River Deep, Mountain Haiku

A Real Window Of Opportunity

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

What's the best way to test the versatility of a camera? I reckon it's when you use the camera in bad light, so as to assess every aspect of its functionality. As regular visitors to this blog would know, I do enjoy photographing in low-light conditions (see the posts titled `Dude, Where's My Carp?' and `The King And I' and you'll see what I mean).

So here are a couple of shots, taken from right across the Yarra river, that establish the credentials of the Pentax K100. The 18-125 lens is very compact and literally morphs from a stub into a bayonet. I took both these shots before sunrise, in steady rain - and through a window! I should point out here that, like all my work displayed on this blog or published in print on three continents, I do not manipulate or Photoshop any of the photographs. So read on ...

The first picture, the skyline shot, is really unusual because it's taken from a high-rise building, which gives the photograph a rather unique perspective. In other words, I'm shooting parallel, not upwards. To shoot through the window, I disabled the flash (easy to do on any digital camera, even pre-SLR models) so that I would not get unwanted reflection or distortion.

I did not shoot and review the picture and re-shoot until I was satisfied. I fired off just one frame. Then I unfurled the lens to its full extent - and shot the second picture. Again, just one frame. Pretty good result, because the lens takes you all the way into the clock tower of Flinders Street station. And the key factor to bear in mind is that I was deliberately testing in a combination of poor conditions - pre-sunrise, in rainy conditions and through a window, remember?

As the clock shows so clearly, it was only 6.35 am - and if you look to the right and slightly below the clcok, you can even see the tram stop, which for the benefit of non-Melburnians looks like an illuminated, golden figure 1.

Stand by for more results of this test pattern ....