Copper Bow
Another shot from the Classic Boat Festival. This one is also rotated, because I like the form and it looks better to my eye this way. If it bothers you, then you can rotate your head towards your left shoulder and that will make it the right way up, or turn your screen. Or, just look at the version below.
Anyone else like the wee little fish? For other images in this series, check out this link.
The first shot, while my preferred composition, also works to resurrect a fault in the image which has a poor point of focus. This is partly because the chip in my lens adapter failed during this shoot, leaving me without focus confirm which, with my glasses, is really a difficult thing to contend with. I tried to compensate by shoot at f-8 and f-11, but not totally successfully. The chip on my 24mm Nikkor lens has done the same thing. I think the chip can’t handle shooting brackets, which I tried to do at one point on this trip, and immediately after which the focus confirm stopped working. I expect I have to reprogram the chip from the ground up, which is a real nuisance.
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Canon EOS 5Dmkii, SMC Takumar 35mm/f3.5 lens, ISO100, 1/100th, f-8
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burnt embers 
Your boat abstracts are sublime!
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Thanks so much Karen! I have been enjoying finding these views in my ‘negatives’.
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Beautiful!
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Thanks Mark:)
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Really really cool, Ehpem, that boat is a work of art itself!
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Hi Toad. Old boats are a bit like old cars. They are enormously expensive and very attractive when fixed up.
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That first image was a real puzzle for me when I looked at it on the Reader. Maybe the brain is a little addled this early in the morning. But it works really well as an abstract, and images that are hard to read are always an enjoyable challenge.
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Thanks Andy. I am glad you enjoyed the puzzle, though I don’t think and addled brain is anyone’s problem with this one.
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At my age my brain is frequently addled until mid morning when the infusion of two strong cups of coffee finally wakes me up!
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Nice abstraction and framing.
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Hi Chris – thanks for dropping by and commenting! Glad you like the shots.
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I like the first shot very much – because without having to see it for what it actually is, my eyes are free to wander around the image, seeing things like those little fish (which could be anything in my imagination); the gentle diagonal line through the frame; the way the things on either side of that diagonal are the same, only not; the lovely shades of green. This is an easy shot to get lost in.
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Thanks Melinda! I too really like the near symmetry of the reflection, with a ripple smudged portal a bit like an eye, and the texture of the fish. I got a lot out of this shot that I did not see when I was taking it. But I guess that is how we learn, next time I might see more than just a possibility, but also some of the detail.
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I like both shots…the first one because of the abstract play with your eyes/mind feel…and the second one because I just love wooden boats. Had you cropped in on the second one I would not have known it was a boat !
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Hi David. I am glad you like them. I actually put the second one in because of your comments about wooden boats in yesterday’s post. I figured it could get frustrating to go to a wooden boat festival with me and only see abstract details. I did do a crop of the second shot (well actually, the top one is a crop of it too) just inside the stem and in the vertical orientation, and it was nearly as abstract as the rotated version.
One of the reasons I ended up shooting these kinds of shots is that the place was swarming with people, and while there is no law saying I can’t photo and publish in a place like this, I just don’t feel comfortable (with a few exceptions that will be coming up). Besides, mostly the people were being exceptionally boring, moving in careful crowds along narrow wharfs, not wanting to get jostled into the water.
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I’ve had the same problem at boat shows. If only we could obtain a pass to photograph the boats before or after the gates open. It would be so much easier…and fun too! Whenever I am in a crowd like that…I do what you do and make the best of the situation and look for the small details and vignettes.
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I guess one way of getting such a pass would be to enter a boat in the show, and to sleep on it. Or maybe just hitch a ride on someone else’s boat for the same purpose. It must be possible.
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I like the rotated version very much, better than the original. I wonder if this type of orientation occurs to many other photographers?
I don’t wear my glasses when I’m out shooting, instead relying on the diopter adjustment in the eyepiece. I use the same adjustment in the Canon camera at the Museum because I’m the only one that uses it. I wonder if you have tried this method and if it will be helpful for you.
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Hi Ken. I am glad you like it. I would say this kind of orientation occurs to you, because I have seen you do it to abstract a shot, or to make it more interesting.
I need my glasses just to read the dials and display on my camera, though mostly I can do it by feel now. I do adjust the diopter for my glasses, and that helps a lot. Part of the problem is the lenses – they don’t have a focussing screen when transferred over. The spotmatics were always poor that way anyway, with a dotted surface that was hard to focus, and the Nikons I loved, but never owned, with the split focussing area that was possible to get just right. In this setup, it is just seeing that it is in focus, or not. What I do if having real trouble is go to live view mode and focus that way, but that is too slow for this kind of photography. I could have mounted an autofocus lens.
And, I have ordered a new little micro 4/3’s camera that I can carry all the time as I find the 5D just won’t fit in a pocket, no matter how hard I try! The impending new camera has focussing that is extremely fast and accurate, which should help a lot. Losing 50% of my sensor area may be an issue (less of the heavy cropping I sometimes do), but having a camera for those shots I see go by during the day should compensate a lot.
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