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So you're at the seaside. The 'Places to Visit' guide showed tantalising photos of sun drenched beaches and azure seas but you find the reality is somewhat different. As a dedicated landscape photographer, what do you do?
This was my dilemma during a visit to Achill Island, an unspoilt paradise on the west coast of Ireland, according to the brochure.
What Liz and I actually found when we got there was that while the 'unspoilt' description was accurate enough, the 'paradise' adjective left a lot to be desired. I would expect a place described in such terms to be not quite so cold, windy and wet. I should have known better I guess. This is Ireland after all!
So what to do? Photographing the grand scene of beach, mountains and sky was out (I couldn't even see the mountains through the drizzle) so instead I turned my gaze downwards and found a couple of quite interesting and strangely photogenic artifacts on the beach right at my feet.
The first was a tangle of different coloured bits of old fishing net half buried in the sand, which made quite a striking composition based on contrasting colour.
The second was the decomposing body and skeleton of an indeterminate sea creature washed up on the beach. I thinks it's a sealion, Liz thinks it's a dolphin - perhaps you know better?
Anyhow it was completely disgusting but the shape and detail of it laid out on the sand made for a compelling image based on geometry and texture.
It's amazing what you can find to photograph when you put your mind to it.
Filename - beach bones 01.jpg
Camera - Canon 5D
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 67mm
Exposure - 1/30sec @ f11, ISO200
Location - Achill Island, Ireland
This image - 800x533px JPEG
Conversion - ACR & PS-CS2
Comments - Tripod, mirror lockup and cable release used to prevent camera movement.
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