PG - G3 Day 1 - Threecliff Bay

G3 Day 1 - Threecliff Bay

My long awaited Canon Powershot G3 has finally arrived. This is my first digital camera. Being a dedicated film user it's taken me until now to decide that the quality is acceptable, for snapshots at least. I intend to continue taking my most important shots on film for the foreseeable future. Having said that, I'm interested to see what the camera is capable of. It'll certainly be a lot more convenient for putting photos online. No serious testing yet, that will come later. For the first day I just dashed out and grabbed a few shots using program mode, not having time to become familiar with the camera's operation. Luckily, the camera arrived just at the beginning of a three day sunny spell. I thought Threecliff Bay would be a good place to start. The images on this page have undergone the usual processing that I apply to all my photos, so they do not appear as they did direct from the camera. As others have stated, all scans and digital images can benefit from at least a little post-processing. Having said that, some of the images on this page have had hardly any alterations made to them, just a slight increase in contrast.


Threecliffs My very first shot. The sun hit the cloudbank just as I got there, late in the day. This was taken at the maximum zoom of 140mm (35mm equivalent) and cropped slightly.	Threecliff Bay A tricky exposure, with very high contrast between the land in shadow and the dark sky. It took three attempts to get the full contrast range of the scene within the histogram. I used layer masking when processing the image.	Pennard Pill The river snakes its way through the sand dunes.	Gorse Yes, the gorse is in flower in December, as it usually is on the Gower Peninsula.

Threecliffs A rather nice view of Threecliffs. Layer masking was used again to darken the sky and lighten the land. The effect is roughly equivalent to using a graduated grey filter.	The Stepping Stones Layer masking was used quite strongly here. By this time I was getting a low battery warning (I'd only just got the camera so I'd had no time to charge it) so I had to switch the LCD screen off and use the viewfinder instead, to conserve battery power.	Rock A prominent rock beside Pennard Pill, always a good element to include in a photo. I've cropped most of the remaining shots since the viewfinder only shows 91% of the image and I wasn't able to compose properly.	Plane A plane from nearby Fairwood Airport. I've cropped this shot, both the thumbnail and the larger pic, to show the plane at actual pixel size, to show the resolution of the camera. Only a basic levels adjustment and unsharp mask have been applied. Looking at the sky will give a good idea of the "digital grain" at ISO 50.

Pennard Pill With Pennard Castle in the distance. Slight colour balance adjustment and contrast increase.	Pennard Castle Another shot with the rock in the foreground and the castle behind. Virtually no adjustments made to this shot, apart from cropping.	Stone Spiral I don't know the origin or the date of this strange feature. It may be ancient or it may not. My memory may be playing tricks, but I'm pretty sure this was in a different spot 25 years ago, and it wasn't so large.	Threecliffs Another nice view, complete with pebble bank and cloud. Virtually no alterations made to this shot, this is almost exactly how it looked straight out of the camera.

Threecliffs Full zoom once more. Virtually no adjustments.	Sand Bank Low light striking the sand as the river twists and turns. I've removed the blue cast from the shadows.	Threecliffs Reflection A nice reflection of Threecliffs in Pennard Pill. Virtually no adjustments.	Pennard Castle Another view of the castle from beyond the pebble bank. The camera's battery died after this shot, but I caught the remaining scenes on film.