Sea, sand, silhouette
Lauren Scott hits the beach with a long lens
When my journey to Skomer Island (see page 8) got delayed because of stormy weather, I found myself with a windy day to spare on the Welsh coast. When travel plans go awry, remember that there are still photo opportunities to be had, wherever you are. For me, an extra day meant a chance to practise with a new telephoto lens that I was going to be using for the rest of the trip: the Nikkor 300mm f/4.
Most people reach for a wide-angle lens when confronted by long, sweeping beaches like the one here at Little Haven, but a long focal length gave me a way to experiment, and I ended up compressing the perspective of the scene instead.
I couldn’t initially find a focal point in my scene, but when this surfer emerged into the viewfinder, I knew I could create a pleasing composition by placing him a third of the way into the frame. (Sometimes the rule of thirds really does just do the job.)
Adapt your approach
I explored many different angles with the telephoto lens, but kept being drawn to the reflective sand at low tide, as well as the sparkling bokeh from the sun. I set the lens’ maximum aperture of f/4, then focused on the person in the distance. The wide aperture and 300mm focal length threw the sand into soft focus, while keeping the point of interest clear.
Edit for impact
Everyone processes their photos to different extents, but I often find it useful to imagine how I’m going to edit a shot when I take it. For example, I underexposed this image, ensuring that I wasn’t clipping any of the sparkly sand. I knew that I wanted to up the contrast and warmth, creating a surfer silhouette in Camera Raw.
Be weather-wary
Although this scene looks fairly picturesque, there were strong gales whipping their way across the beach. I kept well wrapped up with a hat and hood, but also made sure I was using the lens hood, protecting the front optic from sand particles that were being blown around off the beach.