Landscape 2014

[sury]

Nice shots Jeff, especially the third one which conveys the transitioning of the season.
In the first one the water in the front look more like a white splat and is somewhat distracting
to me.

Sury

[Birma]

Wow - this thread has been alive with great pictures - I particularly liked the Devil's Kitchen shots - what a place! Lovely shots from everyone.

Life has been getting in the way of photography recently for me, but I did manage to pop out first thing this morning. Here are a couple of autumn pictures from the local Beech wood. A variety of styles I'm still experimenting with this abstract style, but I rather liked this one.

2014 Piper's Hill - First Light In The Beech Wood by Birm, on Flickr

2014 Piper's Hill - Autumn Wood by Birm, on Flickr

Both with A99. First with SAL 70-400 mk1, and second with SAL 135 STF.

[sury]

Nice one Andy, though I would liked a little less blown highlights on the left.
Don't ask me why, but the second one reminded me of Dante's Inferno.

Sury

[the_hefay]

Lovely shots Andy. Two very different interpretations.

Sury, I didn't like the white in the first photo either. The white splat is actually snow, not water flowing. I had a couple of different exposures but there really was zero detail in that white area from that vantage point.

[sury]

Thank you Jeff. I understand. That is the best best thing about landscape isn't it. It will not pose for you.

Sury

[Birma]

Thanks Jeff and Sury

Sury, I consciously decided to live with the blown highlight in the top left corner of the first, but I take your point that there may be too much. I'll consider a crop. I can see the idea of flames in the second - it's abstract, so what ever floats your boat

[sury]

Andy,
Instead of cropping, could you do some local adjustments to reduce the whites? Just curious.
I love the idea of light coming through but it is just a tad too harsh.

[the_hefay]

Andy, just curious what the camera/lens settings you used in the blur shot. Also, did you intentionally wiggle side to side as you moved vertically or was that incidental?

[Birma]

Hi Sury, I'll take a look. I avoided too many adjustments to the White, as I didn't want is to become muddy or grey as that wouldn't look right to me.

Hi Jeff, f/5.6 and 0.8 secs for the blurry-graph. The wiggle was as unintentional side effect of a double movement; moving the camera down and the back up again. I like the extra texture is provides.

[Kalainen]

2014 Piper's Hill - First Light In The Beech Wood by Birm, on Flickr

You've got stunning light with this one!! Great great picture! I'm sure you're very satisfied with this one!

2014 Piper's Hill - Autumn Wood by Birm, on Flickr

I like this as well. As a nature photography, it has a controversal element which I like. However, I'm not sure if you are yet quite finished with this idea/technique. I would love to see a picture taken with this technique, which would have something identifiable in it, but then escape to abstract. Don't know what to suggest, but playing with a longer exposure time should give you very interesting images. How about a moving animal with panning? a Falling leave? Rain drops? Birds? I know it's easy to photograph from an armchair, but I would love to see you taking this technique further and I'm just dropping ideas...

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

[Birma]

Thank you for your thoughts Toni. Just for you - here is another experiment. In this one the camera is still for part of the exposure, which provides the defined part of the image, and then moving for part, which gives the blur. This is the leaf litter on the floor of the wood.

2014 The Knapps - Leaves In The Wind by Birm, on Flickr

A99 with SAL 70-400 G mk1

[the_hefay]

That's fantastic Andy.

[Birma]

Thank you the_hefay !

It is all an experimentation - but fun at the same time.

[Kalainen]

Thank you for your thoughts Toni. Just for you - here is another experiment. In this one the camera is still for part of the exposure, which provides the defined part of the image, and then moving for part, which gives the blur. This is the leaf litter on the floor of the wood.

2014 The Knapps - Leaves In The Wind by Birm, on Flickr

A99 with SAL 70-400 G mk1

I like this, in a way it's better than the first one since it's recognizable, though it doesn't have as good graphic look. Combining the two is of course the hard part and takes some serious effort. On a side note, I think 'the nature' have been so much photographed with a certain 'realistic' and 'realistic+post-processed' approach that it's difficult to find anything new in it. Therefore these kind of experiments where nature photography is taken into abstraction is certainly a fresh approach.

-Toni

--
Toni Ahvenainen (1976)
Year of the Alpha - 52 Weeks of Sony Alpha Photography: http://www.yearofthealpha.com
Flickr-account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/109262328@N06/

[Pitter]

Here's a landscape in Colombia.