We were meeting up with friends to gift an unused Olympus camera to their son Isaac, and also to have a wander around the seafront for a practice shoot to help Isaac learn about the camera controls.

I had brought my Fuji X100V so I could capture some shots too, and could advise Isaac on settings if he needed any help, and we could compare shots and ideas for captures.

With the Fuji and it’s fixed 23mm lens (35mm full frame equivalent), you’ve got to do work with what you’ve got which can be a plus because you can be more creative and concentrate on other settings.

Kensington Gardens

We started in Kensington Gardens with some flower shots. Below is a shot of a rockrose which I really like due to the textures of the petals.

Rockrose – f/6.4, 1/250sec, ISO 160 (base)

I the grabbed a shot of this giant onion as well as a close up.

Allium Giganteum aka Giant Onion – f/8, 1/2000sec, ISO 800

Issac saw some pigeons flying around the gardens and said he’s like to do birds in flight. I admired the ambition but said he would need to learn the basics first.

We both fired off some shots as the pigeons few upwards and I grabbed the opportune shot below.

An opportune birds in flight shot
Settings as they happened to be f/8, 1/500sec, ISO 160

Promenade

We then walked down to the promenade and walked alongside the beach.

The new beach huts installed here have some interesting shapes and angles.

The more recent and modernistic beach huts

I took a couple of shots of these huts and wrote about them in a previous blog here.

We stopped for some doughnuts and an ice cream and then walked back towards Pakefield.

The more traditional beach huts make for a good image, and as I was squaring up to take a shot of this one, I spotted I may just be able to grab a sunstar too.

Narrow aperture to emphasise the sun star – f/16, 1/250sec, ISO 160

I took a closer shot of the bolt on the door of the hut, the converted the image to black and white to add more contrast/texture to the shot.

To finish the day off nicely, I had to grab a shot on the beach.

Something different? f/8, 1/60sec, ISO 160

We had fish and chips afterwards with Isaac and his Mum and Dad, and he was thrilled to have been able to get out and start taking photos.

It was great to see a young person’s enthusiasm for photography, and he certainly appears to have the bug for it.

Onwards and upwards…