A sand quarry on a cloudy afternoon

This is a working note, not a secret spot. A sand quarry is flat, pale and empty, which makes it one of the easiest places to photograph a couple: there is nothing in the frame except them.

Heavy cloud helps. The light is even, the sand reflects it back up, and nobody squints.

On the flat

Start wide. Put the couple small in the frame and let the bank on the horizon sit in the upper third. Then walk in, a few steps at a time, until you are close enough for faces.

Sitting down

The sand is soft, so ask them to sit. People relax at ground level, and it saves the shoot from the stiff standing pose.

The ridge

There is a low ridge at the back of the quarry. Shooting up at it gives you a bigger sky and a clean outline, and the tracks in the sand do the rest.

A last note on sand: it gets into everything. A zip bag for the spare lens and a cloth over the camera body will save a repair bill.

Credits

This is sample content for the Second Shooter template. The story is invented, and the photographs are Pexels photos, listed below with their photographers, so each caption describes only what is in the picture.

• Featured photograph, Yan Krukau, Pexels licence

• Two people standing hand in hand on pale flat sand under a grey sky, Yan Krukau, Pexels licence

• A hug in the open, her red cap pushed back, Yan Krukau, Pexels licence

• Close in: she lies across his lap and both of them laugh, Yan Krukau, Pexels licence

• Low and wide, sitting close on a sand slope, Yan Krukau, Pexels licence

• Cross-legged on the flat, turned toward each other, Yan Krukau, Pexels licence

• Laughing together at eye level, sitting close on the sand, Yan Krukau, Pexels licence

• Up on the ridge, holding hands against a big sky, Yan Krukau, Pexels licence

• Walking the ridge line, seen from below, Yan Krukau, Pexels licence

• One of them walking down the slope with tracks behind him, Yan Krukau, Pexels licence