Usually my Saturday mornings are spent bleary-eyed on the couch in front of Fifi and the Flowertots. Last Saturday we were down on Sandymount Beach by 9am (I’ll post what we were doing there tomorrow) and it was gorgeous. The tide there goes out 2 miles at its lowest and with the sky completely clear and blue it was just perfect. I don’t think Eve had ever seen so much space.
If you’re interested in the technical side of it:
I used my beloved Canon 17-40mm L lens for these.
I set my camera to Shutter Priority so I could keep it at 1/1000 (nice and fast to get the shallow depth of field).
To get the low angle I didn’t actually lie on the sand, I just held the camera down at ground level and aimed it at Eve.
13 replies on “Sandymount Beach”
Lovely pics, and what a beautiful day! Looking forward to a few beach days myself soon.
The pictures are stunning, especially the last one!
Those turned out gorgeous, I love the first one!
Yes, great shots. Well aimed considering you didn’t get covered in damp sand!
Nice to hear the tech details. Funny how you think differently to me. I might have used Aperture priority to set the aperture to lowest f-stop number (hence low depth of field) – but I see how your logic brings you to same result! I seem to be an AP freak, I need therapy!
Great photos. I was delighted to get the technical guidance and was nodding, pretending to understand. Then J of D went and adled my brain with his Aperture priority.
This whole thing needs further explanation!
Paige
Thanks everyone, it was a really beautiful morning and I was spoilt for good photos to take.
John, I usually have my camera on manual but I’ve been playing around with the different priority settings lately. I wanted the option of really sharp shots of Eve so I went for the fast shutter speed this time.
Paige, I’m never sure if people will be interested in the technical side of the photos although I love to read that kind of information on other people’s photography blogs.
Ah, yes, I forgot that you had a fast moving target!
Haven’t been checking my blogs lately, really need to get my feeds sorted.
Anyhoo, nice photos as usual Claire, the mono baby ones are lovely – my best photo ever is of my baby girl ultra close-up, in mono too.
Thought you may be interested that I just got me a new lens for my Nikon, it’s an 18-200mm zoom (3.5 max aperture) with the new Vibration reduction (VR) feature. I absolutely love this lens, enough range to be pretty much permanently on my camera and the VR is pure magic – I’m getting some sharp handheld shots at 1/10 sec! and confident sharpness at 1/30th.
This has changed my camera use, one camera & lens, single SLR neat fitting case, NO TRIPOD. It’s a much lighter and more easily usable setup and it means I will grab the camera more often when heading out.
Another thing I found more useful than it looks was an SLR wrist strap, your hand locks into it and you carry the camera always attached to your hand, it can’t fall, and you don’t look like a tourist.
Keep up the inspiring pics.
Cheers.
Hi Davy, sounds like you’ve got the perfect lens…talk about range! I’m very surprised that it’s as light as you say, I would have thought it would have to be a beast. Thanks for the tip on the wrist strap, I’ve been winding my shoulder strap around my wrist and it’s getting to be a right pain. It keeps getting in the way at just the wrong moments.
Thank you, Thank You, Thank you! Amen you did not get down and dirty in the sand to take those wonderful pics.
I will be out practising taking low down shots without having to crucify my knee further! Such a simple idea, thank you for mentioning it..I feel like saying doh! to myself…actually I did 🙂
LOL! No, I started doing the holding the camera down on the ground thing so I could avoid having to lie down in unsavoury places 🙂
Hey Claire,
Equipment update again:
Wrist Strap: absolutely excellent, the more I use it the more I like it. I was also windong the neck strap around my wrist but its bulky and does’nt really work too well. The wrist strap is like having your camera welded onto your shooting hand – which I’m sure you can appreciate!
Sometimes a wee bit awkward when shooting a vertical – if you’re trying to hald the camera the ‘right’ way with elbows against the body, but a very minor complaint.
Also I just got a Nikon D200 camera body, upgrading from a D70. I really enjoyed (past tense already!) using my D70 but the D200 is in a different league, results on my screen are a big improvement too.
I need to carve out some time to organise my Flickr stuff, so you can see what I’m yakkin’ about.
Good luck with the models drive – looking forward to seeing the fruits of your labour…
Cheers.
I was looking at a wrist strap the other day and almost bought it…now I wish I had. I hate having the shoulder strap wrapped around my wrist because it’s always unravelling and getting in my way at crucial moments.
I’m starting to look at the Canon 5D as an upgrade for my 10D. I love the 10D and all but I’m starting to find its limitations and of course, there’s always some new piece of kit out there.
I’d love to see some more of your photography. You’ll have to let me know when you get it onto Flickr.