Spot-on with the weather...

Setting up base camp on Boscombe Pier, Dorset, was a good idea, and it is paying dividends, no doubt about it. Apart from being a raised platform that juts out to sea from which to shoot, I feel there is a whole photo essay in the making of the pier, and the comings and goings of visitors and locals alike.

All week the weather forecasts for the area have been spot-on: changeable, with showers. How could they go wrong? Sooner or later the conditions will tie in with either what I have been told on TV, or read about online. I'm not complaining, mind: it is all good news for me and my camera.

I do have a dilemma to deal with once I am on the coast, though, and that is one of camera support. For all the preparation of my photographic gear before I leave home it suddenly dawns on me - and far too late to do anything about - that I still have the quick release plate for my ball head attached to the foot of my fast super-telephoto lens (used yesterday to photograph surfers), i.e. not with me. This renders my monopod merely a passenger this afternoon, and is now just being taken for a walk. After a while it doesn't bother me too much as it looks like there will be nothing of substance to point a lens at, but by the time I arrive at the pier things have begun to develop rapidly.

Rain clouds sweep in from the South West (almost on cue); the sky darkens and the rain lashes down. Sunlight follows, and the inevitable rainbow (this is getting boring), but I snap away anyway, under exposing by a full stop to accentuate the conditions.. So many people complain about the rain, but why do they when it is so photogenic? Them not being outdoor photographers may be the answer.


24-70mm f/2.8G AF-S Nikkor. 1/200 second at f/8. -1 stop EV compensation. ISO 400



© 2012