United Kingdom Eastbourne Pier

One of the more photogenic piers on the southern coast, and deserted on weekdays out of season, making it a great spot for a moody long exposure shot.

You'll want to position yourself as close to the water as you dare. Aim for a time where the tide is going out to avoid frustration moving your tripod up the beach every few minutes.

Top tip (pinched from Thomas Heaton's YouTube channel): Take some old or blank CDs and place them under the feet of your tripod to avoid blur due to your tripod legs sinking into the wet sand.

I had to cheat slightly with the bottom right corner of this composition to clone out some sand showing though. The lie of the beat is such that however close you get to the water, you're probably going to get a bit of sandy beach in your shot which will be easy to remove if you're not averse to such manipulation.

You can park with pay and display along the seafront, but it can get quite busy even out of season. I ended up parking a little further back into the side streets where I found a free parking space, but I had to drive around a bit before I found somewhere suitable.