It's all to easy - and all too common - to take each photograph at 1.7 metres (5.6 feet), from the ground. Getting down low once in a while puts a completely different perspective on a subject.
© 2020
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Getting down to it
Tuesday, October 06, 2020
Knowing when it's time to stop
Ask any experienced photographer what you should consider when kitting yourself out for landscape work, and nine times out of ten the wise amongst them will include a tripod on their list. This is, indeed, good advice, as it slows down the compositional process and provides a stable platform on which to get the best from your lenses. Maybe I don't use one as much as I should, but there is the odd occasion when a three-legged support is next to useless. Today is one such episode.
Once out of the car at Worth Matravers, in Dorset's Purbeck Hills, I was immediately aware of a brisk breeze coming from the southwest. However, that paled into insignificance once I had climbed over the stile in the dry stone wall that borders the South West Coast Path, and onto the exposed cliff top. To describe what greeted me as a gale may - just may - be a slight exaggeration, but the very act of walking in a straight line became difficult as a continuous blast of air came up and over the top of Emmett's Hill.
The light was gorgeous so I pressed on, but quickly decided not to try and reach the spot I had in mind as it would be too dangerous to work from; the wind was that strong. So, choosing a position where the worst case scenario was that I would be blown off my feet and not the edge of the cliff, I commence to do battle with the elements by setting up my tripod.
I knew I was going to have problems as no sooner did I reach for my camera bag the tripod blew over. The ball head and camera added extra weight but made little difference to stability, and it was all I could do to just frame the shot. When making an exposure I had to press down with my hand on the whole setup in the hope of eliminating camera movement. Using any sort of filtration to hold back the sky was deemed hopeless...
The constant buffeting got the better of me after a mere 12 minutes of working, so I threw in the towel and retreated. In that time I managed to take 25 shots as the light swiftly changed, and most of that was guesswork. To look at the images you wouldn't think it was anything other than a moody autumn afternoon. The reality was quite different.
12-24mm f/4 AF-S Nikkor. 1/400 second at f/8. Matrix metering. Tripod and a firm, steadying hand. ISO 100
© 2020
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