Boynton Beach, FL and St. Augustine, FL: Autodidactic Masterwork

Jul 2

Written By

You hear a lot of the same cliches working in photography from those that don't know a whole lot about it. "That camera you have sure does a great job" or "You can only do that because you have some-super-special-whatever." My personal favorite is someone who says their equipment isn't "enough" and I say that as a guy who has said that too.

Knowing that I would probably have limited time on the beach due to travel and obvious COVID-19 concerns, I saw this unique challenge as an opportunity to not only test myself but put to bed some of those common misconceptions stated above.

I knew I would probably get 2 locations and hopefully 2 really great times of day/opportunities to shoot. The first being Boynton Beach, FL and the second being St. Augustine, FL.

For these shots I used as my camera a beaten up, entry level a6000 purchased a couple of years ago for $150. For the lenses, I chose what most people would consider some of the "worst", "old", "bad", or "not good enough". All of these lenses are manual and have their own unique characteristics and flaws.

M42 Soligor MC 28mm f/2.8
Konica AR 40mm f/1.8
M42 Helios 44-M-4 58mm f/2
Pentacon 135mm f/2.8

Most of these shots were taken with the M42 Soligor MC 28mm f/2.8, but all the lenses make an appearance at least once in this set. I love the 28mm look (crop at 40 on APSC). For me, my challenge was to produce the images I know I could given the strengths and weaknesses of the lenses and camera body. For instance, do you know how much SAND is at the beach? A WHOLE TON. Sand is nature's glitter, all over lenses elements, in bags etc but even when switching lenses a slight breeze will have a camera full of sand. Each lens has it's own quirkiness too. Some pull different colors out better than others or go down a full stop or more to get the "look" right vs another.

For me this was about intent, and at it's heart, a "graduation" test for myself. I can do whatever I need to do, given whatever I have available. Even if it's not the best, even if it's some of the worst, I can still do what I do the way I do it. And those misconceptions? I hope I didn't put'em to bed, I buried them out there in the sand.