My best ever picture

This is easily the picture I am most proud of in my collection. The writer in me should probably embellish how I chose the exact moment and spent forever getting the angles right, unfortunately that wouldn't be quite true.

I went with my ex-wife and kids to the naval museum in Portsmouth UK on the way to a holiday. We had a basic digital camera and our mobile phones for any interesting shots we saw, we spent the day looking around boats and museums, things like the rescued Mary rose and other interesting stuff. Getting the kids to pose with pirate statues and by massive naval ships. After a few hours it was time to walk back out and up the hill towards the car park, where had parked earlier that day. We walked past warrior on the way in and out and took some shots from different angles.

As we walked up the hill, I turned around for one last look before turning the corner and this was what I saw behind me. Because of the base lay out, high walls for security and the buildings the first I knew of the sky was as we left. It would have been perfect for a decent camera and some time to do it properly. Unfortunately, even if we had decent cameras to hand, we had two very tired autistic children who had reached the end of their patience.

So, I took my cheap and nasty Nokia out of my pocket, pointed and shot. It was about 12 years ago so this was a cheap phone among poor camera phones. I seem to remember something like 3mp camera definition. Over the years I have posted this on social media, plenty of likes and favourable comments were forthcoming. Many people asking how the shot was taking and even a couple asking for the camera settings.

Its entirely possible that the shot came out like this because of the equipment and not despite it. I might have fiddled with shutter speeds and focus, waited so long the sky could have changed or something else went wrong. The position I took the shot from was totally dictated by where I turned around and therefore where the road started to bend.

I have always liked to take random shots, avoiding posing where possible. Taking views from different angles and looking for something a bit different. I have taken pictures with proper cameras and with telephones with far superior cameras on them. In fact, my telephone takes higher definition pictures then my expensive camera. With phones being so much smaller you can easily take quick shots and worry about them later. Of course, it doesn’t matter how many shots you take or how many don’t work with the joys of digital.

My wife and I tend to stick to our phones for trips and holidays now. We take hundreds of shots and then edit and delete once home. This is especially useful in nature where you can’t always predict what’s next. She wanted shots of waves hitting rocks but never knew which wave would give the best shot so just kept taking shots. Then on the computer chose the best and discarded hundreds.

The use of a cheap phone and no planning could be why the shot looks like it might be a painting or a doctored photograph. It was total potluck, hasn't been altered or enhanced in any way. Just a pure fluke. Sorry to anyone who takes their time and tries for the perfect shot. This isn’t perfect but the closest I have got so far.