Dave Benham

Nikon D700, 17-35 AF-S at 24mm, 6 seconds @ f/22

A quick postscript on the Red Kite trip – arriving at Welshpool late Friday and keen to make the most of the weekend Andy Keen took me to Lake Vyrnwy, about half an hours’ drive from the station. The sun and the heat of a five-hour train journey rapidly turned into drizzle, but as the last elements of light started to disappear we weren’t to be dissuaded. Even a close encounter with the slope didn’t put us off as we clambered with our tripods.

I didn’t get many shots that were usable and spent more time wiping the rain off the lens than anything else. This final shot had potential, and with a little tweak in Lightroom on the saturation and a vignette effect I’m pretty pleased with the result.

Last weekend the family trooped off to the coast – the cove to be more accurate, at Lulworth in Dorset. It’s an absolutely beautiful location and the weather was fantastic. We met up with a bunch of my wife Sam’s colleagues, many of which are keen photographers.

Gathering in the car park I looked at all the cameras around me and decided to rebel. There wasn’t a longer focal length than 24mm on display, so I swapped the 24-70 f/2.8 on my D700 for another good landscape lens – the AF-S 70-200 f/2.8.

What do you mean, I hear you ask? My logic was firstly that I didn’t want to come away with the same shots as everyone else. This meant a resolution that I wouldn’t take a shot of Durdle Door as well. Does that make me a bad man? Secondly I knew that there would lots of interesting areas of detail around the cove and buildings which would be fun to look for. The zoom lens should suit this down to a tee, as well as a few of my favourite people shots!

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