If there’s one thing photographing the ocean teaches you, it’s how difficult it is to hold a camera perfectly level. I took nearly 1,200 pictures on our Hawai’i trip, and nearly every one featuring the ocean on the horizon had to be corrected for rotation. Here’s an example:
(At first glance this appears to be an incredibly boring photo, but I was catching the whales in the center of the shot.) Like most of my ocean shots, the horizon is off by 1.2 degrees, slanting downward to the right. Of course it’s not noticeable when taking the picture– it’s only when I pull it up on my enormous monitor that I can see the slant.
I guess it’s good to know that I’m consistent, always around 1.2 degrees off. And it’s also good that straightening the horizon takes just a few seconds…