mframes

Stay in bed for an extra hour or so, or get up and try and catch the sun rising down by the sand dunes? No contest.

Pretty tricky shot, this one. I was even in ‘let’s try and do it properly’ mode and used my 3 stop graduated ND filter. I didn’t bracket [and blend], mainly because I never have any joy doing that (unless I spend way too long tweaking things). The resultant image usually ends up far too over processed and in my mind I don’t like that because I know it doesn’t look real and like it was when I photographed the scene. I suppose I’m just old fashioned when it comes to my photography [*].

Here’s a different view of the same shot taken with my Google Pixel, although it’s slightly earlier and before the sun came up from behind Dunstanburgh Castle so the light on the ground is more subtle meaning less contrast. The camera on that phone is unbelievable. In less than a second it has assessed the scene and used clever Google magic to capture a photo which presents the dynamic range of the scene pretty well. It’s a difficult scene to get right. But it’s smart.

[*] In future posts you will see just how “old fashioned” I have become – I’ve dived into 35mm film :-)