Another seafront haunting...

The no longer sun has his hat on, and after yesterday's bright and clear start to the year we return to light drizzle and leaden skies over Dorset. It is the first day of the return to work after the Christmas period, and from my point of view, winter sets-in in earnest. Having said that, it is far from cold, and it is expected to stay that way for a while yet.

So, doom and gloom (weather-wise) means leaving the all- encompassing wide angle lenses at home for the time being, and on with the humble 50mm prime optic: I'm going to shoot details. I haunt the local seafront for the exercise, taking a good number of less-than-inspiring images as I go, but the process is far from futile. I do this nearly every time I go out on a shoot; warming-up my eye, so to speak, and getting in the frame of mind to look for subjects when none are apparently obvious.

Although nothing comes of the large majority of shots - at the time of writing they have already been deleted from my hard drive - I do find one or two interesting things that will have to wait for another day; a different lens. What does pique my interest, despite the dark skies, is that for a short time I get some photogenic light, albeit about four miles away over Hengistbury Head, courtesy of a thinning of the cloud. A super-telephoto lens would have come in handy at that moment, but I had to make do with what I had (photo).

I do like water as a subject. I've said it numerous times throughout this blog, and no doubt will say it again, and there are numerous photographic techniques that can be used to convey the feel of it. There are those that habitually blur moving water by using slow shutter speeds and small apertures, but more often than not I capture it frozen in the moment. It creates such interesting shapes and textures that way.



50mm f/1.8 AF Nikkor. 1/200 second at f/8.  - 0.33 EV compensation. ISO 400


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