Project 29 - rephotographing a famous image

For this project the aim is to re-photograph a well known landscape image and following the work to analyse how well the image replicates the original in terms of lens and viewpoints selection. A review of how the landscape looks today compared to the original including changes to the environment, light etc.

For this work I have chosen a well known photograph of the Manger at Uffington by Charlie Waite. This is taken from Landscape The Story of 50 Favourite Photographs by Charlie Waite  pp 58...this is shown below:

The Manger, Berkshire by Charlie Waite

My image of the same view is below:

The Manger, Berkshire by Keith Greenough

As regards how well I have replicated the original image I have the following comments:

• The field of view is very similar...I used a 28mm lens and I suspect that Charlie used an equivalent lens on his Hasselblad. 
• My horizon is a bit higher in the frame and I think I have revealed more depth in the base of the Manger. This could mean that I was slightly higher up the slope when I took the photograph.
• The grass in the foreground of my shot is much higher...could be as a result of the time of year.

Other differences I have noted in the images are as follows:

• The sky in my image is largely a bank of dark cumulostratus...not so interesting. Charlie has managed to capture a more interesting sky with more varied clouds....I wonder thought if he might have darkened the sky too much with his ND filter(?)
• The more interesting cloud action in Charlie's image can also be seen in the shadows it has created on the landscape. In my image there is very little hard shadow and the landscape is quite bland. In Charlie's the left bank of the Manger and the background landscape are in quite deep shadow thus revealing the contours of the Manger itself in a much more expressive way....Charlie's image is far superior in terms of light!
• On my image the grass is quite green throughout...In Charlie's it is green in the base of the Manger and quite yellow and dry around the perimeter....again this accentuates the shape of the Manger far better and once again Charlie's image is superior...

It seems that the key lesson of this exercise for me is not just one of identifying the viewpoint and lens....which I certainly found useful and interesting...but it is also about the right light and also looking for other elements of the landscape which delineate and accentuate shapes. I wonder how many times Charlie visited the Manger to get his shot.

The project also called for me to make a second image from a viewpoint within about 100 ft from the first. In this case I decided to produce an image based on a slice of the landscape, which uses some sheep which had appeared as the key point of interest and the ripples in the landscape as an interesting backcloth. I decided to present this image as a black and white and here it is:

The Manger Variation Two by Keith Greenough

Once again sadly I think that the light is not helping this image, the scene is a little too flat. Aslo the key subjects, ie the sheep are perhaps a little too distant...a longer lens might have been better.