Order from chaos
In: Landscapes, Workshops
It's always good to go on a photographic workshop. A group of us spent the morning with Huw Alban in a local woodland. The briefing was to slow down; find views, shapes and objects that interest me rather than what I felt someone else would find interesting. Also, consider what subjects and elements remain in or out of the photograph and start to form an emotional connection with the photograph.
After some wandering around, I found myself in a clearing with a log and hundreds (if not thousands) of leaves; clutter and chaos:
I tried to isolate individual or groups of elements, such as this single leaf set against the horizontal lines of the log. The shine from the wet also added interest:
The next photo needed a lot of thought; the knot in the log was a key element but the placement of the leaves in the frame was just as important. I felt the two leaves at the bottom needed some space at the bottom and the leaf top right balances the photograph. It didn't matter to me that the leaves top left were part out of frame (if anything they add to the photograph). Again the shine created from the wet added further interest. For me the thinking behind this photograph was just as satisfying as creating a big bold landscape photograph.
After about an hour in the same place (just me, peace and quiet and the occasional passing person), I found myself connected with the landscape - in the zone - and created a series of dreamy tree photograph. Quite a bit of thought went into these, I was sat on the floor looking at what elements I wanted to include and exclude. I shifted myself left and right to ensure I had a degree of separation between the verticals. I felt there needed to be a base to the photos (the leaves) and the positioning of the most dominant vertical elements was important. The simple colour palette was also a consideration:
Landscape:
Portrait:
Square crop:
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After some wandering around, I found myself in a clearing with a log and hundreds (if not thousands) of leaves; clutter and chaos:
I tried to isolate individual or groups of elements, such as this single leaf set against the horizontal lines of the log. The shine from the wet also added interest:
The next photo needed a lot of thought; the knot in the log was a key element but the placement of the leaves in the frame was just as important. I felt the two leaves at the bottom needed some space at the bottom and the leaf top right balances the photograph. It didn't matter to me that the leaves top left were part out of frame (if anything they add to the photograph). Again the shine created from the wet added further interest. For me the thinking behind this photograph was just as satisfying as creating a big bold landscape photograph.
After about an hour in the same place (just me, peace and quiet and the occasional passing person), I found myself connected with the landscape - in the zone - and created a series of dreamy tree photograph. Quite a bit of thought went into these, I was sat on the floor looking at what elements I wanted to include and exclude. I shifted myself left and right to ensure I had a degree of separation between the verticals. I felt there needed to be a base to the photos (the leaves) and the positioning of the most dominant vertical elements was important. The simple colour palette was also a consideration:
Landscape:
Portrait:
Square crop:
Return to homepage or contact me.