Those who know me or that see alot of my images will recognise the "standard lamp" which sits on the end of the groynes as a warning to boats not to come closer.
Tonight was a freezing dusk, the tide was high up, lashing the coastline and the northerly wind biting and tugging at me. I crouched down and set my tripod up low to try to keep out of the worst of it and kept a watchful eye on the ebb and flow to make sure I didnt get washed away!
I tried a number of apertures/shutter speeds at the far end of my zoom, trying to isolate the solid red part of the groyne against the wild of the sea. This one is the one I like best from that set. It is almost as it came out of the camera, a little white balance adjustment, resizing, noise reduction and sharpening. Even the darkened edges occurred naturally, though I am not sure how or why.
Monday 10 December 2007
Hello darkness my old friend...
Of all my images, I dont think I will tire of seeing this one. It was pure fluke,I had dropped mum off and it was almost dark as I drove along the Stray. I stopped off half way down and slipped down onto the pitch black beach. The breakers were rolling in, with their tips illuminated by distant street lights.
With Simon and Garfunkel still echoing through my mind, I knew as I took it that it was going to be something special. After a few more grab shots in different directions I packed up the tripod and headed home.
Post processing brought it to life - with the GreyCStation plugin giving a soft, kind of dreamy look to the surf.
I think this is probably my favourite shot I have taken.
With Simon and Garfunkel still echoing through my mind, I knew as I took it that it was going to be something special. After a few more grab shots in different directions I packed up the tripod and headed home.
Post processing brought it to life - with the GreyCStation plugin giving a soft, kind of dreamy look to the surf.
I think this is probably my favourite shot I have taken.
Crimson tide
After spotting a post from DannyBeConnor about high tides and very large swells approaching from the north this was one of those busy hours where I ran around with tripod and camera, trying to capture the essence of the weather - the stillness of the wind - the sweeping and crashing waves and failing light.
It really was a beautiful afternoon for photography and nowhere near as windswept as the images suggest.
Sometimes, the uniqueness of the light, the landscape and the elements, seems to compel me to spend time looking, thinking, bending this way and that, standing up, lying down, trying to feel the essence of the environment, and trying to capture a sense of what it feels like. Being a photographer pushes you to explore the world around you in different ways and compels you to look at things in different ways. Perhaps that is part of the attraction for me!
It really was a beautiful afternoon for photography and nowhere near as windswept as the images suggest.
Sometimes, the uniqueness of the light, the landscape and the elements, seems to compel me to spend time looking, thinking, bending this way and that, standing up, lying down, trying to feel the essence of the environment, and trying to capture a sense of what it feels like. Being a photographer pushes you to explore the world around you in different ways and compels you to look at things in different ways. Perhaps that is part of the attraction for me!
Time trails
Its been some time since my last blog entry - a rather hectic few months.
This one is probably one of my best from a weekend in London. I guess you are guaranteed to get some decent shots if you spend almost the entire time trawling around with camera and tripod.
The culmination of the trip was arriving at Westminster for the blue hour, when the sun has slipped below the horizon and light levels are dropping slowly, it is an ideal time for long exposures and representing the world in a different way.
The pavement was wet from a recent shower and I setup my tripod as far out of the way of passing tourists as I could and waited for a double decker bus to approach. I had initially intended for the light trails to run through the whole picture, but with the light levels what they were, could only allow myself a 2.5 second exposure. On retrospect, I'm glad, the image gives me the impression of an English version of "Back to the future", instead of a De Lorean, we would use a double decker London bus!
The low point of the trip to London was reaching Kings Cross an hour early, only to listen as the tannoy announced that all trains were suspended due to overhead line faults just north of the station. Eventually got home at around 3.15am, but it was worth it!
This one is probably one of my best from a weekend in London. I guess you are guaranteed to get some decent shots if you spend almost the entire time trawling around with camera and tripod.
The culmination of the trip was arriving at Westminster for the blue hour, when the sun has slipped below the horizon and light levels are dropping slowly, it is an ideal time for long exposures and representing the world in a different way.
The pavement was wet from a recent shower and I setup my tripod as far out of the way of passing tourists as I could and waited for a double decker bus to approach. I had initially intended for the light trails to run through the whole picture, but with the light levels what they were, could only allow myself a 2.5 second exposure. On retrospect, I'm glad, the image gives me the impression of an English version of "Back to the future", instead of a De Lorean, we would use a double decker London bus!
The low point of the trip to London was reaching Kings Cross an hour early, only to listen as the tannoy announced that all trains were suspended due to overhead line faults just north of the station. Eventually got home at around 3.15am, but it was worth it!
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