A Seaside Staple
For some reason, just about every time I go to the seaside on a sunny day I buy a toy windmill, the more colourful the better, and take a set of blurred motion pictures. Once I've finished I give it away - usually to a family with a young kid in tow.
The goal is to capture the movement of the windmill, which takes a lot of trial and error to determine the best shutter speed and aperture for the light conditions and wind speed.
An additional challenge is wind direction - there may be a beautiful vista in one direction but if the breeze is coming from the direction of the gasworks you have to make the best of things. And the sun may not shining from the ideal direction either...
The image above was taken in Brighton - the wind was coming off the sea so I was forced to face inland. However, there was a blue sky with fluffy clouds so I pointed the lens skywards. The shutter speed was 1/60, the aperture was on f22 and the ISO was 200.
The image below was taken at the entrance to Brighton Palace Pier, I lined the windmill up with the pylon holding up the strings of lights. The shutter speed was 1/100, the aperture was f22 and the ISO was 200.
Afterwards, we went for a cup of tea and I gave the windmill to a staff member who laughed and stood it a flower display.