Our visit to Dorset was timed to take advantage of the Moon rising through the arch of Durdle Door. While we were in Dorset we had also booked a workshop with Mark Bauer to help us with our landscape photography. We choose to have a split day with a session in the morning and a session late afternoon.
This is from our joining instructions.
What to bring:
In order to realise the potential of the locations, I suggest you bring the following:
· Digital or film SLR
· Variety of focal lengths, ranging from wide angle to medium telephoto
· Filter system (e.g. Cokin ‘P’ or Lee)
· Graduated neutral density filters, polariser, ‘solid’ neutral density
· A good sturdy tripod
· Memory cards (or film)
· Spare batteries
· Warm and waterproof clothing
· Good supportive footwear (wellies can also be useful)
· Snacks and a drinkI have a spare tripod and a spare set of Lee Filters with a number of different adaptor rings which you are welcome to borrow on the day.
The good news for me is that I could borrow filters and a filter holder from Mark Bauer for my sessions with him.
Wareham Bridge
Sunrise: 4.56, Sunset: 21.24
3.45: Meet for sunrise shoot, in the National Trust car park just outside Corfe Castle.
If the conditions are suitable (clear, still with the possibility of mist) we can shoot at the river at Wareham. We will work on exposure and using graduated filters to reduce contrast and balance exposures.
See page 40.
Look carefully at the start time of the first session – we had to be at the National Trust car park at Corfe by 3.45 am. Definitely an early start . . .
We were there a little early. We then followed Mark to Wareham and parked in the pay and display just by the bridge. We were there so early that there was no need to pay anything!
We joined Mark on the bridge and then our workshop started in earnest.With Mark’s guidance I added filters to the filter holder and switched on Live View on my camera. Then I used touch focusing to choose which parts of the scene the camera was to focus on. I learnt how to adjust zoom when I was playing back the images so that with one touch I could zoom right into the image and check pow sharp it was. This was a completely different way of shooting for me. And using a tripod!
