Captain’s log, 06:10 AM, 4th of June 2025.
Its cold today but no as cold as the previous week. The winter here tends to have days where it gets extra cold. Or it could be us getting used to the cold until nature cranks it up a notch.
This morning I decided to take my camera with me. The past few weeks haven’t good for me photography wise. My motivation / discipline / passion isn’t there. I’m spending more time reading about photography and photographers than actually doing photography¹.
I’ve mentioned it before and you might have experienced this yourself. The auto-focus of a compact isn’t always the best. It might be time catching up with my Kodak or I am just too used to how quickly a DSLR can find focus.
With this being said I decided:
Why not use this disadvantage to my advantage? Why not use the second, perhaps two where the camera struggles to find focus? Press the shutter button and as soon as the screen goes dark, indicating it is in the process of capturing, move the camera.
When I’m out taking photos I’ll rarely stop to look at what I’ve captured. One because the little LCD on the back of a camera tends to lie. Two I don’t have time to stop and check – I am on my way to work so I’m a bit crunched for time.
I suspect the difficulty to focus comes down to the lack of proper lighting. I turn the flash off and this time of the mornings there aren’t much light. Sun has not yet risen.
The next image is one of my favorites. I am walking downhill here. The house at the bottom is on the edge of a small stream. It is fed by a small lake further to the right of the image. This ‘valley’ is a prime spot for fog and it gets really cold in the winters because of the water.
At the bottom of this hill I take a right turn and head towards town. This stretch of road runs through agricultural holdings. This is one of the houses I find along the way.
On my home I decided why not try this ‘technique’ again and see what happens when it is sunset VS sunrise.
The image above is close to home. Morning & evening photography gives you great silhouettes. Except for the crop and the resize on these images they are SOOC.
I like this last one for two reasons. The self-imposed shaky effect and the orange & yellow of the sunset. Winter sunsets are my favorite. Yeah it’s cold once the Sun starts to dip but it disappears you can marvel at these types of sunsets.
Moral of the story.
Just because your camera isn’t the best, newest, fastest with auto focus doesn’t mean you can’t take interesting photos. Apart from the auto focus I find these images have a bit more “grain” in them. I don’t think grain is the right term but it looks grainy. Probably has more to do with the low resolution or something.
Take your camera and do something weird. Shoot with different, not-your-normal settings. Shoot where there is no light. Or shoot where there is too much. Experimentation is part of the photography journey. You don’t make cool images by just sticking to the beaten path.
In closing.
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Thanks for reading
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