Jaxx - beach -SG 2016-11-26-0492
Dec, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took the photo at Redcar Beach in the North East of England. I was at Redcar taking photos of the local bikers charity "Santa Ride" around the area, and once the bikes had gone past, I had a trundle along the beach to see what was happening.Time
The photo was taken at about 2.25 pm on the 26th November, and the sun was already quite low in the sky, giving a wonderful golden look to the photo.Lighting
I was really very lucky with the light that day. It was forecast as quite cloudy, but the sun managed to peek out just when needed. Olly (the horse) was to the south west of me when I took the pictures of him rolling in the sand, and I managed to get him lit just right. Winter sun, when you can get it, is amazing for adding a golden tint to afternoon photos.Equipment
I have been lucky enough to have been given indefinite use of a Canon 7D by a fellow photographer. I used a second hand Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 lens which I bought extremely cheaply as it had been damaged slightly by a previous owner (the front lens has been scratched and some of the protective coating has come away). Fortunately the damage only affects long exposures, and rolling horses don't fall into that catagory. I'm not a great fan of flash or tripods, although if needed I can use both..but on this particular day, the flash stayed firmly off and I'd left he tripod at home due to initially wanting to do panning shots of Santa.s on motorbikes.Inspiration
I love horses, and take photos of them whenever I can. On this occasion, I'd watched him and his rider splash along the beach and then head up to the car park as if to pack up and go home. Some 10 minutes after I'd thought they'd gone, they come back onto the sand, un-tacked and seemed to be having a bit of a cool off walk. As I was watching him, I could see he was contemplating having a bit of a roll.. so got the camera up and ready.. just in time to start snapping him shuffling that sand into his coat.Editing
Post-processing for me is usually quite a quick affair. I bring the raw image into Lightroom, then in the basic development, I take the highlights to -100 and the shadows to +100 before adding a little clarity.. about +20. I check the noise levels in the photo and alter the luminosity to suit (on this particular image I think I added about 50% luminosity and about 30% to the colour). I then ensure that the lens profile has been updated to the correct one used and that the 'remove chromatic aberration' has been ticked - to get rid of those annoying purple or green edges. Sometimes the auto remove doesn't work, so I manually tweek it until I'm happy. once I'm happy there, I'll adjust the whites and blacks, the contrast, and the job's about done. Occasionally I'll alter the colour temp, but the camera usually manages quite well to get that about right on the auto white balance setting. Export the photo to a folder and then upload to show it off.In my camera bag
Normally carry.. Canon 7D body Canon, 50mm f1.8 lens Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 Canon, 35-105 f3.5-4.5 couple of batteries ready charged, couple of spare memory cards, waterproof outers and a few bits of survival gear.. as I'm usually out on moorland, middle of no-where and run the risk of being hurt or lostFeedback
Always be watching what's going on around you, even if you're in the middle of something else. I've gotten into the habit of keeping both eyes open when shooting.. and using the back screen on occasions as a kind of rear view mirror.. (has come in useful at motorsports events!) On this occasion I had photographed Olly as he came back along the beach, and watched him head back to his horse box.. I've turned and I have photos of a dog racing along the sands. I've obviously been constantly scanning for what to take next as I've caught his rider holding him after coming back onto the sands as she is chatting to a couple and fussing their dog.. Olly is curious and it's when the dog and it's people have moved that you can see Olly startingt o go down. When you see something, just keep clicking.. I have 22 individual images of Olly going to his knees and then doing 2 rolls.. there and back again.. It only takes the one shot.. but better to hedge your bets, especially when photographing movement, and try to cover as many chances as possible. You never know, that one after you stop clicking might have been the perfect one.
