Far Sighted Dining
Melinda and I are back at Point No Point with this ongoing series. Her photo is the one above, mine is below and her co-post is here. Once again it is her turn to say something, and she says it all:
“Remember the other day when I said that Ehpem and I would point out things that the other may have missed in our recent photographic wanderings?This is an example – I pointed out this dining room scene to Ehpem. But that was after his spouse had pointed it out to me.
“We spent one night at the Point No Point Resort; it was a great place and all of us would not have minded a longer stay. Our cabin had views of the ocean and distant headlands, a hot tub on the deck, a fireplace. And there were trails down to the ocean.
“And the dining room had spectacular views, and binoculars to bring those views closer. How can you not like a place that includes binoculars as part of the regular place settings?”
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For other posts in this collaboration click on this link.
My photo – Olympus mju II (aka Stylus Epic) 35/2.8 lens, Ilford XP2 (expired ca 2004).
Melinda’s photo – Nikon D7000, 28/1.8 lens
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burnt embers 
Binoculars on the breakfast table! There must be honest folk out your way. Breakfast might take longer than usual with a view like that.
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Hi Andy – no neighbours in this view, so that is one inhibitor to binoculars removed. For me, this is the kind of view that does not need binoculars – I like just staring out over the ocean and watching the waves and occasional boat or ship in the distance.
I like how Melinda’s shot is so consistent with her other occasional photograph of table settings, or parts thereof. My shot is not really typical of pictures I take, and I am not sure I would have tried one here if it weren’t for the binoculars. There was an interesting corner indoors with textured glass, but I could not get the camera to focus on it properly and the single shot I took was a failure.
I think I would have taken this picture differently with a different camera on my person. We had come in to settle up the bill, and I only had a point and shoot on my person. I did take another shot with the flash forced on but don’t like it any better than this one. There is no controlling exposure other than that – one can’t even fiddle with the ISO setting on this camera. With my DSLR I would have exposed for the view and let the rest fall where it may. Perhaps I would have shot some brackets for an HDR treatment which can work well in this kind of setting. I rarely carry a flash for that camera, and have not mastered its complexities in any case.
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The name of this place really amuses me: ‘Point No Point’. I wonder how it got that name. You have to work with the camera you have with you – that’s a challenge often and one that’s worth forcing ourselves to tackle because it makes us use your eyes differently.
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I dont ‘know’ the answer to the name but my guess is that the answer can be found in today’s post showing that what looks like a point from the ocean is in fact an island separated by a narrow channel.
I agree with your point about using eyes differently. It is one reason I have been enamoured of late with various film cameras, including the awkward ones.
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Andy, I think breakfast would probably take until lunch! Unfortunately the dining room was not serving on the days we were there.
I was shooting with a rented lens on this trip – a 28mm; for a number of reasons, it was the only lens I brought with me (less stuff to haul around, elimination of the temptation to return to my usual zoom lens) and it made me think about shooting in a way that’s quite different than what I was used to. I liked the lens a lot – it was fast and the edge-to-edge focus was exceptional – but mostly I liked how it helped me stretch my boundaries. Ehpem does that all the time, with his ever-expanding library of cameras, but it’s new to me.
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I think a Zoom lens (which is always attached to my camera) can make us very lazy. When you work with a fixed focal length lens you really do have to work a lot harder to create the compositions and I am sure that helps creatively. I must experiment more – trouble is I don’t have a single fixed focal length lens!
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Funny thing is that while Melinda is moving to a prime lens I have started using a zoom. The wide angle lens is the first, and only, zoom lens I have owned. I am borrowing a short telephoto right now with Image Stabilisation – very impressive lens, but hugely expensive.
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Right now I have just a 50mm prime lens; I really did like the 28mm that I rented, and have one on backorder. I won’t lie – there are still times when I think I need a zoom lens to get the shot I want. Usually, I try to find something else to shoot that doesn’t seem to need to be zoomed in on. And I am SURE that helps my creativity, as it forces me to look past where I would usually stop.
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I remember the time (long, long ago) when I bought a 28mm and I was amazed at the way it opened up the landscape. A completely different way of seeing.
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Once my backordered lens arrives I think the 28mm will be my go-to lens.
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Once I got my 28mm, it stayed on the camera for years, until I widened out to 24mm and then that stayed on the camera.
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I found the same thing when I got an old 24 and adapted it for my DSLR – I used it an awful lot until the chip in the adapter started causing problems. Wide angle views seem to suit my eye the best.
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