Solent Poster
A case of Exploration!
Apologies in advance... this one has a bit of a back story!
My togging pal (Langstone Joe) and I set off a couple of days ago on a bit of a mission to find a lone tree that one of our local contacts (Peter Hickson) had discovered on the shoreline of Hayling Island. Our trips of late have been fairly fruitless and increasingly rare because we have both struggled returning to the same old local haunts to take pics. Finding something different to snap has been a bit of a crusade for both of us of late so we set off in high hopes.
We would have preferred a nice sunset shot but tides were against us and it was mid-day anyway so we changed our vision to that of an arty lone tree shot sitting in still water with the shoreline of Portsmouth on the horizon.
The reality was that when we eventually found it, we were perched on a minute spit of shoreline wedged between a steep muddy bank and the tree itself. In addition, the wind was a steady 35mph gusting 50mph at regular intervals. We looked at each other and proclaimed it to be a total waste of time but as we were there anyway we went through the motions and set our tripods up.
Within minutes we noticed that sea spray had coated our kit in salt water and it was obvious our cameras were also being buffeted by the gusting wind which isn’t ideal for Long Exposure photography. (I’m used to Joe kicking my tripod mid-way through a long exposure but the gusting wind was another thing altogether.)
So, we took a few pics and then retired to a local hostelry and agreed we would have to return when the weather was a touch more amenable.
Fast forward a couple of hours and having looked at my pics, as expected, I was not overly impressed and as we often do, we send each other our ‘best of the bunch’ for critique or amusement. I sent Joe a pic in both color and B&W. Joe’s critique was non-existant which is normally his polite way of saying he was not impressed, however, he did summarise, ‘you did better than me!’ I had no intention of posting mine and I definitely didn’t think Joe would be posting anything.
Fast forward another couple of hours and low and behold, Joe had posted one. I actually thought it was an excellent pic and IMHO, far better than anything I had come up with. The next day, that pic was doing so-so on Flickr with some die-hard supporters giving it the thumbs up.
Fast forward another couple of hours and I receive an email pointing out his pic was now sitting at No.1 on Explore!
This togging is a funny old game isn’t it.... Well done JD!!
A case of Exploration!
Apologies in advance... this one has a bit of a back story!
My togging pal (Langstone Joe) and I set off a couple of days ago on a bit of a mission to find a lone tree that one of our local contacts (Peter Hickson) had discovered on the shoreline of Hayling Island. Our trips of late have been fairly fruitless and increasingly rare because we have both struggled returning to the same old local haunts to take pics. Finding something different to snap has been a bit of a crusade for both of us of late so we set off in high hopes.
We would have preferred a nice sunset shot but tides were against us and it was mid-day anyway so we changed our vision to that of an arty lone tree shot sitting in still water with the shoreline of Portsmouth on the horizon.
The reality was that when we eventually found it, we were perched on a minute spit of shoreline wedged between a steep muddy bank and the tree itself. In addition, the wind was a steady 35mph gusting 50mph at regular intervals. We looked at each other and proclaimed it to be a total waste of time but as we were there anyway we went through the motions and set our tripods up.
Within minutes we noticed that sea spray had coated our kit in salt water and it was obvious our cameras were also being buffeted by the gusting wind which isn’t ideal for Long Exposure photography. (I’m used to Joe kicking my tripod mid-way through a long exposure but the gusting wind was another thing altogether.)
So, we took a few pics and then retired to a local hostelry and agreed we would have to return when the weather was a touch more amenable.
Fast forward a couple of hours and having looked at my pics, as expected, I was not overly impressed and as we often do, we send each other our ‘best of the bunch’ for critique or amusement. I sent Joe a pic in both color and B&W. Joe’s critique was non-existant which is normally his polite way of saying he was not impressed, however, he did summarise, ‘you did better than me!’ I had no intention of posting mine and I definitely didn’t think Joe would be posting anything.
Fast forward another couple of hours and low and behold, Joe had posted one. I actually thought it was an excellent pic and IMHO, far better than anything I had come up with. The next day, that pic was doing so-so on Flickr with some die-hard supporters giving it the thumbs up.
Fast forward another couple of hours and I receive an email pointing out his pic was now sitting at No.1 on Explore!
This togging is a funny old game isn’t it.... Well done JD!!