Unit 1: Pt 5 Brighton Bokeh

On the Sunday after our first session I visited Brighton beach. It was a gloriously sunny Autumnal day. I was spending it with a fellow photographer, taking in the sea air & looking for a bit of inspiration.

I was using my 50mm lens, but it wasn’t doing much for me.

My friend then took a lens out of his bag & fixed it to my camera. It was a Tamron SP 500mm 1:8. This is a mirror lens which my previous tutor, Zig, had shown us, but I’d never used one before. Put simply, it’s a cheaper version of a long-focal lens (£300 compared to £1k+).

What got me was when I put the lens on the camera, all functions were manual. Have to admit, I do quite rely on aperture priority & focusing. It suits my style of shooting, plus helps with my dodgy close-up eye sight. However, my friend was on hand with friendly advice on how to use it.

The first thing he mentioned was I’d have to put up the ISO, so I did. I then started to look at the world with my new ‘eye’. The first thing that caught my attention was the reflection of the sunlight on the water.

Hmmmm, a bit over-exposed, so I reduced the ISO. I then took some consecutive shots while holding the camera as still as I could. None of the following have been edited.

I wish I’d taken some interval timer shots of this – would have made a great time lapse/dissolve piece similar to my last BTEC project.

I try to take some further shots, but my blurry, close-up vision just couldn’t cope.

Will take a bit of practice to get it right if I borrow the lens again. What I did like about using it was getting out of my comfort zone. Think I need a bit more of that!

When I got home later that day, I had a tweak with one of photos. Can imagine this printed on fine art paper. Something else to explore.

Ok, today wasn’t the best for photography, but it got me thinking about the current project. It was quite freeing just looking & experiencing rather than worrying about getting the ‘perfect’ shot. I caught the following on my phone’s camera: