Camera obscura

I'm sorry not to have been posting as regularly as normal, but I did mention some weeks ago that my summer sailing activities would make my posts a bit less frequent.

I sailed into Douglas on the Isle of Man recently and it was very pleasant to have fine weather for a change it didn't take long to deteriorate again, though. I took the opportunity of that lovely evening light to explore Douglas Head a high promontory above the harbour taking my Canon G9, of course. There are spectacular views down into the harbour and over the town, but something else caught my eye almost immediately. It was the recently renovated Great Union Camera Obscura building, which sits high on a cliff side above the sea looking out across Douglas Bay.

I just loved the way the light was catching the angles of the roof. In fact this roof was the first thing I photographed; cropping in really quite tightly and leaving just a little of the distant town in shot in order to put the picture in context.

Only when I'd got this picture in the bag did I step back a little and look at the overall scene. This time I placed the building squarely in the middle of the composition but included a foreground of the side lit grass in order to add some depth to the picture.

Camera obscuras were very popular during Victorian times, although the optical principle had been understood for centuries. Usually, a single lens and mirror was placed in a revolving turret above a darkened room. This set-up projected a live image of the surroundings. The lens was often revolved by an operator to amaze the audience with the most interesting view. The Douglas camera is different in that it has 11 fixed lenses originally there were 12 projecting the panoramic view onto a series of angled white boards in the darkened circular room below.

It was built in 1892 by a Mr Fielding, a Rochdale man, purely as a commercial enterprise. Eventually it fell into disrepair until the Manx government had it restored. It is now run by keen volunteers and is well worth a visit especially if you have an interest in photography.

Photo facts…
The G9 was set at ISO 80. Auto White Balance was used, and the exposure was set to f7.1 with Aperture Priority.

Photography in mixed light

For anyone who doesn't know, and who may have a passing interest, I'm a keen cruising sailor, and posts on the blog may be a little spasmodic during the summer months because of this interest. But that doesn't mean that I will not be taking lots photographs. In fact few activities lend themselves to picture gathering more readily than sailing. Maybe not when the conditions are rough; then I'm just too busy sailing the boat. However, cruising takes me to some very beautiful locations. At the moment I'm based on the West Coast of Scotland and few places on earth can be more spectacular. Mountains and sea are a powerful combination. I hope to be posting some pictures taken on some of my short voyages over the next few weeks… but I promise I won't bore you rigid with boat talk.

Yes, I'm lucky that on my boat I get to see some wonderful places; I often drop the hook in secluded anchorages that are impossible to get to without a boat. But, you know, with that understanding of the light that I keep rattling on about, visual interest and appeal is to be found just about everywhere you look.

The picture above confronted me one evening when I put my head out of the saloon doors and looked across the marina at Troon Yacht Haven. Now marinas are not noted for their beauty. In fact they have been disparagingly described as boat parks. Although Troon is a good safe place to keep a yacht, no one could describe its setting as idyllic. But look at the way the last rays of daylight are slanting onto the houses behind the row of boats, while the boats remain in shadow. I took one glance at this scene and dived back below to get the camera. This sort of light sometimes last for only a few seconds.

It's the combination of light temperatures the 'mixed' light - that gives this picture impact and appeal. The high temperature blue light of the shadows is in total contrast to the low temperature golden light shining on the houses. Those are not the prettiest houses in the world, but in that wonderful light the place looks like heaven.

It is vital not to over-expose with this type of shot. By all means let the shadows go dark that will add to the impact but over-exposure would have washed out and lost the colour in the houses. I took my light reading from the houses NOT the boats, and I deliberately under-exposed by 1/3 stop in order to saturate the colours a little.