FE 24-105mm - 91mm - 1/125 sec - f/4.5 - ISO 1000

I have been itching to get out with this bundle of technology and get to some actual image taking activities! Getting the time was difficult, but I decided that trying to catch the first hour of sunlight somewhere local before heading out for the day was going to have to do the trick.

FE 24-105mm - 41mm - 1/25 sec - f/8.0 - ISO 10000

I planned to go to Claybrookes Marsh Nature Reserve, which is local enough, small enough on its own but leads to Brandon Reach Nature Reserve and Binley Woods when time permits. The goal was to go for a walk, and take photos of anything that presented itself as interesting. Opting for a limited kit choice to simplify the process, I only brought out the Sony FE 24-105mm f/4 G OSS lens, thinking that this would give me the versatility for different focal lengths and no changing of a lens in the field, and was going to shoot hand-held, as the tripod hadn’t arrived yet. The weather was overcast with a little drizzle, not enough to cause any concern. With the limited time window, I parked up and set off under the canopy to see what I could find.

FE 24-105mm - 86mm - 1/40 sec - f/5.0 - ISO 1000

It was dark. Not in any way that would concern me, walking was fine, I could see very well in fact, it was pre-sunrise, that blue quality of light, but more than enough to navigate through the woods, but I just didn’t appreciate what that would mean for my photos. Thinking that the camera would be able to just capture what I saw, I continued my search for my first subject. It didn’t work out. In fact, lets save a little time here, I wasn’t happy with any of the photos. I left the trees and marsh feeling a little dejected, I wasn’t happy with any of the shots, and focus? What was that? Even when the exposure was acceptable, there wasn’t any sharpness to be seen.

FE 24-105mm - 58mm - 1 sec - f/5.6 - ISO 100

As you can imagine, I was disappointed, and after reviewing the images on the camera and my phone when back in the dry, I wasn’t in the best way pleased and was left wondering how it had all gone wrong? It can’t have been the equipment, so what was I missing? My basic understanding of the exposure triangle left me thinking that I had done the best that I could given the conditions, but, fundamentally, the light was just too low for the settings I had chosen, and without a tripod, keeping that shutter speed down was also proving difficult.

FE 24-105mm - 35mm - 1/5 sec - f/8.0 - ISO 500

Having been out a couple of times now, these images were revisited, knowing I have been a bit hard on myself, and I have edited them to the best of my abilities, discarding the majority of the shots taken, but picking a few where I was happy with the composition, some only kind of, and working with what I had. It turns out, you can’t just become instantly amazing after watching a few YouTube videos and throwing yourself into a dimly lit wooded area. It will be interesting to see how the location changes through the seasons, as being one of my most local spots, I am bound to go back, and hopefully with better planning, more light will be available, and the tripod may be in use, to maximise my chances of success.

I have put the rest of the images below for future reference.

First outing.

Post Production and Sharing

Could this be considered as my mid-life?