Look closely

“Sometimes when you focus on what’s close to you the rest of the world can seem more beautiful.”

Let’s get technical… or not

This image which was made some time ago (ie years ago) in Warwick, Queensland, Australia with an old APS 24mm film camera which had a fixed lens, fixed focal length and a panorama setting that was nothing more than a mask over the exposure. Shots taken with this camera were of a similar quality to ones taken with today’s disposable cameras. It is technically of poor quality. The depth-of-field is wrong, the sharpness leaves a lot to be desired and the exposure… well it needed a bit of dodge and burn. And despite the flaws I like this image a lot.

I shoot for a number of reasons one of them being the sheer joy of it but none of them being for making a living. That’s a good thing. For me. I might be broke otherwise. Seriously though, technical perfection is hardly a prerequisite to good photography. It can be an aspect of it… or… not.

By Accident

This image was an accident or seemed to be at first. The ISO was set to 800 from a previous shoot and is not ideal for a bright daytime shot. This “mistake” was compounded with an exposure compensation of +2ev. Of course I didn’t notice this until later (I rarely look at the image preview on my camera).
Now, these mistakes show how incompetent I am with the technicalities of photography. While I undestand the basics I get too lost in the moment to consider the exposure details of the shot. And this has led some people to ask me why do I not simply shoot in auto. There’s a reason for this and this photo is a perfect example.
When I saw this scene I was bemused by the merging of sea and sky. The sky was cloudy and white and bright as was the bay and I could not tell where one started and the other ended. They blended into one, bright space of light. Had I shot in auto, the camera would have adjusted the tonal range and the result would have been of something else, not what was presented to me.
I should point out here that I do not recall over-exposing by 2 stops. Like I said it’s not something I think about normaly. So you could say the image made itself… through no choice of my own… by accident.