"Via Mare" South Cronulla (Olympus M.Zuiko 9-18mm)

No rock pools this weekend - but close. Went for a dawn shoot this morning at "Via Mare", a rockshelf south of Cronulla which is a beachside suburb of Sydney. I have posted images from Shelly Park Beach and Glashier Point rock pools previously. This spot is about half-way between.

Another wet weekend but still something interesting. This is just a quick and dirty processing of the JPEG. I may give the RAW image a work-over later but I am quite happy with the first one and was quite pleased with the 2nd until I put them side-by-side.

The first shot taken with an Olympus E-P1 and Olympus M.Zuiko 9-18mm set to 9mm. The exposure is for 8 seconds at f/8 and ISO100.

The second the same camera and lens (naturally) but at 18mm and for 5 seconds at f/9 and still ISO100.

The is a GND8 on the lens but that's all. The rest is natual.

I think I will give the 2nd one a bit of a fiddle and darken the sky to add a bit more drama. What do you think?

Cheers

PeterB666

 

No HDR. Ironically, I shot 3 exposures of most of my shots that morning with the intent to experiment with HDR but the lighting was so flat, not needed (in my opinion). I am not a big fan of HDR as most applications of it seem to go over the top and provide too much dynamic range. I only want to achieve an image that looks like it would be to the natural eye (or at least our normal perception) under the environmental conditions.

What tripod? Well now that is an interesting question. I have 3 tripods and there is a little story to go with this...

For years I had a Slik Goodmans S-205 (and still have it). It too is around 30 years old, built like a brick dunny*, very compact with 5-section legs but quite heavy. I bought it for cine work with a 2-way pan head. I still use it but the metal twist locks are difficult to use and the tripod cannot be adjusted quickly.

Tripod #2 is a Slik Sprint Pro GM II which came with a light ball head. I replaced the head with a nice little 2-way pan head, Slik SH-707E and it is a very nice head indeed and quite compact. The this tripod is in the sin-bin at the moment, it lost a foot in the sand a couple of weeks ago. A 3 legged, 2 footed tripod doesn't work. Also, while a great little travel tripod, it is not tough enough to take the sort of environment in these pictures. Rocks, sand, wet stuff.

Last week, I pressed my Slik Goodmans S-205 back into action with the SH-707E as it is a better head than the original. It was frustrating moving around rocks and constantly having to adjust the legs.

Frustrated by the S-205, I picked up a very cheap well-known brand name tripod (about 40% off normal selling price). The tripod I used for the above shots is a Manfrotto 190XDB with a 391RC2 head and this was its first outing.

The Manfrotto XDB is slightly more compact version of the standard 190s and doesn't have the swivel centre column. This makes it marginally more compact and little lighter. The 391RC2 is another nice little 2-way pan head with separate locking for rotation and the ability to swivel the top-plate which can be handy if the tripod isn't quite level. It is a very tough and stable tripod and around half-way in weight between the two Sliks but not particularly compact as it has 3 section legs (makes it quicker to set up).

If you are interested in the 190XDB, I think Manfrotto tripods are sometimes sold under the Bogen name.

Cheers

Peter


* That probably doesn't translate very well, but it is a small, separate building, located outside old houses where some people go to sit for a while and then return to the normal duties. Timber ones could blow away in a hurricane.

 

I had a bit of a noise problem with these images and have just discovered why. Because I intended to do some HDR processing, I turned on AE Bracketing, read the manual that you could use either single shot or continuous so I did the latter. Lots of hot pixels and salt and pepper noise.

More reading and I discover that continuous sequence shooting turns off noise reduction. Just did some test shots with lens cap on to see and boy, does it make a huge difference. Won't be doing that again.

Cheers

PeterB666