ABOUT ME

I live in a camper van with a West Highland Terrier for company.
My passion is creating images but it is a work in progress.
I am always willing to share what knowledge I have and can be contacted through the comments on this post or e-mail ADRIAN
ALL IMAGES WILL ENLARGE WITH A LEFT CLICK

Sunday 5 December 2010

A LACK OF FOCUS (05/12/10)

Today has seen a vast improvement in the weather. It was cold last night and barely got above freezing all day but it was dry and clear with nothing but a gentle breeze.

We have been to Redcar…………for those that know it, I know they will be thinking this bloke is definitely a sandwich short of a picnic…………I would be the last to dispute this slur but have to say we had a grand wander on the beach. Redcar has a wonderful stretch of sand. I will admit that the immediate foreshore inland of the sands could do with a lick of paint…………..that’s a touch optimistic……..It could do with a tsunami and a total rebuild.

For some reason……………my fault?…………..never!…… All todays pictures are somewhat fuzzy and I promise I was not, I could have sworn I was at the top of my game. Unfortunately these images prove otherwise and we all know the camera doesn’t lie.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA   The Steel Works at Redcar…………Now Scotland, Wales, Northumberland boast castles on their beaches. Redcar has a steel works these are so much rarer……Barrow in Furness has one I believe but it doesn’t have a beach, it has mud. Not just rare then but unique. We are almost facing west, it would make, with luck, a good sunset.

Lots of seabirds on the edge of the surf. I only had a wide angle lens so what with that and blurry I can’t realistically share them with you. But Herring Gull, Common Gull……..almost the same thing but missing the orange spot on it’s beak. Black-headed Gulls by the dozen and a couple of Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA  I’m hoping these are Dunlin.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA   A Common Sandpiper or may be one of the Plovers.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA  Oystercatchers…………..even if they aren’t please refrain from saying so…………I’m very proud of my powers of discernment when it comes to the Oystercatcher.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAA Port Hand Marker, it is a long way inshore but at high water there must be a channel running close in. On safe territory here. Spotting these was my job.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Looking  south east down Redcar Arenas…………..Spanish for sands. Sounds posher. I haven’t a map of this area, I suspect the Ordnance Survey do one, they being the last folk to forget an area that is much better than I imagined and could do with some serious investment. The first cliff is my destination Saltburn by the Sea. I’m having lunch there.

Well above average as roast dinners go it was too, portions a little on the large side but better to err on the side of caution than skimp. Thank you all at the Ship Inn.

Saltburn by the Sea has a claim to fame in that it has the last surviving cliff lift using water ballast as motivation. I really must get back after Easter and see it working.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis really is fuzzy, hurts my eyes looking at so I really am sorry……………The shot I took of the pier behind is so bad I can’t post it. Google it if you are a pier fan…………….Like most of it’s brethren it has been trashed by storm, run over by ships, trashed by storm but this one has been rebuilt. Oh beggar it here it is in all it’s blurry glory…………..Lomo effect is all the rage………difficult to achieve with three grands worth of camera and lens……

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA    I managed………………..what an artist……………unfortunately not RA after but piss in front……artist.

A diversion…………….have any of you purchased anything from Lensbaby…………..Thought not………….they can convert a 5K Nikon body into a cheap copy of a Kodak box camera for the paltry sum of one hundred and twenty pounds. Surprised there isn’t a six month waiting list. For another forty pounds or so we can have a pinhole effect lens. Even I can make one of those………..did it in school with a cocoa can. What were the images like. They were brilliant, my mate Dennis looked okay in my picture…………..poor blighter looked awful in real life with acne, a protuberant nose and a tooth missing. The pin hole camera did him proud. The print was also hand signed with a thumb print………….couldn’t find the tweezers in the dark.

That’s all, have a good week.

12 comments:

  1. Well, I liked these shots! The last couple were the only ones I felt were really out of focus. The rest seemed just hazy, like there was lots of fog or smog or just something in the atmosphere preventing that crisp clear shot, from a distance.

    I really like the third shot, with the tidal pools and birds. The stick coming out of the water looks like a hand reaching into another dimension. :o)

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  2. Krista, I tend to work manual all the time and this lens is 1K sterling. I let them acclimatise. so suspect it was just a bad camera day. I can't have bad hair days........haven't got any. Think I will phone Scotty he beamed me up yesterday.

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  3. Krista a PS. Just looked at the meta data from these shots, the haze is haze but the rest? I never looked at shutter speed 1/8th sec hand held. What a plonker but steady hands. Thanks for your critique I feel better now.

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  4. My theory (experience?) is that it's just plain harder to hold a camera still with icy cold fingers! I like your beach shots, though.

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  5. I never knew Redcar had a steelworks. I knew they had a race track; I used to donate money to it years ago via the local Ladbrokes.
    I'll go along with the bird ID's Adrian. They look about right to me, especially the Oystercatchers. ;)

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  6. Nice pics and fuzzy ones pictures.

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  7. Dawntreader it is but too easy to blame the cold. Just lack of concentration after a big lunch.

    Keith, far less steel works than it once did. The area was virtually a hundred percent heavy industry. Mainly steel and chemicals.

    Bob 'twas good to get out. Bracing I believe is the polite term for bloody freezing.

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  8. Funny to think of you having an 'off' day - can't have been you, must have been the elements. I don't think there could be a better shot of where you were going for lunch! If it wasn't meant to be hazy and dreamy, I'd claim I made it that way! It's beautiful.

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  9. Pauline the weather was hazy. It was the two half dozen shots I took after lunch that suffered. I only had a pint but was ready for a siesta.

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  10. Like Pauline I very much liked the antepenultimate (just love that word) photo. It doesn't look blurry to me (not sure what that tells you) but I confess that the penultimate picture gave me a touch of vertigo.

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  11. Last time I saw Redcar steelworks was at least 20 years ago and it seemed massive, as was our nearest - Scunthorpe - in those days.

    Considering what you said was the shutter speed used you did really well holding the camera steady in the present weather conditions. Only the funicular railway shot looks as though you need to hand out the 3D glasses ;)

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  12. Gb, an excellent word. The seabird pictures aren't that sharp, the landscapes are okay. Just a lack of concentration had I noticed the shutter speed then I could have opened the aperture and solved the problem.

    John, The steel works still stretches for miles towards Middlesbrough. Much of it is shut but some they are reopening. Apparently a Korean company has bought it.
    The blurry was just me with my muppet head on.

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