On the way back from taking the pictures for “I See You“, I set my Satnav for home and followed it. I wasn’t too far from home at all, but I was on unfamiliar roads, and I knew the satnav would know a quicker route than me, just following my nose.
The route took me past some nice views, and I logged the rough location in my head for another day.
Today I retraced my steps and found the spot I’d see the views from. I’m still working on getting detailed shots, so I thought I’d again try for a moody shot with as much detail as possible.
The scene also really lent itself to try and get lots of layers in the composition too, so I threw that in the mix as well.
I’m really pleased with today’s main shot, because I took it with my “long lens”, and managed to get a pretty decent shot. The settings I used were:
f/8 – 154mm – ISO100 – 1/80
To counteract the camera shake I get with my long lens (I don’t have a tripod or image stabilisation) I lowered my car window to just the right height, and wedged myself against the car seat and the door frame, and rested the camera on the open window.
It really helped, but at this focal length I could still see quite a bit of movement when I looked through the view finder.
Still, it is by far the sharpest image using a long focal length that I have capture so far.
The house looked really cool, nestled in all the trees looking out across the small valley.
I also took a few shots looking further down the left of the valley, again to try and get some layers into a “long range”, detailed landscape shot.
I’m really pleased with the result, though a little disappointed they look a lot shallower on my mobile (I nearly always write this blog on my phone).
Learnings – a bit of improvisation helped me out today, and I’m really pleased with today’s photographs. I used both my lenses, took some handheld shots and some with the aid of a car door.
It’s also confirmed that my next purchase will be a tripod, nothing fancy just something to get me going, to help me grab the detail and focus clarity I’m after.
Onegav 