Photographing Fishing Boats at the Docks
Tips for Travelers on Composition and Photography Techniques
Mar 18, 2009
Scenes may appear boring, mundane, and never changing; one of the photographer’s skills is identifying and capturing changing moods and highlighting subtle differences.
Compositional techniques can bring forward elements and views most passersby never notice, even in a setting as scenic as the fishing boat docks in Hobart, Tasmania’s state capital. Victoria Dock is in the heart of the city centre, surrounded by restaurants and hotels.
Picture Composition
One of the attractions for photographers in this spot is the backgrounds. One is the row of nineteenth century stone warehouses now used for art galleries, restaurants, and hotels. The owners maintain the facades to a high standard, making for interesting and appealing backdrops for afternoon shots shown in photo three.
In the morning, looking in the other direction, the city and Mount Wellington set the scene in one the classic Hobart images shown below in picture one. While it can border on the photographic cliché, there are enough mood changes for the discerning photographer to avoid the usual snapshot result.
The two key variables in these scenes are the placement of the boat and of course the weather. One of the fishing fleet’s attractions for photographers is the bright colors of the boat’s hulls. While some boats may have regular mooring spots, other seem to move around so that some days such as in photo two the red hull is in the center providing the touch of intense color need to contrast with the cloudy and gray background.
While in photo three the color and texture of a plain white hull sets off of the old stone buildings in the afternoon sunset, the parked yellow sports car provides a contrast in color as well as a dash of twenty first century style in an otherwise timeless setting.
Telling the Story in Pictures
Photo one tells a lot about the people of Hobart and its history. The docks and boats suggest a maritime heritage of the people and shows there is still an active engagement with the water. Mure’s waterfront restaurant infers plenty of fine dining on fresh locally caught sea fish. Then there are older sandstone buildings, reminders Hobart is the second oldest city in Australia, while the more modern taller buildings behind show the city is growing and expanding.
Finally, towering over it all is the mountain, as the locals call it. The mountain has many moods attracting clouds and rain on the foothills while other areas remain fine. Photo two reinforces this theme as clouds completely hide the mountain.
Finally photo five shows lobster pots on the deck of a fishing boat, indicating one of the local delicacies. The contrast between old and new continues with the modern harbor control tower peeking over the roofs of the old buildings.
Lens Choice
Focal length is not critical and varies depending on the point of view and the elements to include or exclude from the picture. Edge sharpness of the lens is important as most of the fishing boats have white masts and the edges will show up the performance of the lens, particularly the tops of the masts as they normally end up at the top edge of the image and lens sharpness drops off near their outer edges.
Conversely, lenses producing images with soft or slightly fuzzy outer edges are often good for portrait photographs.
Polarizing and Neutral Density Filters
Filters are an essential part of scenic photography. Polarizing filters help reduce glare and distracting reflections resulting in more detail, especially in clouds, and more intense colors. Part of the attraction of the docks is variety of cloud formations around Mount Wellington in the background making the image subtly different. The polarizing filter helps capture the shapes and patters in the sky.
On a sunny day, the sky is a bit too bright compared to the rest of the image. Placing a graduated neutral density filter in front of the camera lens reduces the amount of light from the sky while still allowing normal exposure of the boats and docks in the foreground. Photo four is an example of a shot ideal for a neutral density filter. The contrast range between the dark blue hull of the main fishing boat and the white clouds is a challenge for digital cameras.
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