When I got back to my own computer I ran the photo of the cockle boat 'Boy Michael' through Photomatix, converted it to a pseudo HDR and then enhanced the detail and saturation a bit in Topaz Adjust.
I might think this was all worthwhile, but I imagine the men who take these boats out to dredge up shellfish would be among the first to ask ...
Why?
Thus proving that one man's HDR is another one's cocklers.
Its only a matter of time when I visit the rellies in Leigh on sea before I find myself making an excuse to go to the Old Town to photograph the cockle boats.
Although I am ancient enough to remember when the boats were made of wood and the cockles were brought ashore by men carrying baskets down a gangplank, I still find the whole cockling industry absolutely fascinating.
The boats are now modern, steel and purposeful, and the cockles are unloaded by mechanical grabs, but they are sold from the same sheds that I used to walk past every week on my way home from my 'Saturday Job' at Walker's chandlery, to the same rather surprised looking customers and accompanied by the same pungent smell of vinegar.
And I am still struck by the same question after all these years. Without wishing to criticise the long standing heritage and tradition of the industry, i cant help but wonder...
Why?
If ever there was a need to prove that a long lens and a sunny day does not make a wildlife photograph, I managed to fulfil it this weekend.
I followed this grey heron up the canal in my boat, steering with one hand and holding my S5 with a Sigma 70-300 in the other until he (she?) decided that enough was enough. Realising that catching dinner was going to be on hold until the bloke in the Orkney Longliner whiffled off (I always like to characterise wildlife as if it is written by P.G Wodehouse) , he stood obligingly on a post and posed for me as I drifted past.
I took a total of 18 shots of the heron as he gazed unblinkingly at me. The camera was set to shutter priority, as I was shooting towards the 300 mm end of the zoom, and told me it was metering 1/142 at f5.6. It was set to shoot Jpeg (I usually shoot in RAW) but was at maximum resolution, so I expected sharp results.
And what's more, I realised that this was an unusual opportunity to photograph a heron, an habitually shy and retiring bird.
So, was I successful?
Was I Swedish Exercise.
Even though this was the pick of the 18, it is soft, badly exposed and lacks definition at anything bigger than the size of this post.
I have given it the full treatment. Photoshop, Adjust, Vivacity, you name it. Nothing can rescue me from my own incompetence.
Apart from the limitations of shooting on a compressed format I assume that I have discovered the limits of both my lens (f8 or bust) and hand holding.
I daresay Gussie Fink-Nottle could have done far better.
... of cygnets on the Lancaster Canal. I photographed this family of swans on the canal in May, at which time the cygnets looked like this:
I imagine that growing so fast must be a tiring business.
Summer holidays soon, and time to go and see my family in Leigh on sea. I always try to find time to photograph the 'Old Town' part of Leigh, down by the water. Cockle boats, seafood stalls and old pubs full of old fishermen and young yachtsmen, boatyards full of abandoned projects and the mounds of crushed cockle shells that make up the foreshore and the space behind the jetties where the boats unload.
Everything that Arnside doesn't have as a result of the tidal pattern of Morecambe Bay. But then, Arnside also doesn't have piles of litter, the most expensive car park outside of Knightsbridge and it doesn't smell of vinegar.
I like them both, and I like photographing them both, but for very different reasons.
I've not really felt much like blogging recently, nor have I taken many photos. Its not that I've lost interest in photography (or blogging for that matter) but being a sensitive soul, or a softarse to be more vernacular, I have not been in the right 'place' mentally for several months.
All it took, as it turns out, was a visit to Arnside seafront and some dramatic 'pink' light. I quite like the result above, but more to the point, I am looking forward to taking some photos again soon.
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