Down to the beach dear friends.

I have been thinking through some more ideas, living by the sea I wanted to incorporate a panoramic with the sea in. What I did not want was 180º of sea with only sea, I could see that wasn’t a good idea. I need something in the water like windsurfers or sailing boats.

Windsurfing sketch

 

I sketched out the idea and a few notes to myself. It’s a sunny day and I got up early and went for a walk along the beach. The tide was out at it farther most point. The only people here were the dog walkers, no sign of boats or windsurfers. I called in at the coastguards hut and asked him when was high tide. I reasoned if I had a sailing boat would I want to drag it out down the beach at low tide. He told me it would be at 2pm and there wasn’t much wind today, they might be sailing from the club after high tide. I returned at 2pm and drove along the sea front, nobody was windsurfing, but I could see the boats were out at the sailing club.

Google Earth Bexhill sailing club

 

As before set the tripod up so it was level, took an average light reading and set the camera to manual settings. Placed it on top and started my first 360ºsequence. After I had finished I suddenly heard a shout from behind me asking what was I doing. I explained as best I could that I was shooting a panoramic and not a picture of her. I began to feel it would be best to move nearer to the sailing club and a way from most people on the beach. During this session I shot both landscape and portrait sequences. 

Portrait and Landscape content

 

The location seemed to lend it self to being shot landscape, it allowed me to keep whole groups of things in each frame, i,e, people and boats. For this panorama I shot 360 º sequences once and then shot a number images only of the sea with the boats and people in, hoping to find one sequence that was more interesting than another. Then I could drop that whole sequence in with the rest of the image behind it.