Shimmer On The Horizon (or “Mum the sun is falling in to the sea”)

Posted on 16/08/2022 by dawnmacroart

From artificial lighting, house laiden streets and busy roads to stunning sunsets, a canopy of silent stars, and secluded shores. What a fantastic two night’s camping. We stayed in a very basic, but beautiful site near Holyhead on the Isle of Anglesey.
Photographing sunsets is new to me, and using gradual light density filters is something I knew nothing about. I was introduced to these filters when watching a YouTube video , but when going to buy one from the https://realcamera .co.uk/ I was given a better pack with a selection of gradients of light filters . (I didn’t realize there were different ones) The staff were really helpful explaining to me that it’s better to use the manual setting and always change the white balance to sunny or cloudy, because otherwise the camera will automatically distort the light readings resulting in “strange” colours.

There is a lot for me to learn, and as it takes the sun between two to five minutes to go down, and I was only camping for two nights it was very difficult to experiment. However, here are a couple of my best shots,(These have been slightly tweaked using the Mac Editor) as well as some awe inspiring shore line captures. I appreciate any comments and tips to help me develop my skills is this genre of photography.

In my next post I will be featuring scenes capturing the the beguiling natural beauty of the coastal paths and crystal clear rock pools.

Thanks for visiting.

Beginning to see the light

Posted on 08/04/2018 by dawnmacroart

After chatting with my past photography tutor and looking at many YouTube clips I have now started to get my head around the different focus settings. You don’t have to wade through the menu it’s simply controlled by pressing the AF M focus button on the side of the camera. This also allows you to view what area mode and focus setting you are currently shooting in. You manipulate the main command dial to set the focus mode and the sub command dial to set the focus area……..Eureka

Upon till now I had been using the AFS area but I didn’t realise that I had the focus set on auto as I wasn’t totally au fait with this.

During a recent trip to the Netherlands with my daughter’s football team (Richmond Rovers) I experimented with some of the area and focus modes and a couple of the automatic scene modes. This proved to be a useful learning tool.

I took action shots first using the AFC and single setting and then later with the sports scene setting. The shots which featured individual player shots worked well with the AFC . Those specifically featuring multiple movement and players were more effective using the sports setting. This is automatically set on AFA d51 so focuses on a larger area and accounts for fast movement.In contrast the AFC single setting worked well capturing individual players but I should have used a different focus mode.

Also I used the quick night scene setting to capture the lights of the oil refinery , which gave the illusion of a city. However I wasn’t pleased with the results and noticed that the automatic setting for this is AFA auto. This is another area I need to research.

‘Oh well’ as they say a “A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.” but for now here are a couple of photographs from the Netherlands.

Mine

This was shot using the AFC S setting

Oof !

How ever this was shot using the sports scene mode

Letting off steam

An Illusion

Searching

…and here is the Youtube link I used This is by Michael The Maven

“Bogged Down”

Posted on 04/03/2018 by dawnmacroart

During the last six months I have struggled to be motivated or inspired to pick up my Nikon D7200.
It was only the other day that I realised this is because I struggle to make the camera do what I want it to do …… the creative compositions in my head don’t mirror the shots taken.
So it’s time to start getting to grips with this camera and wade through it’s vast menu settings, with the help of You Tube tutorials and other sources. ( including any tips from you )
I will share both my failures and successes on this journey and hopefully my inspiration and motivation will return.
In the meantime here are a few shots which were pleasing .