whatever the weather

Katia 2 © Caroline Fraser

The great thing about being a keen photographer is that nothing can stop one from making images. Hurricane Katia is beating around my house at the moment, and instead of feeling sad about the loss of the sunshine and warm weather I am eager to get down to the woods to see if I can get some more "wind" shots ( preferably without the aid of falling trees).

I found myself walking along the river Medway at the weekend, ostensibly to capture my man in his boat, but mainly because I fancied a walk along the river shore to see what I could see. Having been inspired by Struth's paradise series I was delighted to see grasses and trees blowing vigorously in the wind, creating a mini version of paradise; all in green. using a long lens, small aperture and hand holding for between 0.5 to 2 secs I experimented with capturing the movement.

Katia 1 © Caroline Fraser

As I strolled, dog moseyed around on the shore, wandering over to say hello to random passers by.

random passers-by © caroline fraser

As you can see I was having a fuzzy kind of day, preferring to keep the lens out of focus; thereby avoiding the need for a tripod on a windy day with a long lens.

The main key to success with the windy foliage shots seems to be to avoid having any chinks of sky that burn out on a long exposure; the deeper you get into the undergrowth, the better.

Katia 3 © Caroline Fraser

I did get some shots of my man in his boat, but to be honest, they are not very good; my lens not long enough, and too many blocks of flats in the background.

So as my man values his privacy, here is a photo of someone else's dinghy coming down stream against the tide

spinnaker © caroline fraser 2011

As you can see, I was attracted by the lovely red and white spinnaker ( sail).