After packing the equipment in the car, I drove south towards Ocean Drive. I love this site because of its accessibility and the beautiful vista. The dunes are smooth and the fence is sturdy and still standing. Having a sturdy fence was important because it had to support the golf bag with lots of clubs.
I've taken shots of golf clubs before. My California sister, Janie, gave me the idea when she accompanied me to last October's Art in the Park. Because Myrtle Beach has hundreds of golf courses, she thought tourists and even locals would be interested in purchasing images that had ANYTHING to do with golf. She was right.
For this shoot I had more clubs and a bag....a very old and stained bag. Stan, a friend of mine whom I've known since college, lent me the bag and the clubs after much begging. It took a lot of effort on his part because he had to send them from Richmond. Of course, I, the stupid girl who knows nothing, wanted him to bring them with him on his next fight to Atlanta. It sounded logical to me, but he would rather pack them with nasty cloths to keep them from breaking, in a make-shift box that looked like its previous use had been to transport cow manure. I'm being kind. Let's just say it was obvious they weren't packed by FedEx.
This shoot had more challenges. It took me a little longer to get set up because of the extra equipment. The sun was much brighter and it was windy. One more thing, people were everywhere. I took over 40 shots, trying to take them between the masses taking their perfunctory morning walk. Looking at the image on the left, you can tell I wasn't fast enough.
They say patience is a virtue..I got the shot!
I tried to get creative in the later shots. It was important to show the wooden shafts and the names on some of the heads. The names of the drivers were, thistle, dundee irons, and niblick (made in Scotland) and the wooden driver was a H.J. Vallette. My instructions were not to clean the clubs...it seems that would affect their value. No problem, you don't have to tell me twice!
Here are two tips for shooting on the beach on a sunny, windy day. Tip #1. Because I was shooting in the sun, I used a new device called the Hoodman HoodLoupe Professional. If you have taken shots in the sun, you know how hard it is to see your results in the LCD monitor. This enables you to see your shot by placing the device on top of the LCD monitor. It sure beats using your hand or trying to find a shady spot. Tip #2. Keep your camera backpack closed. I had to learn that the hard way. It looked like a monsoon had hit the beach. I'm still picking sand out of the compartments. The good thing is that I didn't need to change the lens, so at least I didn't get sand in the camera or in the other lens. Speaking of changing lenses, Tip #3. comes from my guru, Tom in North Carolina. It's not limited to shooting on the beach, it's for anywhere, anytime. He says, "Changing lenses is no problem at all..just set the camera up on the tripod, then change the lens one at a time...just have the cap in hand then press the release button....." My problem with changing lenses is having only two hands. I can take the lens off with one hand and put the cap on with the other one. At that point the camera is lensless (my new word). Stuff can fly in the body at that time, so I have to be fast. So I bend over, keeping one hand on the body of the camera as I put the lens in the bag and get the other one out. This is a real problem if I follow tip #2. and keep the camera backpack closed. Like Tom said, "just a little pre-planning does the trick in most cases." I've got to remember that.
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