Not the intended post

I had something else in mind to write this long, dark evening, but I braved the elements down at the beach this afternoon. It was blowing a gale, almost literally, with dry sand stinging the skin and in danger of sandblasting a lens. The sun was out, however, between the fleeting clouds. Also out were the kiteboarding maniacs. Mind you it was that windy a fair few of them packed up early, it was that wild.

It hadn't been my intention to photograph the loonies so hadn't taken a long lens. The longest I had with me was a mere 85mm. At the expense of two wet feet I managed a couple of frame filling action shots. The rest were perfectly adequate for web (or phone) browsing when cropped. Which brings home the message that for the majority of uses photographs are put to  these days pretty much any old camera that can frame the shot is good enough these days. Something I'll return to when the post I was going to write today eventually appears.

85mm with no cropping!

There was another photographer shooting the action, rattling off frames at a rate of knots on their plastic bag sheathed camera. Something  I soon got bored of when I gave it a whirl. I put my wide angle zoom to use making the sort of pictures I prefer making. Pictures of people doing things in an environmental context. I shied off from taking my trusty 28 out as I thought I might end up at the beach and I don't have a filter for the lens. A good move as I had to clean salt spray off the wide angle's filter a couple of times!

Back-lighting can give great effects, but when the sun is in the shot it makes exposure tricky. One reason I like photographing in winter is that the sun is low in the sky almost all day - when it does shine. On the beach this can make for shadows which become a part of the composition by filling the negative space of the sand.

The blank canvas of helps make people and things clearer than they would be in a more cluttered place. What I try to get are people doing unconnected things over the picture plane to give a flow or rhythm to the image, rather than creating a composition in a more usual way with blocks of colour. It makes me think of some of Joan Miro's paintings - which I never really got in the past.  Timing can be everything. Not just to get them in the right places, but in positions which mean something. The frame below is getting there.

Ever since I started photographing the kiteboarders I've been trying to make pictures from low down of people behind the kites lying on the sand. Some have worked okay. Today I got one that I like for its near-symmetrical simplicity, and muted overall colours. The flash of red and the gesture of outstretched arms spreading the kite's cords are what 'makes' the image work better than of my previous attempts. Which just goes to show that it pays to carry on repeating shots over time - even when you think you've already got 'the one'.

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Windy

With the wind blowing and the sun shining I headed to the beach. When I got there the wind was more than blowing, it was almost gale force. Dry sand lashed across the shore and the kiteboarders were leaving the water one by one. The wind was so strong I struggled to hold the camera still enough to get sharp shots at over 1/2000th of a second. I gave up trying for any action shots as the few remaining 'boarders were out of range. So I made do with scenics and suchlike. Even that wasn't easy in the wind, and all the while trying to prevent the filter on the lens getting sandblasted.

I tried to get a picture that showed the blowing sand, a kiteboarder on the 'horizon' and a kite in the background all framed in a satisfying arrangement - and failed. The shot below came closest. It's a slight crop and not razor sharp thanks to the gale. The idea was there though.

Back at the car I swapped to my cheap'n'cheerful 28-105 and came away pleasantly surprised at the quality of the files it produces. Sharp enough and contrasty. Best of all it's lightweight and compact. However, it's not a snappy focuser and it lacks the instant auto-focus override I find myself using a lot these days. A very useable lens nonetheless. I might seek out a wider c'n'c zoom to complement it. My reasoning is that I like to travel as light as I can, so a c'n'c lens in a pocket or small non-camerabag-bag, provides an alternative to the lens I'm planning on using most if another opportunity arises or things change as they did today.

The picture below is another almost shot. The light is great, the composition is okay but the 'action' doesn't add much. Given the lack of a lens hood, and the UV filter, which are both supposed to create ubearable flare, the lens seems to have managed alright. Sure I did a fair bit of work with the fill slider and other adjustments, but it made for an acceptable (to me) picture. Full set of pictures here.

What is and isn't acceptable is entirely subjective. I've been looking at black and white photos from the 35mm film era recently in my collection of photo books. I'm sure digital has made us all too critical of what is acceptable and what is not. There are loads of classic photographs which when enlarged beyond postcard size reveal huge grain, and many of them are actually either blurred (through the film forcing a slow shutter speed) or simply not quite focused.

Makes you wonder if all that is needed for 99% of photographic applications really is a compact camera. Let's face it, it's easier to get sharp shots with little 'grain' in low light from the X10 than it ever was with my Pentax and Ilford HP5. Good as it is, and much as I like using it, I prefer the general handling (and the viewfinder) of an SLR. If only they could be made smaller. Have I mentioned that before?

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