Falling Down

Almost exactly a year ago I had ventured off to this same location because I thought the sun was supposed to come up right behind this little island. I was ill equipped with a 18-135 lens, trying to capture this. And while it almost worked, my framing and composition weren’t great. This morning when I returned with a plan, and the right lens for the job I was between relieved and disappointed. The sun never pierced the thick layers of fog, the side light, and illuminated mist never came to pass. I would of stayed longer than I had to see if things would work out in my favor, but three hours was enough for me. Out of all the shots I snapped this morning, this ended up being my favorite of the bunch.

This photo, while not what I had in mind is an example of pre composing an image. I already knew what I wanted to shoot, had the end result in my head, and so I went out with the sole goal as to get that shot. Now, you will hear from all sides that this is good, bad, or utterly indifferent, and you will need to decide for yourself how you want to approach your scenes. There are drawbacks to being hyper focused on a singular compositions, you can miss things. Other other hand, the hard part is fairly well done for you in this case.

Of course once you’re on location with a predetermined composition you will have to figure out how to make all the angles work for you, which is more than just picking a place and plopping a tripod down. Walk around, work out your composition so you can create your image, in the end you will be happier for it. Now with a lens the size of my 100-400 Handheld shooting is still possible, but I recommend using a monopod to help stabilize if you’re going to shoot images as frame everything up. Otherwise work methodically, slow, get into a groove.

There’s no need to rush through things if you show up to a scene with time to spare. You will find if you just try and rush through a composition it just wont work out for you. Slow down. I’m guilty of showing up on scene last minute, and despite my exuberance, I force myself to work slow during setup. If you try and speed through all of it, you risk dropping your gear, and possibly injuring yourself. Take a breath, relax, one thing at a time. After a while it will become second nature, and all that slow moving will end up actually being faster than just trying to tear through it.

Until next time!

Aperture: f11
ISO: 800
SS: 1/80th
Focal: 183mm

Fujinon 100-400