time of year to shoot : Anytime of year - Summer the Sun will rise out of shot to the east, Winter it will rise to the right of Lancing College from this vantage point over the sea.

Where to park : Lay - by pull off (50°52'03.3"N 0°20'43.6"W) free car park, easy to spot when driving along Titch Hill road. It is on the south side of the road. It’s free and usually empty

What3words shooting location ref : ///pills.bronze.snake

Recommended Kit : Tripod and telephoto lens (70-200mm or similar)

This view gives superb views over Lancing College, Shoreham and further east Brighton. On a clear day you can sea right up to the cliffs at Seaford.

In order to get to this location you need to walk for about 15 minutes along a public bridleway which takes you from Titch hill down to Lancing Bowl. It’s an easy walk, but can be slippery if frosty or wet because of the high volumes of chalk in the soil in this area. Take a head torch with you if you are going to do sunrise here to be sure.

I suggest parking in a car park on Titch hill, which has space for about 6-8 cars. There is no height barrier to contend with here. At the back of the lay by is a gate which will put you immediately on the path down to this vantage point. There may also be parking options down near Lancing Bowl, which will simply mean you walk in to opposite direction to get here.

The area here is beautiful, with slowly curving hills that slowly slope down towards Lancing. The farmland is often rotation cropped, meaning the fields will have different colours and textures and will really help fill the foreground with interest. There will also likely be livestock in the fields below. All in all, this vantage point offers a huge variety of options in a relatively small shooting area. I find my telephoto to be the most used here, but it will equally offer well to a standard zoom and even a wide angle.

This path is used a lot by runners and cyclists, and it’s not a particularly wide, so try to set up your tripods as close to the fence as possible. The land behind the fence is all private, so don’t be tempted to scale the fence. I’d also avoid setting up a time lapse here on a tripod, because it won’t be long before a cyclist or somebody on a horse will come past and you’ll need to move it (and ruin it!).

Arundel Cathedral from the Riverside

Best time to shoot : Sunrise (misty conditions) Sunset for Colour is the sky

Best time of year to shoot : Spring / Autumn

Where to park : Fitzalan pool car park, Queen St, Arundel BN18 9JG

What3words shooting location ref : ///concerts.shuffles.sisters

Recommended Kit : Standard zoom (24-70mm), ND Filter (for long expose of the water, if desired)

Arundel is about as quintessentially English as you can get anywhere in the UK, and attracts many thousands of visitors every year. There are literally hundreds of different places to shoot in Arundel, from the obvious choice of the castle, Hiorne Tower (see image below) which sits on the grounds of the castle), Swanbourne lake and the very impressive cathedral. You could easily spend an entire day shooting in Arundel and still not have photographed everything it has to offer.

The reason I love this particular view is that it encompasses a bit of everything that Arundel is about, and standing from this vantage point all you have to do is rotate your tripod by about 60 degrees to the right and you’ll then have the castle in the shot, so two amazing photos for the price of one at this location. The Cathedral gets way less attention simply because the castle, for which Arundel is famous for sits so close to the cathedral from this location, and most photographers will go for the castle (which is still a beautiful image).

Getting here is so simple, and a lot of the reason why I’ve chosen this over some of the other locations in Arundel. You want to park at the Fitzalan Swimming pool car park, which sits only a few hundred yards from this composition. It’s a pay car park, but if you come here for early sunrise or sunset, it’s likely you’ll be outside of the hours needed to pay for the car park. From the back of the car park, you’ll see some steps which will take you onto a small riverside path which is next to the moorings for the boats seen in this photo. Walk right on the path (away from the castle) and around the bend of the river. There is a small style to get over, but it’s shouldn’t cause any problems for anybody, but it may not be suitable for wheelchair access.

Once you are on the corner of the river bend, you’ll be able to look back towards the castle and cathedral and see this view. It works superbly in the morning if there is mist rising from the river Arun, and in the evening you’ll have a chance of getting some gorgeous tones in the sky from the setting sun.

The River Arun is a tidal river, and can be pretty fast flowing, so it will pay to check an app called “my tide times” and for the most accurate result for Arundel, check Littlehampton tide times.

For the best results, try to coincide your visit with a high tide, as at low tide the river will expose mud flats on the river bank which aren’t all that photogenic. It will also pay to use an ND filter here to smooth out the river and maximise your opportunity for a nice reflection of the boats and colour in the sky.

Bosham Quay and Hoe

Best time to shoot : Sunrise and Sunset and Golden hour

Best time of year to shoot : Anytime of year works here

Where to park : Public Car park, 8 Shore Rd, Bosham, Chichester PO18 8HZ (This is a pay car park but only between the hours of 8am-6pm)

What3words shooting location ref : ///surnames.little.dads

Recommended Kit : Standard zoom (24-70mm) and Telephoto (70-200mm)

Ask almost any photographer based in or around West Sussex and Hampshire what their favourite location is for photography and there’s a very good chance that the beautiful village of Bosham will be high on the list. Bosham Quay, along with all of the other quays in the area such as Itchenor, Emsworth and Dell Quay are very tidal, so depending on when you visit you may have almost no water in the scene, or so much water that it is covering some of the roads around the quay.

Bosham is somewhere that you need to be very careful where you choose to park your car, since a high tide often cuts off the road. Shore road which runs along the southern parameter of Bosham Quay has many warning signs about the tide, ignore it at your own risk. That said, if you are sensible and know your tide times (I use “My tide times” app) then there is no reason why you shouldn’t park anywhere in the area (where parking is allowed) and shore road is a great place to park on a retreating tide. The reason I suggest the public car park is simply that there is no chance of getting your car wet there.

Depending on when you visit, and the state of the tide will offer many different compositional opportunities here. When the tide is out, the weedy sand banks will be exposed which will offer creative use of leading lines in your scene. When the tide is in and on a calm day you’ll be able to get awesome reflections of the many boats moored in the quay.

In my opinion, the very best time to visit the quay is for sunset, and to position yourself on the south side of the quay on Shore road (depending on tides!). The sun will set behind the many boats moored here and over the top of the beautiful church tower that you’ll have a great view of from this location. If you want to come to Bosham for Sunrise, then I’d recommend heading to Bosham Hoe, which is within walking distance of the quay, walking along the picturesque Chichester harbour costal walk south, but you can also park on the corner of “Lower Hone Lane” and “Smugglers lane” (50°48'50.4"N 0°51'51.8"W) and walk through the short tree lined tunnel which will bring you out on the Hoe looking towards Itchenor across the water.

The reason I, along with many other photographers love Bosham is that there are so many different compositions to be had here, and so long as you use a little creativity, it is easily possible to come away with an image that isn’t the same as the many thousands of other images that are shot here every year. You should be very intentional here, know your tide times and have an idea of what you want to get out of your trip. This area often benefits from spectacular sunsets, so use an app like “Clear outside” to look for high cloud coverage. Your best chance will be on an evening where there is 50-70% high cloud coverage and minimal low cloud coverage, and no large banks of cloud out to the west.