Point and shoot...

No doubt about it: this time of year is the bees knees for photography, in my book. It's not just the autumnal colours and smells that make it such a stimulating time to get out there with a camera, it is the light itself. I often find myself advising others to "just photograph the light". Don't worry too much about the subject, as the light will make the image work.

A piece of advice I picked up many years ago, and it has paid dividends ever since. Good fortune plays its part, but with a little planning you can make your own luck. The weather forecast today was for a clear start, followed by showers arriving from the West later in the day, so I hold back until mid afternoon before venturing out to the coast. I am increasingly drawn to seascape photography. So much variation can be found as the sea always reflects what the sky is doing, and water is so very photogenic. How can you go wrong?

To start with I'm wandering along the backshore, snapping this and that - stones, mostly - set in against the ripples of wind-blown sand, but I have been eyeing that cloud bank that is rolling in from behind the Purbeck hills as I do, and manage to time my arrival at Boscombe Pier (my new outdoor base camp), to perfection. It starts to rain the moment I arrive, so all it takes is for me to sit and wait for a rainbow to appear. One does - and a double one at that, with the colours of the outer bow reversed - but it is what is happening in the opposite direction that has the real drama (image). I'm careful to overexpose slightly, since I am shooting into the light, but it is simply nature itself that does the rest. I just have to point the camera and fire the shutter. Wonderful.


24-70mm f/2.8G AF-S Nikkor. 1/800 second at f/8. + 0.33 EV compensation. ISO 200. Monopod


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