Penarth Pier Monochrome
Jul, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I'm a self-taught photographer, and I've been taking photography more seriously for about 2 years. Whilst a lot of my photography is connected with travel, this Victorian pier is in my hometown of Penarth. It's extremely photogenic, so I tried to find a different view to the normal ones I've seen.Time
I had the morning off work, and I popped into the pier café around 9am for a cup of tea. It was before the pier got busy, and I thought the clouds gathering in the sky were quite interesting. After taking a few 'ground level' shots, I decided a more elevated position would capture more of the emerging drama in the sky. I went up to a little-known room at the top of the pier and got my shot!Lighting
The sun was obscured by the clouds which meant that there were no unsightly shadows, but also that the lighting was fairly dull. Whilst the shot was nice as a colour shot, converting it to mono allowed me to push the contrast and bring more of the drama out of the clouds.Equipment
I used a Sony a6000 with a Sigma 19mm art prime lensInspiration
I wanted to capture some photos around the beach as part of a project on my hometown which I'm doing to develop my photography skills. I'd been walking around the promenade for a little while, and I was initially only drawn to the pier for a cup of tea. while I was sat at the pier drinking the tea, I started looking over the scene and taking 'mental pictures'. When I decided I needed a more elevated position, I remembered that there was an obscure room at the top of the pier that hardly anybody knew about. I went up there and thankfully the room was open, so I got out onto the balcony and took the shot.Editing
I always shoot in Raw, so it initially went into Lightroom to do my standard adjustments - a little clarity, lens correction and a little sharpening. I also cropped the image slight to get the symmetry right. I then used the Silver FX Pro module of the Google Nik collection to convert it to mono. And that was it!In my camera bag
I've been used to quite a disciplined kit bag because I'm usually travelling when taking photos. I also only have one camera - my Sony a6000, which I think is great for everything that I want to do, and extremely portable. I've also become used to using primes because of their additional sharpness compared to most zooms, so I have three Sigma Art lenses - a 19mm, a 30mm and a 60mm. Just having these focal lengths really forces me to focus on my composure. I also have a small selection of tripods that I will occasionally take out with me if I'm local, but I generally don't carry any filters.Feedback
The Pier in Penarth is extremely photogenic and has been stunningly photographed many times. For me therefore, it was all about finding another angle or view to put it into a new context. As the pier is essentially a series of straight lines, I thought the symmetric approach would work best. With most of my photographs I'm shooting something that's "new" to me, but there are definitely benefits to visiting familiar places and forcing yourself to view them in new ways.
