I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with photography. My grandfather, father and brother were/are very accomplished cinematographers. And with that, I guess I have always placed high expectations on myself on the images I take. If it’s not close to perfect, I get down on myself and put the camera away for another six months.
Canon 5D mk2 | 24mm | ISO100 | 1/160 | f8
Which is absurd and means that I’ve never really improved as a photographer. And I’ve never been able to consistently enjoy taking photos as I’ve placed far too much pressure on myself.
But the thing is, I really do love capturing beautiful images. So with that in mind, I’m picking up the camera again. And this time, I’m not focused on achieving perfection straight out of the box. I’m focused simply on learning and getting better!
But you have to start somewhere! So on an overcast morning, when the kids are at daycare, and I still find myself unemployed, I took a short stroll and started to learn.
Canon 5D mk2 | 24mm | ISO100 | 1/5000 | f1.4
The results are far from perfect, but in this post are two of the better ones. And here’s what I think I learnt!
- When shooting landscapes, you need a subject. This morning I took several shots overlooking the water. To be honest, most of them were incredibly dull. In these shots, the wharf gave at least a little bit interest to the photo.
- The time of day matters! They call it the golden hour for a reason! I missed it with these shots, but they could have been greatly improved if they were taken in better light. Also, if I took them earlier, I may have captured the scene with less wind – improving the reflections in the water.
- Focusing wide open is hard! I was shooting with a very fast 24mm (f1.4) lens I have. When shooting people, I often like shooting wide open and taking advantage of a shallow depth of field. This morning, I found that very difficult. I escaped it with one of the shots here, but most of the shots I took at f1.4 where soft – even when focused at infinity (I’m not entirely sure why and I am going to do more research!) But In the meantime when I use this lens for landscape work I’m just going to stop down and keep things sharp!