Continuing my series from Dorest, here is a selection taken from near the Peveril Point Lookout Station, at the tip of Swanage Bay - plus two from the Purbeck Hills looking over to Peveril Point. The views you get from here are into Swanage Bay, or west in to Durlston Bay, and across eastwards to the Old Harry Rocks and further off towards Bournemouth. Another very rewarding area for the keen photographer, especially if you get up early!

All these taken early morning, with the K7, and all on the tripod with remote control and mirror up operation. Mostly at small apertures, f9 to f13 or so, and shutter speeds mostly around 1/15th - 1/60th second, ISO 100.


1. Firstly the view from the Purbeck hills towards the Peveril Point (at the end of the spit) - 'M' 75-150 f4.0 plus 2x telecoverter (focal length = 300mm), f13






2. Looking west from the Peveril Point area towards Durslton Head, 'A' 28mm f2.8, f13






3. The wide view back towards Peveril Point (Old Harry in the far distance), Samyang 14mm f2.8, f11






4. 2nd view towards Durlston Head, 'A' 28mm f2.8, f13






5. Telezoom into Old Harry Rocks, 'M' 75-150 f4.0, 150mm at f11






6. Finally a wide look at the whole area, taken from the Purbeck Hills east of Swanage, looking west into the bay (Durlston is over the horizon behind the hillside on the spit), Samyang 14mm f2.8 at 13




All comment and feed back fully appreciated! Thanks, Nigel

Some of our cameras (K7 / K5, maybe K3 for sure?) have a CTE White Balance setting - 'colour temperature enhance', which basically tries to do what John was saying just above - ie: make sure we don't lose too much amber tone on daylight when the sun is low. It could be worth trying. Like others here I mostly use daylight with plus 1 or 2 amber, and I rarely need to make whitebalance adjustments specifically in post - I find its better to selectively adjust individual colours, both in saturation strength and luminance if needed.

But generally I agree with the idea that auto settings are best avoided, as they will tend to try and reduce dominant casts, so not good for low-light outdoors work in general - AWB is effective for mixed lighting I find, ie 'slow-sync' flash situations where theres flashlight and a bit of ambient.

Just noticed the lighthouse one now Alan, and I love it! Again, beautiful colours and you caught the swish of foamy stuff at just the right second.I think it would be a little stronger with the lighthouse and buildings shunted just a tad leftward. Hope you can show us more of this great viewpoint soon

Thanks Nigel! I didn't get the chance to get down to the purple heather at Studland, after seeing your pics, but as we were leaving I saw that it was losing its colour anyway... Another year hopefully. Keep an eye out, there's loads to come, including more of Durlston, Old Harry, Swanage Bay, Poole Harbour and Corfe Castle!

Philip, (Mrb), glad you like them, and the processing is my usual routine ... RAW conversion in Sagelight 4 with the main tonal adjustments and contrast, a bit of vibrance & polarizer filter also, then a TIFF and into Photoshop for any layers if needed (the very low light ones have 2 exposures blended), Topaz DeNoise, and final colour balance changes it needed, then a little extra Smart Sharpen filter at the end. It may sound a lot, bit is all fairly delicate

Thaanks to snoops, algi, Andy & k10 as well, I appreciate your replies

I've been a bit quiet lately, for two reasons - the birth of the 4th little McGregNi, plus a two week holiday in sunny Purbeck! Despite my added responsibilities I managed quite a lot of 'serious' photography - what a fantastic location ! There is so much packed into the area around Swanage and the Poole Harbour environs that its hard to know where to start.

Well, here's a taster of what I saw and shot .... as usual all with the K7 (which went into overdrive on these weeks!) and my normal selection of lenses.



1. Durlston Bay, 14mm







2. Swanage Bay, 14mm







3. Compton Acres Gardens, 14mm







4. Poole Harbour from the Purbeck Hills, 150mm







5. Swanage Pier, 14mm







6. Swanage Bay from the sea, 120mm







7. Old Harry Rocks, 130mm






Thanks for taking a look . All your feedback and comments will be gratefully received!

My favourites are the wider views with the forest behind - it makes the track look like its set in its own little paradise. Very nicely shot!

Love the reflection in No 1, and very soft tones also. They are all beautifully sharp and clean looking - lovely work!

Excellent David, I couldn't care less about any bike race, but I can appreciate your work here. Punchy colours and subjects well isolated are the standout features for me. The backgrounds are not distracting, thats a big plus.

Perhaps you needed a little higher shutter speed on the odd one (3,4,6,8?) just to give that tiny bit extra edge - would ISO 1600 or 3200 have made much difference to quality?

Anyway, here's one non cycling person who has enjoyed the images.

Strange ... I'm sure on my K7 its the 4-way controller that selects the focal length to input, not the e-dial ???

3 is my favourite, both for the lack of a colour cast and the tight framing and hand movement showing the drumming action. Its a great intense capture!

The others I feel suffer from a dominant tungsten/pinky cast. What was the white balance setting used and did you carry out any colour balance adjustments?