boat Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Just Enough Focus

July 11, 2016July 11, 2016

Arc of the Sun

I took this in Venice Florida when I came down to take pictures at sunset. This is a fun place to visit and if you like photography you’ll appreciate it even more. I always leave with some great shots in my camera. Mind you, I take a lot of bad shots but that’s not the fault of the scenery.

In this case I used a telephoto lens fully extended at 240mm. When you extend a telephoto lens it has the effect of compressing distances. So in this case the sailboat and the sun are more or less equal actors in the scene.

Speaking of the sun, I just returned from Alaska and up there I noticed a big difference in how the sun looks. First, it has a low arc in the sky as opposed to Florida where the arc is high. Second, in Florida it’s dark about 45 minutes after sunset whereas Alaska seems to have perpetual dusk during summer, I never once saw it completely dark.

more sunset photos

Anyway, I always like it when I can include the sun in my photos. Something about it just amps up a scene.

June 29, 2016

Heaven on Earth

Here I am looking across the Manatee River on an early morning after the rains. The combination of the clouds and calm waters is just a lucky happenstance of timing. Any later and the breeze picks up to ripple the water. Any earlier and I was just standing in the rain. But as the clouds broke and the sun began to rise it created this dramatic affect in the sky. Quite frankly it reminds me of a painting of heaven. I’d like to think that in my own version of heaven this is what it looks like.

Irrespective of that, I gravitate to idyllic scenes in my photography. Simple images that try not to cover too many subjects is best. Ironically, keeping it simple can easier said than done. I for one am easily enamored with all the little details, maybe because I’m a bit of a geek. But aesthetically, the more simple an image is the better, too many details water down the story an image conveys.

abstract gallery

Anyway, I can ramble on forever about composition, but in truth I consider myself a beginner, I have so much to learn and I expect it will continue to be a life long learning quest. But for now, simple, calm and idyllic; that’s my favorite recipe.

June 21, 2016June 21, 2016

Half by Chance

As is normally the case, I had no idea where I was going. All I knew was that it was before dawn on a Saturday and I was driving somewhere to take a picture of something yet to be determined. It’s not a very exact plan but sometimes that’s just how I roll. Often I have no idea where I’m going when I go out to take pictures. Instead of turning left I turn right and just go with the flow of random-ness in the universe.

I ended up outside the gates at Desoto Point looking at rain clouds and trying to remember why this was better than bed. I put on a poncho and walked to the shore. I told myself that once I got there I could turn around and head home knowing that I tried. Standing there in the rain I was grateful for the solitude, and the poncho. About the same time I noticed the clouds starting to break up. Sure enough the clouds parted, the sun rose and I captured the moment with what seemed to me like a bit of luck.

visit the gallery

I could have left for home before the scene unfolded, or not even walked the trail to the shore. The fact that I did and stayed seemed to me at the moment to be more chance than purpose. That attitude comes from many occasions where it doesn’t work out. So I suppose the odds were in my favor this time and I managed to get the shot, even if it was half by chance.

November 17, 2015

Palavas Harbor

The harbors along the French Mediterranean are full of sailboats. This is in Palavas but in another town further south we watched children learning to sail on rough seas which I though was pretty amazing. But that probably explains why so many people along the coast love to sail. This is just a small section of the harbor, there were many hundreds of boats moored here, many more than I’m used to seeing in our small Florida harbors. This was the scene as the sun set last week and I walked along the docks taking it all in.