Waiting for the Fish

There’s a particular kind of pleasure in using the Pentax K-3 II paired with the DA* 50-135mm f/2.8—a combination that rewards patience much like the fisherman in this frame. The lens’s rendering and microcontrast gave me exactly what I wanted here: a clean separation between subject and background without the look feeling forced. The weather was brooding, the horizon hazy, and the colours naturally muted, so the camera’s sensor, with its well-known dynamic range, had plenty of tonal nuance to work with.

The man in the red hoodie became my obvious focal point—a striking colour contrast against the cooler palette of sea and sky. His posture, hands clasped behind his back, was a study in stillness, his fishing rod lashed to the railing like an unspoken declaration of intent. The DA*’s smooth bokeh allowed the background to soften just enough to evoke atmosphere, though I kept enough texture in the water to avoid turning it into a flat wash of colour.

Compositionally, I used the railing’s geometric pattern as both frame and anchor, its diagonals guiding the viewer’s gaze towards the fisherman and then out to sea. The vertical of the rod interrupts that rhythm just enough to keep the image from feeling too static. Shooting at f/2.8 gave me both subject isolation and a touch of softness in the periphery, though with hindsight I might have stopped down slightly to bring a bit more crispness to the foreground railing.

Exposure was straightforward—the K-3 II handled the overcast light with ease, keeping detail in both the deep reds and the pale blues without sacrificing the subdued drama of the day. It’s the kind of scene where the camera and lens quietly get out of the way and let the moment breathe.

In the end, it’s not just a photograph of a man fishing; it’s a small meditation on waiting, rendered with the sort of tonal richness and subtlety that this Pentax pairing does so well.