In 2023 I’d bought a cheap ‘macro’ lens, it’s a 60mm f2.8 from Chinese company 7Artisans. It received some good reviews and so I thought it’d be a good introduction for me into macro photography, and it really has been. However, it’s also a normal lens so I decided to take it out one day and get some photos down by the beach at sunset.

I haven’t done hatsuhinode(seeing the first sunrise of the new year) for a few years, so instead I went to watch the first sunset of the new year as a bit of a change and take the 7Artisans 60mm with me.

It’s a manual focus lens, no stabilisation or anything like that, so I decided to take the tripod out, which is another rarity for me. I got there a little before dusk, to give me time to cycle down the track next to the beach, but there was a lot of walking as a windy couple of weeks had left huge sand drifts in quite a few places.

I got set up in a few different places, and managed to get a few shots. I’m not great with manual lenses and all manual mode, though I did learn a lot on my Tokyo photo walk last year, so I was trying to practice some of those things again.

Overall I’m fairly happy with what I got - yes, not great in the world of photography, but for me at my level I was pleased and the 60mm was fantastic for normal photos for sure.

I took a couple of photos with the smartphone (Pixel 6a) for scale as well.

Leaving was fun - pushing my cycle over some sand dunes in the dark, using the cycle light and my headlamp, so not too bad. Had a nice flask of tea out there too. It was windy, and not too cold, but I was glad I had my loose snowboarding jacket on. It’s actually something I should do more often.

Just for reference, here’s a macro shot I took of the motorbike.

tracer-macro-2.jpg" alt=“Macro tracer (X-T200 w/ 60mm macro)” caption=“Macro tracer (X-T200 w/ 60mm macro)”