On 23rd June 2016 the UK narrowly voted to leave the European Union. In a quirk of fate I happened to be in Istanbul that day, a city that straddles The Bosphorus Strait and as such both European and Asian continents. In a feeble effort to mark the occasion I decided to take a trip to the Asian side of the city and take a picture of Europe from the outside.
The journey was made on the Marmaray underground system from Sirkeci on the European side to Üsküdar on the Asian side before heading back across by ferry.
Canon 5D, 40 mm, ISO 800, 1/15 sec @ f/8
I hereby declare that day to be both the start and end of my photo-journalism career!
On the trip I had taken a reduced set of equipment and stuck with a single lens – my Canon EF 40 mm f/2.8 STM pancake in an attempt to satisfy a ‘single focal length’ challenge to myself, inspired by Sean Tucker. The results of the challenge were somewhat varied which is fine by me as I am happy to continue learning.
In my efforts to capture a decent long exposure with the Big Stopper during a recent trip to Roker, I was forced closer to the water’s edge for two reasons. First I could only attach the filter to my 17-40 mm lens and secondly in order to ensure there were no distractions, the wide angle lens would only be suitable if I got between said distractions and the water.
I found a great little spot at Roker Harbour where the water came quite close to the pavement so I didn’t even have to get sand on me or my equipment – always a bonus! As I was setting up there were some nice shafts of light coming through the clouds so I stuck on a polariser and 0.1 ND grad and took a few shots. I then added the Big Stopper. I calculated I needed a 128 second exposure but it looked too dark once completed.
The sun was continually breaking through and then being covered by the clouds so I then experimented at 180, 240 and 360 seconds. My initial preference was the 6-minute exposure but after consideration I chose the 4-minute one above. It’s slightly over the time as my fat fingers hadn’t released the shutter properly. I think I’m getting there. Some additional foreground interest would help I think – a couple of decent sized rocks or posts, but I included the water’s edge to compensate for the lack of those.
Last week my other half had to travel to Sunderland for a meeting so I thought I’d tag along and we stayed in nearby Roker. I was keen to visit as my friend Paul Mitchell had taken (as usual) a stunning photo of the pier there. I was also hoping for the opportunity to take some more long exposures as it’s a form I really enjoy but one I’m finding difficult to master.
Sunrise was at 05:01 so fifteen minutes before I was set up but was immediately faced with two problems. First the tide was out and to take a shot that showed the curve of the pier nicely I would need to be quite elevated. Elevation wasn’t a problem thanks to the road that ran along the coast using my normal 17-40 mm lens would mean capturing a whole load of unnecessary foreground and lamp posts. Instead I tried my 100 mm lens which framed the image nicely. The real problem was that I then couldn’t attach any of my filters as I didn’t have a 58 mm adaptor ring.
Annoyingly the image, whilst nice, looks to be an attempted straight copy of Paul’s in terms of framing – something I was anxious to avoid! Photographers tend to develop an annoying habit of just copying what is perceived to be a good shot. I want to neither do, nor be accused of that but I think in this instance the shape of the pier and the plethora of encroaching objects meant there was only one obvious way to frame the shot.
Anyway it’s different enough from Paul’s in that it’s not a long exposure, and the cloud cover meant that a monochrome version looks far better than the colour one. Another conscious decision was to include some spray to further differentiate.
The learning for me here was to consider using a long lens for landscapes – something I’d not done in the past. Accordingly I now have an filter adaptor ring on order!
A while back I was caught a wonderful documentary on Sky Arts about Steve Schapiro. Whilst watching I noticed he always (obviously!) had a camera with him and I started wondering why that wasn’t the case with me. I soon realised it was because physically the smallest lens I have is the not insignificant Canon EF 100 mm f/2.8L Macro USM. Sorted! I clearly needed a small lens!
The question then was what focal length. I have a Canon EF f/4L 17-40 mm that is great for landscapes on the full-frame 5D. I thought about a 24 mm but would that be flexible enough for all forms of photography? My lenses are the aforementioned 17-40 mm and a Canon EF 70-200 mm f2.8/L IS USM along with the 100 mm macro. I also have a 2x convertor for the 70-200 zoom so I’m covering most bases. If I were to get a fixed focal length lens I need to know it’s going to be useful in most situations.
The choices seemed to be within the range 24-50 mm. That’s some choice and needed to do some research. I really fancied the wider angle as it would suit my style of photography…
Another consideration this time was the cost of the lens. I hadn’t scrimped on costs before but I couldn’t justify dropping a lot of cash on something I might not enjoy using.
It seemed the sweet spot at the intersection of price, usability, image quality and physical size was the Canon EF 40 mm f/2.8 STM pancake lens so that’s what I’ve gone for. It’s funny how different the 5D looks with such a small lens – almost like a toy camera. I’m looking forward to taking the camera with me more and trying out some new techniques. I’ve got a trip to Istanbul coming up at the end of June and I have decided that this will be the only lens that I take with me.
During the course of my research I was pleased to find Sean Tucker’s website. It’s a great site with some great images and even more amazingly some good tips and knowledge sharing from a professional who takes pride in helping others improve their craft. In his blog, Sean sets himself a challenge to use a series of single focal length lenses. Included were 24, 35 and 50 mm lenses. It was good to read his experiences particularly with the 24 mm as that was my original preferred choice.
There’s a little old unnamed yellow boat moored near the oil terminal that looks for all the world that she’s been abandoned and left to the elements. I have decided that she is my Boaty McBoatface.
As the sun lit the little boat up, along with the water around it I liked the banding caused by the foreground shadow from the overhead pier, the lit up mid-ground and the dark background, finally followed by the lighter sky.
