Photowalk 42 - A Very Grey Day

It's Tupperware Box skies here in Gosport at the moment, grey, soft and boring. But there was the hint of some definition in the clouds this morning, so I grabbed my camera and headed off to take some Photographs....

I took my Qstarz GPS Photo Tagger along with me today too, so if you've got Google Earth installed, you can download my .kmz track file, follow my footsteps and look at some other pics I took as well.

It's A White Wash Taken With Fujifilm S5700, Aperture Priority, F5.6, 1/450th, ISO 200, Focal Length 12mm, Hand-held

Once I've got Oliver his breakfast, the pack lunches made, and the bunnies and guinea-pig fed, I grab a coffee and sit in the garden for five minutes, checking out the sky, hoping for a little bit of blue-skies, or at least some definition in the clouds.

Unfortunately for the last couple of days the light has been really bland. Grey blanket skies, with rain at regular intervals, so the question every Photographer has to ask themselves, "Is it worth going out and taking some Photographs today?"

My answer will always be yes. If you've got the time, grab your kit and get shooting. The light might be flat, but the practice of getting your camera out and actually using it, keeping your eye tuned, looking for those compositions and subjects, will always make you better.

Missile Tube Taken With Fujifilm S5700, Aperture Priority, F5.6, 1/210th, ISO 200, Focal Length 22mm, Hand-held

Obviously on days like this, great landscape shots are going to be hard to get, so I usually look for the details, the shapes and colours that catch my eye. They might be a bit abstract, but I quite like that style, and it means that I don't get disappointed looking for that "perfect landscape".

Woah! Taken With Fujifilm S5700, Aperture Priority, F5.6, 1/420th, ISO 200, Focal Length 6mm, Hand-held

The above bridge shot is a first for me - a diagonal landscape! It's not an original treatment for the Forton Lake Bridge, a fellow Gosport Photographer did a similar shot and inspired me to try an angled photograph, something I think I'll be trying more of.

Loading Bay Taken With Fujifilm S5700, Aperture Priority, F5.6, 1/120th, ISO 200, Focal Length 11mm, Hand-held

I always feel a bit dodgy taking photos of someones house, especially in the current climate of fear in relation to terrorists, but the geometric shapes you can see in dwellings are always intriguing.

Hardway Sailing Club Taken With Fujifilm S5700, Aperture Priority, F3.5, 1/160th, ISO 64, Focal Length 7mm, Hand-held

The above shot was really hard for me to take. I'm not really fond of heights, and although this pontoon was right on the water, it was rocking in the sea-swell, making me feel distinctly nervous. I was OK walking to the end of the pontoon, and kneeling down and taking the actual shots, but when it came to standing up again, I felt really queasy and was very glad to get back on dry land!

Overall, this Photowalk was more of a fitness exercise, I think I got some OK shots, but I can't wait for a bit more Sunshine.

Cheers, Rob.
ps, A note on camera exif data. Being a bridge camera, my S5700 has a crop factor because the sensor is a lot smaller than on a dSLR, so when you're looking at the focal lengths bear in mind that the S5700 has a focal length range of 6-63mm, which is the equivalent of 38-380mm in a 35mm dSLR. Also the aperture and shutter speeds given are approximate, as for some reason sometimes they're different in the PC exif data than what I actually took, but its usually just the next step up or down.