December 2022 – Coastal Shots

Judge: Carol Sheridan

All of this months entries are in the experienced section so in addition to the obvious technical attributes and high quality, I am also looking for shots that cry out to me “coast”, along with uniqueness and impact.

Lack of control over settings.

I’m surprised to see that a number of photographers in the experienced section are still using fully auto settings at this level and lack of control over depth of field and exposure is evident in some images that otherwise show great potential. Auto settings theses days often work well in perfect conditions but when the light isn’t perfect or we need to get a bit creative they can let us down.

Images taken on mobile phones.

While I very much subscribe to the principle that the best camera is the one you have with you at the time, it is also quite clear that such cameras are not giving the photographer the control over their images that a traditional camera would. Small sensor size is a distinct disadvantage when it occasion it let the photographers down as their images where overshadowed in the experienced section.

Subject brief. (No brief given)

I have taken the most accepted definitions of the term coast, or coastline.

• The land near a sea shore.
• Land next to the sea.
• A strip of land that meets an ocean or sea.

In short, coastlines are the narrow zones of interaction between the oceans and the land.

For me the shot needs to say it all.

It needs to be clear to the viewer seeing this photograph for the first time that this is the coast. In this instance I have applied the principle that if it doesn’t obviously have a body of water in the scene it’s a landscape and if I can’t see land of any kind it’s a sea scape. I’m looking for interaction between land and sea in some form.

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