Composition by letters

Yet more rain has got me eager to take more photos of it's consequences. Today started sunny, which put me on a downer as it doesn't really give the right atmosphere for what I have in mind. It also throws dark shadows into ditches when the sun is low in the sky, as it still is even around noon at this time of year, making them difficult to photograph. The result was pretty much failure. Ultra wide lenses and bright, low, sunshine make poor bedfellows for incompetents such as I.

Shoot with the sun on your back and you cast a shadow which is nigh on impossible to avoid getting in the frame. Get the shadow out of shot and it's hello flare! Then there's the inevitable sloping verticals when anything straight gets in the picture. A wonderfully sharp lens this might be, but I'm not sure it suits me. It's a bit showy for my taste. I'm pretty sure that I could live with something longer as my widest lens.

For once I was out and about with at least one specific shot in mind. High tide was around noon and I wanted to get  a picture of the main pumping station, the one which drains the entire mere, from the seaward side. It being a big tide I knew that the outfall basin would be brim full. Thankfully the sun had gone in and rain was threatening as the station would have the sun behind it. I'd have preferred a more laden sky, but what I got would suffice. I'm not sure it's quite what I was after, so I may well go back for another attempt. At least I have an idea what is possible in terms of viewpoints. I made it back to the car as the first spots of rain began to fall.

I was in search of waterlogged fields and swollen ditches when the rain abated after lunch. I found them without much problem. Trying to make interesting pictures of them was another matter. I'm beginning to think that what I need is a pair of stepladders and an extra tall tripod! Yes, I have been using a tripod for these pictures. I hate it with a passion as I cannot get the framing precise. I try seeking the position with the camera in my hand and then putting the tripod in place, but it's never quite the same shot. It all feels too arbitrary to me.
With ultra wide lenses it's all too easy to fall into the habit of having something 'interesting' close to the camera and let the landscape become a backdrop for the picture. I think that was the trap I fell into in the first of the three shots below. I became focussed on the patterns of the stems on the ground instead of the water on the fields. There is a subtle 'V' in the composition - which I was only consciously aware of when I processed the image. Vs or triangles are handy compositional tools. I also spotted an 'X', which I use possibly too often, in the second frame (which has too much nothing in the bottom middle), and an 'M' in the third (which is a more successful attempt at the same location). Other letters which can be used to compose (or possibly which can be found in) pictures are 'Z' and 'S'. These letters are all about finding movement through the picture. Which is only one aspect of picture making, of course.

While taking the X and M shots I was battling against rain on the lens. Back home I found some earlier pictures had been ruined by unseen raindrops. As well as the rain it was blowing a near gale. I doubt the tripod was steady enough at the relatively slow shutter speeds I was using. Given that most of the pictures are 'nearly shots' that's not a great worry. If nothing else I've got more ideas. On my way home I spotted something that might fit into the drainage theme. Something for a drier, less breezy day.

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