I have a great time, even though the weather was appalling - it rained every day. I went a day ahead of the workshop and returned one day after it finished giving a total of five days for photography. There was also plenty of classroom work and photo critiques, so it was a busy time.
I had hoped that I would manage to capture a few photographs for my next assignment - a linking theme. My chosen subject is water. In the end I feel that I have captured enough images to base the entire assignment on my lakeland visit, with the revised title Lakeland Water. The fact that the shots were all taken within a week during rainy weather in Autumn adds to the consistency of the photographs - plenty of gold and yellow foliage and blue/grey skies to accompany the water. I will post a separate description of these images within the next week or so when I have finalised my submission for my tutor.
So what did I learn....well plenty. Most importantly it reaffirmed a number of learning points from the course so far....
- I need to take greater care in previsualising an image - they handed out a black card with a 3x2 aperture to us and suggested that we spend some time working on our compositions before shooting...this worked really well.
- I need to anticipate the light and be prepared to wait for things to develop - this is the way to capture the best out of a given situation
- I need to work on capturing images within camera and not to rely on post processing so much - in this regard I have been trying to rein back on my tendency to over filter skies....the result of this practice is to constrain the contrast in my images too much
- I gained useful insight into digital colour management and the impact of the linear gamma of digital sensors and will review my digital workflow to accomodate some improvements
- I gained inspiration and critical feedback from two highly accomplished photographers whom I admire
Apart from the photographs of Lakes, becks and rivers, I also made some interesting images of trees clad in their autumn colours. Here are a couple of examples...
Great Wood, Derwentwater English Lake District
Near Surprise Corner, English Lake District
As I indicated in my previous post I am a great admirer of Charlie Waite's work. I have also come to regard Phil Malpas's images very highly. Here is an example of his work...
Val D"Orcia, Tuscany by Phil Malpas
Speaking to Phil about composition was very instructive. He uses the technique of composing the image, then reconsidering it to decide what could be taken out to emphasise the main subject even more, he recomposes the shot accordingly and then reconsiders again from the simplification standpoint....a great way to reduce an image to its most powerful statement.
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