We are all feeling the effects of the latest lockdown restrictions, certainly the longest one so far and although its just a couple of months it feels like an eternity. Gaining inspiration for photography within our 5km limit has become a challenge in recent weeks, trying to find compositions in the everyday scenes seems impossible as the eye becomes accustomed to the mundane and fails to separate the beauty in the scenes that surround us.
With this in mind and as spring has started to gift us with some extra light in the evenings it was time to dust off the camera bag, find some new areas to explore in the hope of sparking some inspiration again, all within our 5km boundary.
On a glorious March evening we set up the tripod and the camera at a fishing Jetty at Mentrim Lake just a few kilometers outside Ardee. The plan was to capture a shot as the sun went down behind the hills at the opposite end of the lake, and line it up with the fishing Jetty.
So after months of no practice with the camera it took a few takes to line up the settings for a long exposure, ISO set to auto, lens stabiliser switched on and shutter delay not set up were just a few of the rookie errors we had to straighten out. With all that sorted and some test shots done it was time to set up the composition and hope the sun lit up some clouds that were forming over the hills, the trusty Canon 5DSr with the Canon 24-105 L-series were eagerly sitting level with the Jetty looking out across the lake capturing the full scene, ISO 100 @F/11 to maintain focus across the scene followed by a series of exposures from 4 seconds up to 25 seconds to give a cross section of images and a possibility to create a nice HDR in post.
Unfortunately we didn’t get the colour’s in the sky we had hoped for but the golden light across the lake was really spectacular, a quick change of lens to the 70-200mm and a slight change of composition to tighten the scene left us with just a few minutes to capture the beam of light that hit the Jetty. And capture it we did, the golden light perfectly illuminated the wooden beams of the Jetty as the sun dropped over the brow of the hill, and standing back to admire the scene i felt a smile emerge on this photographers face, the joy of being out with the camera came back with a bang, there is nothing quite like it. Months of isolation and lack of inspiration came to an end as i watched the black screen at the back of the camera change to reveal the last image of the day, contrasting colour’s and a beam of golden light stretching through the image were a great sign that i had something to process through Lightroom later on.
We miss our trips to Donegal, Sligo and Northern Ireland, however we sometimes miss what is on our doorstep, and if im grateful for one thing during this lockdown its the inspiration to find new compositions in overlooked local scenes, suffice to say i have been back to Mentrim lake and have enjoyed the contrasting images and perspectives found there, no doubt we will continue to revisit there even when we can travel further afield, a little gem on our doorstep.