I have been thinking about how to cover the various sections in this assignment and am disappointed with some of my images as they seem very unexciting. When I went to West Bay, the harbour for Bridport in Dorset, to take some pictures of a block of apartments (they are too posh to be called flats) which have caused much controversy when the company who built them applied for planning permission, I tried to think outside the box to get something different.
West Bay is a quiet, countrified harbour which, to be fair, has been stuck in the 1970-80s building wise. These new apartments are the height of contempory style and most people feel they are quite out of context. I decided to attempt a panarama shot showing both sides of the harbour which enabled me to show 'old' West Bay alongside the 'New' West Bay, hope you like the result. I'm pleased with it but must admit I left it to the camera and computer to stitch it all together. In fact, I have used panarama shots for two or three of the buildings/spaces as I feel it gives more than just a straightforward shot.
My main camera at the moment is a Nikon D200 with a Nikkor 24-85mm 2.8-4D lens although I must admit that a lot of my pictures have been taken on a compact - the Olympus Tough 6000. As I walk round Lyme I often see images I want to capture and I always have my Olympus in my pocket. I've decided to sell the D200 as it's rather heavy with the above lens and have reviewed several other Nikon cameras as I want to keep the 2 main lenses I own so I've decided on a D5000 as the weight of the camera body is half that of the D200.
I have carried a medium format film camera - a Bronica 645 with several prime lenses - half way round the world and eventually switched to a Nikon with a zoom because of the weight problem. I'm eagerly awaiting the postman on Monday, ready to give this new camera body a good workout as I complete this assignment.
