A photoshoot at the beach

What with the current economy and not having a full-time job yet, I decided to use the time to work on my photo technics. A couple of nice books helped me refresh most of what I already knew and learn a lot of new stuff, so I was eager to do some hands-on testing, especially because after several years of not having a tripod I finally got one.

So, on Saturday Roxy and I betook ourselves to a little-known spot near San Pedro called Abalone Cove, where along with beachcombing and breathing fresh air, I was able to test the limits of my camera and the shallow depths of my photoknowledge upon a variety of subjects.

The results are below, with the comments added, mainly about how the pictures were taken and why I think I need a new camera.

Or you may just look and enjoy the sights and ignore the technical flaws if you can.


What my Canon S3 IS does really well is macro, or close-ups. It has two settings - macro and supermacro, and the latter can focus on something as close as 0 mm from the lens! This means you can put the lens flush against a glass and photograph something on the glass (like frost).


However, photographing in direct sunlight causes a lot of shiny spots and harsh shadows, so I like to take pictures in diffused light. But, the low light causes the camera to chose a larger aperture, which in turn results in shallow depth of field. In case with the mating bugs below, the depth of field is so shallow that while the heads and antennae is sharp, the backs are not.



Of course, I could also chose a higher ISO, but that's where my camera really falls short. On anything higher that ISO100 the picture gets pixelated and the quality plunges.

This squirrel suddenly came out to investigate while I was taking pictures of the sunset, so rather than fumble with settings and risk it disappearing, I switched to automatic and shot a few quick frames. Since it was late afternoon and sunlight was dwindling, the camera assumed an ISO setting 200 - and if you click on the picture you will see that even though the squirrel is sharp, it's quite pixelated.

This is an attempt at minimalism. I like the texture of the wet sand.

More macro.


Most of the macro shots taken with this camera need little to no retouching, so I just crop them in Photoshop if necessary and resize for posting online.



This star was immersed in the water, so I had to increase the contrast in Photoshop.


The octopus was rescued by Roxy and me and plopped back in the water, where it proceeded to breathe and move it's tentacles to prove it's not dead.


Landscape shots. This one was taken at a partly cloudy moment, so the light is evenly distributed. Once again, on the automatic setting the camera "assumes" its handheld and sets the highest possible shutter speed, which results in a wide aperture, which in turn throws the fisherman out of focus. I will just pretend that was the desired effect.


Bright sun=blown highlights on the necks. These pics are taken on "sport" setting to capture the motion, so we got the fastest possible shutter speeds.





This one was sitting still, so I zoomed in and took the exposure reading from the white feathers. Got almost all of it correctly exposed, except the top of the head. Hmmm...


Macro barnacles and mollusks. Yum!


This is taken with the portrait setting, which effectively threw the background out of focus. This time it WAS the desired effect.


Well, did you catch anything?



The sunset pictures are taken with a tripod and a variety of manual settings. I just wish I could fit a polarizer on this camera instead of having to manipulate the picture in PhotoShop.


Love this one! I think it's my favorite pic from the entire shoot!


For sake of experimenting, I took this following picture through my sunglasses :)

Didn't change much, except the color...


This is another one taken from a tripod, but with a faster shutter speed to capture the motion. Though I force the ISO to stay on 100 setting, every now and then the camera decides to change it to "high" - and what we get is pixelation. Plus, though the focus is on the birds, they are not as crisp as they could have been. These are the times when I wish I had a dSLR!


Experimenting with slow shutter speeds. It works well for running water (rivers, waterfalls, etc), but doesn't do much for the tide, except for making it milky.






I love this picture of LA harbor and the humango cargo ship (their size still blows my mind), but look at that sky! It's so bad it got little random pink pixels running through it! I definitely want a camera with a bigger sensor!


That's it! Thanks for watching, and feel free to leave comments - they are always most welcome!