Buoy – Steel City Snapper photography

This is a photograph the lake at Rother Valley Country Park, not too far from where I live. It’s not generally a place I find condusive for taking photos because, while it’s good for walking, running, cycling etc., and there are a variety of watersports (as well as waterfowl) to enjoy, it’s location means that any sort of wide shot features the surrounding hills, most of which have either houses or industrial units upon them. While I’m sure there are plenty of great photos to be had, I’ve probably been spoilt by familiarity and don’t tend to find it very inspiring.

On misty days however, all that (literally!) fades away and the place takes on a wonderful serenity. The background distractions melt away into the haze leaving much more subtle sights.

Today’s photo is one of a pair I took at this spot. The first one shows just a ripple as the coot decided to dive beneath the surface just as I pressed the shutter. This one was taken shortry after it re-emerged.

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 22 January 2020

This will be a shorter post than part one, no real need to go over the events of the day a second time, but if anyone wants to know, here they are in Cleethorpes part #1.

This set of shots were all taken on the beach (a couple of others – the tyre tracks, and the pier supports – in the last entry were taken at the same time). Again, the camera was my Pentax P30T with a Rikenon 50mm f/2 lens.

While my wife and boys went into an arcade near the foot of the pier, I excused myself to take some photos on the beach. The tide was still out, and although it had turned by this time, there was still plenty of exposed sand (which, as Cleethorpes is at the mouth of the Humber estuary, is a muddy brown colour – the only golden sand available is at the top of the beach and I suspect has been put there by man, rather than nature, to make a more attractive setting for sand castles and donkey rides).

Most of the shots here are of the breakwater just north of the pier, but there are a couple of buoys there too to add a touch of spice (I need to get out more…). Again, the Bergger Pancro 400 has resulted in grainy, but pleasing shots, with plenty of contrast. My post-processing on these has consisted of adding a little extra contrast, tweaks to the highlights, whites and blacks, and a small push on the clarity slider in Lightroom.

The breakwater pictures are my favourites here, especially the first and third shots (I think shot one may be slightly soft in the foreground, but not enough to detract).

A few of my close-up shots from this roll were out of focus, and at first I was concerned about a lens or focussing issue, but other shots like the one below, are nice and sharp so, pending it happening again in future, I’m going to pin the blame on the fool holding the camera.