When I started out to "find" a landscape for this week's assignment I reverted to my agrarian roots and went on an expedition to find an old barn or equipment. While I found those items, when I ran into this peaceful scene in Grays Harbor County on a little one-lane road I didn't even know existed I was drawn to it emotionally. The double silo in the foreground and farm buildings further out with the open pasture grabbed at me. As it turns out, the cloud in the far background is not smoke but is a feed mill on a neighboring farm.
Metadata: 1/100s; f/10; ISO 100; 55 mm (both my lenses are telephoto, so did all my shooting this day at 55mm). I also used a graduated neutral density (0.9) to help capture the cloud definition, since it was bright overcast.
This is an older photo I shot of Mt Shasta from roadside with my phone. If I were to shoot this again I would first get out of the car, then move away from the utility boxes. Next, I'd shoot it in landscape and look for a better composition to allow the mountain to display it's character.
After reviewing past photos, if you remove images of family/family gatherings/kids' activities, images of the outdoors are a thread that appears over the years. I like capturing the natural world around me to be reminders of places I've gone and the memories that go with.
I love farm scenes too! The color from the right bottom corner draws my eye right to the silos, then I wander over to the other buildings. Nice.
ReplyDeleteI agree that getting out of the vehicle is mandatory and results in the ability to see the scene in 360. What would happen to your landscape photography if you changed it up for awhile and shot things you are uncomfortable with? In both these scenes, do you think they may be impactful if you included less sky and more foreground (and yes, walk in front of the utilities in the Shasta image) :-) ?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Barbra.
ReplyDeleteI have shots of the upper photo with more foreground, which is the road and I didn't care for it - distracted from the mood I wanted, so opted for trying to let the sky show the changing weather.
On the lower one I was getting fairly close to my destination after driving all day, and I simply didn't want to take the time to get out of the car - just wanted to get done driving - PLUS, I hadn't had any of the courses yet and really didn't know any better from a photographic standpoint.