FE 50mm F1.4 ZA - 50mm - 1/50 sec - f/1.4 - ISO 80

What is a person to do when they’re faced with a morning meeting on site in Cardiff? Well, they should get up even earlier, arrive at the location for the break dawn, and see what opportunities await in the Wetlands Reserve just next door.

And what opportunities indeed! I had done a little research on Google Maps the night before, and it was promising. I arrived just as the sun was rising, the frost was still over the ground (it was the end of February), and I began to unpack for my short walk. The lens choice was the Sony FE 50mm F1.4 ZA, with the 24-105mm in the bag just in case.

It wasn’t long before I had my first encounter with wildlife. By the time I had put the camera bag on a bench to unpack, there was a swan swimming over to inquire about the breakfast situation. The 50mm was hastily put in place, but I needn’t have worried, this swan was all over me, so much so I had to back up to get the shots! I was shooting with a wide open aperture, worried about the amount of light there was to play with, whilst trying desperately to keep my ISO as low as possible. I do think this was a mistake, though. Whilst the shots have come out wonderful, I can see there is room for improvement on the overall focus accuracy, especially with such a small field of focus at those distances. This has been a theme, and an obvious point to work on in the future, although I could have panicked initially.

FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS - 77mm - 1/125 sec - f/4.0 - ISO 160

Whilst around the pond, a couple of Mallards flashed me their bottoms, and it would have been rude not to capture that moment. They were a little further into the pond, so I decided to switch lenses to the FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS, to give me that extra reach and versatility. This is swiftly becoming my favourite lens by far, it can be sharp enough, and covers the classic focal ranges with that little extra reach. I do wish it could be a 24-200mm, but I will happily live with this until one is available; maybe I will have to look into non-native brands.

FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS - 95mm - 1/50 sec - f/8.0 - ISO 125

It was such a lovely morning, the light was a deep golden colour and at such a low angle, I’m not sure I made the most of it, but I tried. Just look at that frost and dappled sunlight!

This day was the day I decided to try and use my Tripod. I have a Vanguard VEO 3T+ 264 CB tripod, which is a lovely carbon fiber travel tripod with a ball head attachment. This was a no-brainer, as a recommendation from a photographer friend of mine, and seeing that it had won a couple of awards, I knew that I would be buying something to last, and not having to replace it anytime soon. It did the job amazingly, even if I barely knew my way around it, and I was glad of the decision to take it out for a test run. Double thumbs up so far.

FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS - 82mm - 1/50 sec - f/8.0 - ISO 125

The morning was a challenge with trying to balance the highlights with the shadows, and this was especially noticeable when coming to editing. I believe I was trying to expose to the right, but may have clipped a couple of highlights in the process. The sky was giving me the most trouble when editing, having to take a lot of exposure from it to return it to something recognisable, and then I was struggling with making it look natural at the same time. Overall, I don’t think I have done a bad job here, but it would be interesting to get a more experienced eye to guide me through the process, maybe a masterclass is in order, so I can approach these challenges with a little more certainty. The contrast, however, was worth the battle, and with the repeating shapes and lines, there was fun to be had.

FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS - 105mm - 1/100 sec - f/10 - ISO 100

With the breeze putting slight ripples in the surface of the water, it was difficult to get a reflection shot, but there were a couple, and something to work on later. In hindsight, having a much lower camera angle would have been good to experiment with, or longer shutter speeds to smooth out the ripples, but I would hazard a guess that it may have been too bright for this to take real effect, and I currently don’t have any ND filters. They are on the shopping list, though! I am pretty sure I could have done with a grad filter for the sky exposure issues, also, something else on the research pile.

FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS - 105mm - 1/60 sec - f/10 - ISO 100

These patterns, lines, the contrast, and the colours made this an enjoyable experience, and all before work started, was lovely. It’s not every day you get to go for a photo walk before you start the day (or after getting up very early for a 2-hour drive to catch a sunrise), but it was worth it. The image below was a little experiment on the way to the cafe where I was going to start my working day, catching emails and Teams calls. I tried to get the star-shaped sunburst after seeing it on YouTube, and I think I did a pretty good job of achieving that. The composition needs a little work, but overall, I was pleased to add another skill to the toolbox.

Gallery

Cardiff Bay

Stowe Gardens (NT)

Packwood House (NT)