I have just started a new module on this photography degree course with OCA and decided to start a new blog for it. I plunged for Progressing with Digital Photography this time and my new blog address is www.paulmocapwdp.wordpress.com Pop over if you are interested and you will be able to see my next steps towards the degree.
In order to finish the end of this course I still needed a final summer image of ‘my’ tree to complete my Portfolio. I therefore travelled over to the Borrowdale area this weekend hoping that this tree was now in full summer bloom and hopefully there would be enough sunshine breaking through to illuminate the scene a little.
As I got to my location I was first pleased that the tree was indeed in full bloom but I was not sure if the sun was going to play fair as well. I set up my tripod and camera to take a first record shot but it did feel a little dark from the overcast sky to fully capture what I was hoping for in terms of a bright sunny day. The clouds looked as though there was potential for them to break and allow the sun through but I wasn’t sure. After about an hour the clouds seemed to be getting darker rather than lighter therefore I eventually decide that I would have a look around the same area of woods for subjects that would suit the current light situation and then go back to my tree image if the sun did eventually break through. Typically, the sun was deciding to play games with me today and as soon as I set my tripod and camera up in a new location that the sun broke through to provide dappled sunshine in the woods – just what I wanted. I waited a couple of minutes to see whether the break in the clouds was only momentary but eventually decided that this was going to last therefore I should quickly pick everything up and rush back to my tree location.
As I set up again the light was changing once more and I wondered whether this was going to be another morning of cat and mouse with the sun. Fortunately, the sun stayed out just long enough for me to capture the shot that I wanted. the sun is creating dappled light in the foreground to help suggest a summer’s day when the tree foliage is so dense that it blocks out much of the direct sunlight but is still strong enough to lift the whole scene. The image captured, and which is now part of my Seasons Portfolio Collection (see earlier Post), is shown below:
After feeling fairly pleased with myself for being able to capture the image that I wanted and then stayed in this area to just enjoy my photography. The following are three other images that I made that day which form no Project, Assignment or Portfolio requirement. They just reflect the end of my Landscape course and what I enjoyed photographing on that particular day.
I initially submitting this to my tutor for review and comment as a part-complete portfolio (missing the final ‘same image’ of summer). There are several reasons for this, including the impact of re-starting the portfolio in Autumn (described further below), and thus needing to revisit the area in Summer. The main reason, however, is that I was at a stage where I had captured images for three seasons and I felt that any feedback would be more beneficial at this stage when I could still revisit my Spring collection and further plan my final Summer collection. I am not sure at this stage whether I will have time to submit my work for assessment this summer, which is what I had hoped, as the more obvious signs of summer may not be available until after the submission date. I will need to reflect further on this nearer the time. UPDATE: I am pleased to say that I have been able to capture the final Summer image as I had wanted and therefore this post describes the complete portfolio submission
I initially started shooting for this portfolio in the Summer 2011, whereby my intention was to use a wide view of Castle Crag in Borrowdale, Lake District as the ‘same view throughout the season’ and then include closer views of the local woodland as my two additional images for each season.
When I returned in Autumn to take the ‘similar view’ I realised that this was not going to work as well as I had hoped. Firstly, the image relied on good lighting within the lower valley to add sufficient contrast and to capture some of the changes in colour of the seasons. Due to changing weather conditions I realised that this was not always going to be possible, but even more challenging, and something I had not initially appreciated, was the fact that in the Autumn and Winter months the sun barely rises above the surrounding hillsides therefore there would be few, if any, opportunities to capture breaking light within the valley. More importantly, however, I also realised that there was a lack of coherence between the ‘same view’ and the other two images for the season and that as a set they did not portray an underlining message of what I particularly thought about the season and would thus fail to be a personal interpretation of the seasons.
It was therefore during the Autumn season that I decided to change my approach and I began to think more about the linking theme I needed for each of the seasons. I eventually decided that I would use the theme of ‘trees and woodland’ as the overall linking theme and, for each individual season, I would try to portray my thoughts on the distinctions between them. I thus came up with the following to describe my personal thoughts on the distinctions between seasons and what I wanted to capture within my images:
I realised that this would become somewhat of an extension to my submission for Assignment 3 but felt that this was a warranted extension for further investigation due to my growing interest in the inner enclave of woodland scenes and in particular the wonderful variety of shapes, forms, textures and colours found within the myriad of different trees found in the UK. I also posted some of these developing images onto the “Untitled Gallery” exhibition website, which is an unofficial and independent gallery showcasing work from a group of artists studying with the OCA. Within my artist’s statement I explain my fascination with such woodland scenes as follows:
I love to explore and find out what is around the next corner or behind the next tree, to go places that aren’t always controlled by footpaths or obvious viewpoints, and at the same time give myself time and space to free my mind of the here and now. Searching through an undiscovered woodland gives me this opportunity and without my camera I would be less inclined to search out and leave the designated footpath. Within my woodland wilderness I become fascinated by the life story of each tree I happen to pause upon and my challenge then is to capture this within a single image.
A further challenge for any photographer wanting to take photographs of trees or woodland features is to seek out the order within all the natural chaos before them. Looking at works by photographers such as Eliot Porter and Jan Tove has helped me to see how this can be achieved with great effect and has inspired my developing style.
My intention is to further develop this theme so that it forms part of my final portfolio submission at the end of this course module.
The Seasons Portfolio collection follows:
Spring
The initial image in the Spring set, Spring 1, is subtle in its indication of the season. The foreground tree and surrounding branches show little sign of the transition towards Spring and remains fairly similar to the Winter image. I could wait until later Spring for more obvious signs of the season but this may make it more indistinguishable from what will be the Summer equivalent image. I have used the breaking light to signify the optimism of this season in comparison to Winter, and the green foliage in the background trees create a diffuser to the light and indicate that other trees in the area are further developed in terms of their Spring bloom.
The other two images in the set show the lime green colour of fresh new growth that is more incumbent of the season. Spring 2 shows a carpet of new growth covering the woodland floor and the composition is set to enable the viewpoint to move back and forth between the foreground tree on the left and the four interestingly shaped trees in the background.
Spring 3 is a close-up shot of new shoots of growth springing out from more mature branches. The white textured bark contrasts well with the lime green new leaves.
Summer
I still have to return to this area to re-shoot my summer tree for Summer 1 (Update: now included) yet, at the beginning of this project, I had already captured a set of Summer woodland images for my original portfolio concept and these two continue to fit well within the series. I will, however, have the opportunity to shoot further images this season when I return to shoot the Summer 1 image and will then make a final decision prior to my assessment submission.
The Summer 2 image was included as part of my Assignment 1 submission and is a good example of my attempt to find order within a normally chaotic woodland scene. The Summer 3 image is another example of finding order from the chaos of natural growth and the close-up shot balances well with the Spring 3 image. The change in the green colour between Spring and Summer is quite noticeable in these images.
Autumn
These images formed the re-start of my Portfolio for the reasons described in my introduction. They also formed part of my Assignment 3 submission and the Portfolio has thus become a development from that assignment. I have already explained my reason for this. The Autumn 1 image became the scene from which I expected both colour and texture to be evident in each further example and the other two images provide strong examples of the colour and decay that an Autumn woodland is recognised for.
Winter
I found very few opportunities to capture woodland covered in frost or snow this season therefore I had to look more closely for other signs of winter. Winter 1 image shows the barreness of life in the middle of Winter whereas Winter 2 highlights some of the other extreme weather conditions, such as floods, that the woodland trees have to endure. Winter 3 shows a barren tree with a twisted trunk struggling to survive in its harsh environment. It was taken just as the sun was peering over the horizon on a cold winter’s morning. The warm light on top the heather contrasts against the frost tipped heather in the shadows.
I have a lot of time for David Ward’s work and often look back at his image for inspiration. He seeks out order within the landscape to create images that celebrate the wonderful colours and textures that can be found within. At a personal level I would group him with Elliot Porter and Jan Tove as photographers who have inspired me to look closer at the order that can be found within any landscape as long as you look closer, and closer still. All of which has helped me to develop my own personal voice that I describe as ‘a colourful representation of nature’s order’.
David thinks quite deeply about what makes a successful landscape image, and what distinguishes an image to transform it towards art. These thoughts are explained in his two successful books “Landscape Within” and “Landscape Beyond”. The intro to this latter book describes and distinguishes the two books as follows:
In David Ward’s critically acclaimed first book, “Landscape Within”, he asked questions about human perception and the creative process and what drives photographers to make images. Now, David takes these deep explorations of photography a step further in his second book by studying what he considers to be the essential attributes of a successful landscape photograph: simplicity, mystery and beauty.
Not only are his words thought provoking and an interesting read but the images within are wonderfully produced both from the photographer and the publisher. There are few photographers whose books contain images that I pause upon image after image. It is fascinating to be able to appreciate how he has managed to construct each image and capture the colour or texture of his subject to maximise its wonder or beauty. The only thing missing from these two books, and something I would be seriously interested in seeing, is a collection of images with a linking theme or project to see how he would adapt his style to achieve this. At the moment his books are linked by his writing with the images reflecting the many different ways in which he has interpreted the inner-landscape.
David’s books will no doubt continue to be an inspiration for me for many years to come, as well as a reminder that capturing the beauty of the landscape can be artful and does not necessarily need to form a clichéd view of our land.
My 100 word review of his style would be as follows:
David Ward is a UK based landscape photographer who celebrates the beauty of the landscape and his images remind us of the wonderful colour, textures and patterns that can be found from within the land. He looks for order within nature and, whilst he does not ignore the larger view, he often discards the need to recognise the location of an image. He uses whatever light that is available to sculpture and illuminate his subjects. The intensity of his vision for the inner-landscape shows his deep attention and love for the landscape.
The aim of this project is to investigate the best conditions for creating potentially attractive sun stars and surrounding rays. I tried to follow the project instructions as best I could and the following images help to illustrate the intentions of the project:
In this first image I used my wide-angle lens set at 20mm but with a very small aperture of f32. The sun star is very intense include the 6 very distinct rays with further beams of light also surrounding the star.
In this next image, I used my standard view lens but still with a 24mm setting and a small aperture of f22 this time. The centre of the star is much larger this time with thinner rays but more of them.
In this next image the same 24mm lens was used but his time with a larger f13 aperture. The sun star is much softer and less intense and the rays are much softer.
It is interesting to see how sun stars can be used to create a potentially interesting feature from the sun and even though the wide-angle lens does create the stronger and sharper sun star, the effect within the other two images could also be used successfully. The important thing to remember of course is to make sure that your lens is pristinely clean for this technique of shooting directly towards the sun.
Whilst I have now completed my final assignment for this course there are still a few projects that I need to catch up on and this is one of those projects which I have attempted to do a few times but never successfully. The simple aim is to use your telephoto lens to capture as many different views from the same commanding viewpoint. In my previous attempts I have had technical problems such as trying to keep my much larger lens still in the wind even when on a tripod, but more challenging has been creating reasonably successful images by using this lens. It is a lens that I take out occasionally but is not one that I use very often.
The following images follow the brief of creating a variety of views from portrait to landscape, including the horizon and not, etc. By following this brief I now realise how limiting this can be in terms of visual and artistic freedom to capture what your own vision is attracted to; even though I do try to do this as much as I can. This, I suppose, is the excuse I am giving myself for making a reasonably acceptable, if not inspiring, set of images.
The lens does bring objects within a scene together and can be quite successful in creating juxtapositions between such objects but for me it makes the image a little too flat for my liking. The project has confirmed how I could use this lens when the need arises but is still not going to be used on a regular basis for my landscape work.
But see what you think (they are all taken from a viewpoint above Derwent Water Dam):
Well, I have to say that I am delighted with the feedback received for my final assignment with generally positive comments against all the images submitted. I was immediately pleased with reading my tutor’s covering e-mail which suggested that I have “concluded this module with an excellent assignment. Your images and commentary were very good.”
The change in style and emphasis of this assignment may only be a tiny step forward in the evolution of photography but it did seem at times like a giant step forward for me, therefore, the feedback received came both as a relief but also an encouragement to continue to look at ways in which juxtapositions and symbolism can be used to add a connecting narrative and thus create an extra dimension to my images.
The only image I was asked to consider was Image 8 People on the Beach. This is the image I used in Project 38: Burning in the Sky to look at the effect of inserting a different sky to add more interest to the overall image. I wasn’t sure about adding this level of manipulation to the image therefore I had decided to leave it as originally captured and see what comments I received from my tutor. As I probably expected, he picked this matter up and suggested that I did insert a new sky. I thus further asked him to have a look at this Project to see what he thought, which he kindly did and gave me some additional feedback about the balance of tones etc. It will be of no great surprise that I have taken on board my tutor’s comments and will be re-submitting this image with a new sky added.
So nothing much more to add really, it’s the end of another excellent module where I have seen my work steadily progress and hopefully it will continue to do so.
At last, I have reached the stage when I am submitting my final assignment for the Landscape module. This assignment has taken me in a different direction than normal and has more of a narrative within the set of images than I would normally include. It has been good to test myself in this way and will perhaps be something I will want to return to in the future
The purpose of this assignment is to produce a series of images in the style of an influential photographer. In Assignment 4 I chose to study the landscape work of Fay Godwin and is thus my chosen photographer for this assignment. I was clear with myself at the outset that I wanted this assignment to be ‘inspired by’ her work rather than be ‘a copy of it’.
In the ‘Concluding Overview’ part of my essay I highlighted Godwin’s ability to capture the mood, atmosphere and history of a place while also noting that the lasting impact of the interaction between people and land is a common and fundamental component used to suggest a narrative for a particular place. I therefore wanted to choose a location where I could interrogate this narrative of the interaction between man and land.
North Sands, on the Durham Heritage Coastline (just North of Hartlepool), is an area on the edge of change and transformation. It was once a place of heavy industry with a magnesium production plant based there. Further North, the coastline suffered from the impact of the local coal mining industry which used the sea to transport coal to areas such as London, and the coastal area to store and dispose of its spoil waste. Now that these industries have disappeared, regeneration projects have been used to remove the remaining spoil heaps and clean up this area to enable the transformation of the coastline back to its natural state.
At North Sands, the Steetley Magnasite site has been left virtually untouched since it was only part demolished and asset stripped around the year 2005. The beach area has slowly cleansed itself in this time with sand grasses now growing on the dunes. The transformation of the industrial site has, however, been much slower. The effect of a combination of sea, weather and time is slowly eroding parts of the man-made structures but since I started this project the full demolition works have commenced and the speed of reclamation of North Sands has increased. Nature and man will thus continue their interaction to transform this area; nature will attempt to reclaim it back to its natural state while man will wish to transform it for its own purposes.
While the monolithic structures create a tempting subject matter for a photographer to capture the surreal ‘other-worldly’ environment and document the eventual demise of this industry, this project is more about the the interaction between man and nature to transform and reclaim this land of past industrial use captured at a moment in time along a continuum of change.
1. Hidden Dangers 39mm, f10, 1/250sec, ISO320
The composition of this image is fairly straightforward. The foreground shows a concrete fence post holding up an old chain link fence with a dilapidated sign warning of the razor wire. In the background is a normal coastal scene of sand, sea and clouds in the sky. Put together, as part of the opening image of the set, it highlights the defence line between land and the coast; between man and nature. The razor wired severity of this defence line warns of the dangers that cannot be seen, but the age of the fence indicates that this may be of a past danger. But where is this danger? The sign seems to be providing a warning of travelling from the land to the beach whereas the beach does not seem to present any danger.
I like how this image could pose these questions in a fairly calm manner but without providing the necessary answers. Something I have directly picked up from the study of Godwin’s style.
2. The Steetley Magnasite Site 24mm, f10, 1/200sec, ISO320
This image provides an overview of the land and the location of the Steetley Magnasite site. It shows the part demolition of the site from the dilapidated and eroded fence line towards the industrial remnants and the chimney, which stands like a flagpole to form a placeholder of what remains of the industrial past. stands like a flagpole proudly on the site . The grasses seem to be prospering in this somewhat unnatural environment and appear to be overpowering the man-made structures.
The white cloud above dominates the sky, which covers over half of the scene. This not only provides interest to a large portion of the image but it also creates a dominance over the tall chimney below it, perhaps helping to suggest a degree of vulnerability that the chimney, and thus the whole site, is exposed to. The eroded fence line is used to lead the eye from the front fence post into the scene and towards the chimney and thus drawing these elements together. The area of grassland inside the fence line is of a similar size and tonal range as the cloud above creating a sandwich of natural elements surrounding the chimney with these natural elements.
All of these elements shift the focus of the image towards the right hand side and it is only with the broken chain-link of the fence that the viewer is able to look past it and towards the white surf of the sea and the broken line of the jetty on the left hand side. Without this the image would have been unbalanced.
3. Industrial Remnants 24mm, f10, 1/125sec, ISO320
This next image takes a closer look at the industrial remnants at North Sands. The fence line is broken to the right hand side which allows the viewer to peek around and be enticed to walk inside without any restriction. The chain link fence provides an arbitrary defence line but is conveniently peeled back to allow a better view of the remnants. A frame is thus created by the two fence posts and the barbed wire atop, with the open corner further inviting the viewer to look inside whilst the part obscured view provides a reminder of the past need to restrict access. There is a dilemma between the enticement to enter and discover an unusual world and a reminder of the potential dangers of doing so.
4. Man’s Reclamation of the Land 46mm, f11, 1/200sec, ISO400
This image forms a moment on the continuum of change when man finally decides to reclaim this land from its past industrial use. The speed of change that this has brought about means that the preceding images have already been lost to the past. Unfortunately, this reclamation is motivated by the desire to transform it into alternative housing use therefore the land will undergo further change and be influenced once more by man overpowering land.
The composition of the image is fairly straightforward with the redundant fence post creating an inner-frame topped by the single barbed wire to focus on the machine breaking through the concrete remnants. The surrounding vegetation and contours of the land provide further details of the topography of this land.
5. The Abandoned Jetty 24mm, f11, 1/160sec, ISO320
This next image is taken along the edge between land and beach, and the dip in the fence is used to create a focus towards the gap in the jetty. The jetty was used as a platform from which pipes would bring sea water to the industrial site. In its abandoned state it was used by anglers as a platform from which to fish but over time it became unstable, therefore, for safety reasons, the jetty was part-dismantled to form an unbridgeable gap. The remnants have been left on the beach, part hidden in this view by the concrete post. Hopefully, neither nature or man will completely forget about this waste and one or the other will eventually reclaim it.
The juxtaposition between the dipped fence line and the part-dismantled jetty also reminds the viewer of the changing equilibrium of man and nature’s impact upon the landscape.
6. Sand Grasses on the Beach 6.1mm (compact G10), f5, 1/640sec, ISO100
The sand grasses on the beach represent the future. It is a source of hope and optimism that nature will be able to reclaim the beach and bring it back to its natural state. The mid-ground represents a change from the past. The jetty has been broken and the remnants dumped on the beach to serve no further purpose. The small dark cloud in the sky is about the same size as the gap in the jetty and, for me, symbolizes the past floating away into history.
7. The Jetty 33mm, f13, 1/200sec, ISO250
This image is very structured and architectural in form. The jetty is surrounded by the sea but it still stands firm which reminds the viewer of the strength of man’s creation and how nature alone will be unlikely to dismantle this jetty. Compositionally, the structure creates small windows from which nature can be observed.
8. People On the Beach 149mm, f10, 1/250sec, ISO250
There is a general lack of people within the full set of images, with this image being the only one to include them (which is also something noted of Godwin’s images). This exclusion has helped to create a view that this area is not necessarily a place to visit as it remains uninviting for leisurely human interaction.
Back to this image, the juxtaposition between the two girls and the monolithic concrete structure creates an uneasy relationship between them. The girls seem relaxed as they chat and use their phones whilst sat on the beach, yet they are overshadowed by this large industrial remnant which is a reminder of the potentially unsafe environment they are enjoying. If the remnant is a reminder of the past then the girls are perhaps a symbol of how the beach could be used in the future once it is fully reclaimed. At this moment in time that transformation is not complete and we are therefore left with this uneasy relationship.
9. Nature’s Reclamation of the Beach 24mm, f14, 1/250sec, ISO125
The image provides a wider view of the beach and shows the potential of nature’s forces to reclaim the beach. The curve in the line of the tide helps to provide a sense of movement as it encroaches onto the beach and the mix of tones and shapes in the clouds creates a further sense of foreboding motion. However, the sheen on the wet sand creates more of a sense of calm reflection. The image signifies nature’s potential to over-power man’s creations from the sea and the sky yet at the moment there is an uneasy truce.
10. Signs of Change 31mm, f10, 1/200sec, ISO320
This image captures some of the signs of change occurring on the beach. The old jetty and water tank are remnants of the past that are being left to slowly corrode in the sea whereas the other timber stakes show further progress along the continuum of natural erosion. The black shale on the beach is a reminder of the past pollution of the sea and how at each receding tide the sea leaves behind these forgotten particles. Each of these elements will need to disappear, either by man’s or nature’s help, before North Sands can be fully reclaimed.
11. The Graveyard 60mm, f11, 1/200sec, ISO400
With this image I have juxtaposed the industrial chimney against the gravestones from the adjacent graveyard to suggest that the chimney has become a symbol of a past life that we are saying goodbye to. It also represents a time of change; a time when man and nature are working together to reclaim the land and transform it into something new.
12. Hope for the Future 39mm, f14, 1/200sec, ISO320
This image appears more optimistic about the future. There are obviously still signs of things that need to change before the beach is fully back to its natural state but the bright clear day, with only this central white cloud in the sky, create a warm, optimistic feeling about the future. The beach spreads out to show a potentially wonderful sandy beach and coastline, and even the jetty has opened its doors to allow the viewer to see past it into the bright future.
Overview
This has been a really interesting assignment on many counts for me. By following Godwin’s lead, it has taken me away from my normal style of a coloured representation of nature’s order and beauty, towards a more investigative narrative of landscape as a place and the impact of the continuous interaction between nature and man. This approach is not the only aspect where I have been influenced by studying Godwin’s style. For example, I feel that there is a quiet stillness in many of the images and that they need to be viewed just a little longer than normal to fully appreciate and understand the subtleties of the juxtapositions between the different objects within.
At the beginning of the assignment I struggled to work out the necessary structure of my compositions so that they were less obvious than I would normally create (the lead-in line of the fence posts in Image 2 is more akin to my style) yet making sure that they were not completely flat or uninteresting. I regularly had to reflect back at Godwin’s images to see how she overcame this problem. The two main things that I picked up were the subtle inclusion of basic design elements (at the same time I noticed the strong verticals used by Frank Gohlke in his under-stated compositions), and how the use of black and white imagery helped to highlight these subtleties; the dominance of colour would have, in my opinion, become too distracting and hid these subtle features.
Another major difference to my approach to this assignment was the time I took over it. I began with test shots in the area as well as what I call ‘sketchbook’ images. I also the remaining course projects to focus on different aspects of what I wanted to consider within the assignment images.
I have included blog posts on this approach under the category heading “Assignments – Assignment 5 Sketchbook”.
This extra time and space enabled me to look more objectively at the final images in the set and it was by describing them in this manner that I better understood the narrative captured within and how they fitted (or did not) within the sequence of the set of images. Hopefully this will also reflect how others view the set.
Overall, I feel that I have used my studies of Fay Godwin’s style to influence and inspire my change of approach for this assignment yet when looking at the final set I still believe that they form part of my own personal developing style. The outcome is, therefore, my own personal reflection on the continuing interaction of nature and man on the landscape throughout the reclamation of North Sands.
I use a tripod for most of my landscape work therefore just about all of the images captured and shown in this blog are made using a tripod. I find that it helps to slow the process down and allow me time to fully compose and frame each image. If I am intending to do landscape images then I will always take my tripod with me. In Assignment 5, however, I decided to change my approach and work without a tripod. I wanted to break free from the constraints of the tripod and the slow and considered approach that this needs, to roam the area with a sense of freedom to make images as I came across them. It gave me a better feel for the whole place which is what I was after and I think that this different approach is reflected in my images. I have shown some of these images within my posts under the Category heading of Assignment 5 Sketchbook. The compromise in this approach is the balance between shutter speed, depth of field and ISO levels. In the end the main compromise was the use of an aperture of around f11 which provides a reasonable level of depth but as this Assignment series was more about the narrative rather than nature’s beauty then I do not think that this compromise has been a problem.
The aim of this project is to consider the impact of burning in the sky for greater impact.
For this exercise I have chosen an image that I am considering for selection as part of Assignment 5. It is a caught scene taken on a day when the sky was very flat. I obviously can not go back to retake it therefore I either have to accept the image as it is, which I don’t think would be a problem, or consider adding a sky. I do not think that I have ever added something to an image before therefore I will give this a go and then see what I think.
The first image is the original scene taken with a flat sky in the background:
In the next image I have inserted a new sky taken from a separate image taken at a different time in the same location. Without dominating the scene, the sky certainly adds an extra dimension to the image. I will certainly need to reflect on this before submitting this image.
In this third image I followed the project instructions of making the sky even darker by burning in the sky. This adds further drama to the sky but it does seem to shift the emphasis more towards the sky than I would want.
An interesting exercise and the principle of which I will need to consider further. It is an interesting reflection on my own part that I am happy to remove the odd twig or two to tidy up an image but I am more reluctant to add things to improve an image. The principle of darkening a sky to improve the overall impact, which is what the project was intended to look at, is something I have done before and, as with my general philosophy on amending images, it is something I am comfortable doing as long as the outcome still remains natural and does not detract from the overall image.
Morty's People and Place and Landscape Photography Course 