Guiding Light

My last outing with my camera had been to a local woodland where I photographed fungi, which was very relaxing. A week later I found myself on the beach at New Brighton photographing the lighthouse and sea defences, which was also fun and relaxing. I didn't have a lot of time but fortunately despite a couple of light showers the weather and the light was very kind to me so I was able to get some nice shots.

I have photographed this lighthouse a few times in stormy weather and it really looks magnificent with waves crashing around it. However, this was the first time I had been down to see it with the tide at its lowest and on such a nice day. Whatever the weather I think it must be a welcome beacon to the shipping that comes into the River Mersey.

I experimented a little with a variable ND filter and longer exposures for some of these shots to  get the most out of the reflections and the sky. I have also mixed up some colour and black and white images for contrast.

Walking on the beach was pretty safe, but I often like to make things difficult for myself; (in the past I have waded into the middle of streams to get a better angle on a waterfall, or set up close to the edge of a cliff for a particular view), so why should this outing be any different. I wanted to get some shots of the sea defences which involved a bit of scrambling over some slippery rocks and it was a bit fiddly setting up my tripod and finding a safe foothold at the same time. I think the effort paid off. I have shot these in black and white because I think it creates a better image. In colour images the green seaweed coating on the concrete groynes is a bit too much and doesn't give as much definition or depth. I think the shot of the groynes which includes the lighthouse (the penultimate image) would have been better using my 17 - 40mm lens instead of the 24-105mm because 24mm just wasn't wide enough to get it all in as I had wanted. However, swapping lenses at that point was a risk too far. There is always next time...

Enjoy, and feel free to comment.

Pilot Lights

I have just been selecting and printing a couple of pictures, entries for this years Williamson Open Art Exhibition and I think I have picked a couple of good ones.

Each year the gallery selects one entry to go in the permanent collection and while I don't expect to have one of my pictures selected it is really satisfying to see my work displayed. It is difficult to know what the "judges" are looking for when they make their selection. I suspect that the pictures I have selected might be seen as too mainstream but then again who knows, they are really nice images. I would be happy to get some sales from the exhibition as I have done in my first year.

The picture I have posted today is one of the images I had considered entering on the basis that I suspect an abstract image might have gone down well but in the end I decided against it. I will never know if that was a poor choice or not.

I do like this image, it is cropped from a larger shot of the Woodside Ferry Terminal however this is exactly what I was wanting to capture. I have called it Pilot Lights because during the course of this shoot one of the Mersey Pilot vessels came in and moored at the terminal and the lights reflected in the river are from the boat and the gantry reaching out into the river. 

Let me know what you think of this picture in the comments below or on my facebook page.