Gone fishing

I almost wish I was still writing for fishing magazines these days just so I would have somewhere to get some use out of the photos I take while fishing - which is what I've mostly been doing with my free time of late. It would also give me the opportunity to take creative photos with a purpose. It's all well and good posting pictures on a blog, but they seem more purposeful in a real life, hard copy, magazine. And they are larger.

Some have been nice ideas that haven't quite come off, like this picture where I didn't quite get the arc  of the rainbow over the rods the way I'd have liked. This was partly a consequence of not enough time as the rainbow was fading, and partly caused by aged joints and a bad back not letting me get the right position to shoot from!

There have been a few pretty scenic shots which are nothing more than nice colours and 'safe' compositions. Restful in their way.

And naturally plenty of pictures taken to pass the time between fish. Mostly messing about with depth of field, using a subject close to the lens with a soft background which is just distinct enough to be descriptive. The kind of shot (as in the final example here) which could be run in a magazine with text over the out of focus portion. This was something I found the X10 to be very good at as it focuses really close at its 28mm equivalent focal length. It's small sensor was a limiting factor in control of depth of field though. It's control of what is in and out of focus, and to what degree, rather than the shoot as wide an aperture as possible line of attack which interests me. It's a prevalent 'style' these days, and having the 'fastest' glass is seen as a badge of honour, rather than a mannered affectation.

Having sold some of my unused rods the other week I, inevitably, failed to resist temptation and added the 28mm Nikon I'd looked at to my lens drawer. It's never been off the camera since. Quite why I have gelled with this focal length I can't say. It seems to be right for a lot of things. It doesn't give that obviously-wide-angle look that even a 24mm lens can when shooting landscapes, yet it's wide enough for most indoor use while not distorting people in pictures so long as you don't get in too close. 35mm feels like using a telephoto now! The lens certainly gives good control over depth of field. Again digital review screens make it so much easier to precisely check the amount of blur each aperture is giving.

Being a wide angle lens the depth of field can be large when stopped down. To me this is just as important a feature as being able to have shallow depth of field - for landscape and grab shots.

Something all the pictures here share (possibly excepting the rainbow shot) is that I have used evening light and shade to add atmosphere, and to focus attention on certain parts of the image. A way of thinking about pictures which hasn't often concerned me in the past. Possibly because of my preference for photographing on dull days.

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