Amanda Davies is the winner of the June 2020 FujiLove Magazine “Water” photo assignment. Here comes Amanda’s story behind the winning photograph.
The northern Kent coast is, in my opinion, a vastly underrated area. For me, it is absolutely brimming with photographic opportunities and for a long time I have wanted to do a series on the tidal pools there. This is still a work in progress!
On this particular day I had done my homework, checking the tide tables and weather apps and was ready to go.
My kit that morning was my Fujifilm X-H1 and the XF50-140mm f/2.8 (at 98mm) at f/11. This is one of my favourite lenses and I often use it for landscapes.
On arrival the wind had picked up a bit and the sea was quite choppy. I had to be set up and ready knowing that I wouldn’t have much time to get the shot I wanted. In fact, I only had about 25 mins before the conditions changed and the shot would have gone. I did a few test shots to gauge how long I wanted the exposure with the fast moving water. I settled on an exposure of 50 secs and it was important to keep the tripod as steady as possible in the windy conditions. I therefore had to weigh the tripod down with my camera bag!
My vision was to capture the waves just skimming the top of the pool and for the rails to be prominent. The sun was peeking in and out from behind the clouds and I wanted to catch the highlights on the metal rails when it appeared. I also wanted to retain enough movement without making the sea too soft and (with the relatively long exposure) it meant that I didn’t have too many opportunities to get it right.
My original thought was to edit this scene in black and white; in fact I had my film simulation mode set to Acros Red whilst I was shooting. However, when I opened the file up in Lightroom I much preferred the colour version. Minor adjustments were made and I left it at that. I was more than happy with the shot.
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It would be wonderful to have you on board!
