Last night when the sun was low and bright it struck me that a great deal of landscape photography is all about the light. The light is the subject. The actual scene is secondary. Anywhere will do that makes a nice composition. There's little that ever tells you where the picture was taken. But gosh, that sky, those shadows... And much the same can be said of what passes for portrait photography. The connection of viewer and sitter, and the capturing any essence of character, plays second fiddle to the lighting.
So when I got back and inspected my pictures from both walks I accepted them for what they are. Documents of what was there rather than idealised versions of what I'd like it to have been. This should be obvious as the first lesson I remember making an impression on me at art school was to draw what you see, not what you think you see. Like drawing and painting, photography should be primarily about looking.
The first route I had planned lead me to a crossroad. When I looked right where I had thought of going left I saw a sprayer in operation, and easily accessible without venturing off the track. Plan hastily altered and off I went. I'd gone out with my two zoom kit and one body so started ong then switched wider while intending to order the pictures differently.
It was for the close ups of spraying water which would have benefited most from low sunlight. Without it I had to boost contrast on the computer. Contemplating the final results I think the softer look works well enough. Brighter pictures might have looked too 'pretty'. To editorial.
The route for my second walk also changed once I was out. Again I had thought to turn left at the crossroad, but instead carried straight on as that would bring me round past some machinery in a field. On my way I saw a run of electrified, by solar power, rabbit netting. The flip down screen really is a benefit for low angled shots. After trying a number of heights for the camera I settled on having it right on the ground. Without a screen an angled finder would have been required, and when I have used one of those it still required sprawling on the deck. I'm not sure I could manage without this modern feature.
Not far beyond the netting was a windmill type bird scarer, right by the track. I've tried to get pictures of these many times and never managed to get anything but contextual ones. It was very windy, once more, so timing the shots was down to chance and a fast burst rate. Then I tried a slow shutter speed but the blur did nothing but make the blades disappear. The frame below has been selected for it's central composition as this is a theme within this project.
When I got to the machinery it was strongly, but not directly, backlit. This did give me a chance of usable pictures by exposing for the sky and lifting the shadows in post. Done to extreme this gives a very false, cartoonish, look to pictures but I think I managed to avoid that with this frame. Although I took some pictures of the machine in isolation I preferred having the trailer and second machine in the background for context. Had the lighting been frontal I'd have gone with an isolated shot.
I like to take detail shots of some things as they can find a use in the final presentation of a project.
It was approaching the golden hour when landscape photographers usually have their tripods in place ready when I started to make my way home. The closest I cam to a golden hour picture was when I saw the light and shade falling on a farm building. Sometimes I fall in to the same trap as a lot of others!
As crops are picked there are often crates left in fields and these are becoming a sub-set for me. These were lined up nicely, and the partially picked crop worked well as a story telling feature.
While I'm happy enough with the way this project is going I am finding the lack of people doing stuff is an obvious omission. It's certainly a bit of a frustration. Earlier starts will have to be made whenever work doesn't get in the way. Then I might get the chance to interact with someone, or at least photograph work in the distance.
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