This photo, which is almost three years old, dates to April 2021. It portrays a small pontoon at the entrance of Carcavelos Beach, near where I live. I often like to go for a walk on the beach very early in the morning, and sometimes, I carry my camera and small tripod; you never know what Nature might throw at you, so I like to be prepared.
Mirrorless systems can be quite small and easy to carry and provide very high image quality. On this occasion, I took with me my small Fujifilm camera with the widest lens I have, a 14mm one. From previous visits and photo walks, I knew its angle of view would be adequate for the area. Upon reaching the pontoon, I knew I had a strong composition, with the diagonal leading lines and the contrast between the yellow artificial light and the pre-dawn bluish colours in the sky.
Long exposure was inevitable, bringing out the clouds in the sky. Smoothing the sea further enhanced the complementing geometry of the pontoon and its near-mirror image in the diagonal cloud formation above. I chose an aperture of f/8 on the lens to ensure good depth-of-field coverage, set up the tripod, and took the image.
I always shoot Raw for maximum image quality; upon developing the file, I only made small and normal adjustments to exposure and contrast. For this type of shot, I activate the camera's long exposure noise reduction to clean up any unwanted noise that might appear.
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Dimitri Vasileiou • Editor