We are now deep in the fall season and quite a few trees are now bare. The days of summer seem a long time ago.
I hadn’t been shooting for my personal photography impressionism project for a while, and a few months ago decided to try a new location, the Clerk Estate in Penicuik.
I was attracted to photograph this part of the wooden area by the trail. I like the feeling of mystery produced by the impressionist treatment of the subject and the disappearing path.Turning around not quite 180 degrees shows the path disappearing in the other direction.I tried a number of different compositions, placing the path in the centre (above) of slightly off-centre (previous photo and below).My final favourite photo taken at this location.
But I couldn’t resist visiting my old stomping ground, Blackford Hill, to check what the colours looked like this past summer.
During the summer, the foliage is quite dense and a lot of the trees are ‘hidden’ when panning the camera. It is therefore more difficult to find interesting compositions.It is really fascinating to revisit a location at a different time of day or year. You’ll be amazed how the colours change.I really like the vibrant green colours of the summer forest.Incorporating some of the ground in the photograph can be tricky. Because of the panning of the camera it takes a number of tries in order to achieve the ‘right’ amount of ground in the composition.I remember using this point of view on an other occasion, during the autumn.If you want to try this technique, a good tip is to frame your subject such as to avoid overlapping trees. Not always easy.
I don’t want to give technical details, such as my shutter speeds, because the result depends on the focal length you use and how fast you pan. I’d suggest you try a number of different shutter speeds and pick the one that give you the results you like best. Experimentation is part of the fun.
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