Where I Take The Sea Air In Bournemouth
The Delightful Mr F and I had a few days off recently. With the sun shining, we headed down to the coast for some sea air. I thought I would take the opportunity to experiment some more with Intentional Camera Movement. Arriving at the sea front, it was what one can only describe as bracing. The wind was biting, but we were at the seaside, and so didn’t care.
Using a 10 stop ND filter on my lens, I set about experimenting with camera movement. I started with vertical panning, but quickly realised that the images were quite dull, and then started to wave my camera about in all sorts of manic ways. I received one or two odd looks from dog walkers. The Delightful Mr F commented that the shots of the tourist wheel look like they are seen through the eyes of the Nazgul from The Lord of the Rings. I like the idea of the Ringwraiths having a day off and going on the wheel, candy floss in hand. Everyone needs a break from the daily grind, don’t they?
The beach at Bournemouth is lovely and was really striking with bright blue skies, and golden sands. I tried some more panning techniques, with varying degrees of success. The shot below of the headland is rather nice. The building on top of the cliff is just about visible as a shadow, and I like the muted colours.
This next shot is probably my favourite of the day. There has been some work in post to balance the colours as they were a little bit garish in the original file. It has a real feeling of calm and peace, which is what I was aiming for.
The colours in this next one are more akin to what they actually looked like in reality. I like the dark smudge of headland and the sea breaking on the beach as a distant line. It looks quite warm and sunny, which it most definitely wasn’t!
This final shot is another favourite of the day. The specular highlights in this photograph give a lovely feeling of the motion of the waves, and I love the colour. It isn’t a calm shot like some of the others, but it has a great deal of energy, which I also like.
I think I may have found a passion for intentional camera movement. I love the abstract nature of the shots, and strangely I also like shooting in colour with this technique. As The Delightful Mr F would say, it’s another creative tool in the toolbox. Have you ever tried Intentional Camera Movement?
