Landscape | alan frost photography

Posts tagged ‘Landscape’

A ‘dank’ Devon walk with a camera.

There are times when I enjoy taking photographs in the mist and the rain, when visibility and the light is poor, but the mood and atmosphere can be rather special. These three photographs were all taken in Devon countryside whilst out on a walk with our dog. The low cloud and mist didn’t lift all day, but apart from some early rain, it was just a damp and rather dank sort of day. Nevertheless I found a few locations where the camera came out to capture what I saw and felt as I walked along narrow footpaths and country lanes.

In all three images I have added some grain or noise, as well a slight tone, which I think enhances the overall look of the photograph.

Please click on any image to see a larger version.

Thanks as always for looking.

The River Arun at South Stoke – one of my favourite locations

River Arun at South Stoke

The River Arun has its source in St Leonard’s Forest to the east of Horsham and flows down through the towns of Pulborough and Arundel, finally reaching the sea at Littlehampton. Its course cuts through the South Downs, creating the Arun Valley. This shot was taken at South Stoke which has to be one of my favourite locations in West Sussex. It has featured before on my blog and I am sure will do so again in the future.

Here are some links to other entries with images taken in and around this lovely location –

Using ‘blur’ down by the River Arun

Churches in the landscape – South Stoke

A week on and it’s back to South Stoke

Cow portraits taken near South Stoke

The best catch of the day

Mist on the Test

I can’t describe myself as a fisherman, but when a good friend of mine invited me to join him for a day of fly fishing on the River Test in Hampshire the answer was always going to be yes please! I had been fly fishing before, but never caught anything apart from a few weeds and the odd tree branch when my cast was less than accurate.

We wanted to get to our destination quite early as we had booked a gillie for the morning. Hopefully he would teach us a thing a two which might increase our chances of success. As we drove towards the village of Timsbury, which is just to the north of Romsey, the morning mist had yet to clear, so I had already anticipated there might be the chance of a quick photograph before the sun burnt through.

When we arrived no one else was there so we pieced together our rods, attached the reel, chose our flies and prepared ourselves for the first cast. All this time I was admiring the scene that surrounded me. The mist rising from the river, obscuring the view of the fields in the distance. It was calm and serene but I knew it would not last long. The camera came out and ‘Mist on the Test’ was taken.

We saw a fleeting glimpse of a pair of kingfishers, watched grebes diving for their food and swans enjoying the beautiful spring sunshine, but neither of us caught a single fish; in fact we didn’t even get a bite. But it was a glorious relaxing day if a little frustrating at times. I also committed the cardinal sin of not charging my batteries over night, so the low level battery warning was blinking before the day had even begun. Even the spare battery had little or no charge. So I gave up the photography and concentrated on the fishing. Little did I know that the first release of the shutter turned out to be the best catch of the day.

And just to prove we were fishing here is my friend Nik making his first cast of the day.

First cast

Looking through the archives – Welsh hillside

Welsh hillside

I always enjoying looking back through photographs that were taken a few years ago, partly because it’s a fun thing to do and secondly to see whether or not a colour image taken before I decided to concentrate on monochrome, would convert well to black and white. This particular shot of three sheep on a Welsh hillside in Ceredigion was taken back in August 2010 – a very typical grey day during a Welsh Summer!

The second shot is of a Welsh track taken on the same walk. The pathway leads the eye to the rain clouds ahead.

Welsh track

Fortunately I will be visiting Wales again later this year. Snowdonia this time. It’s an area I do not know at all but it has great photographic appeal. The combination of mountains, lakes and dramatic skies is right up my street. Yes, I am sure it will rain but that just adds to the atmosphere. I can’t wait!

Both shots were taken with a little Panasonic LX3. A camera I still own although it rarely gets used these days.

Cley Windmill – decisions, decisions.

I recently uploaded this photo of Cley Windmill to Flickr. A traditional view and treatment of this much photographed and prominent building on the North Norfolk Coast. A relatively pleasing image, well composed I think, but is there anything more to say about it, or just as importantly, could I do more with it in post processing?

When I looked at it again a few days later, I wondered whether or not I should have processed it in another way and that got me thinking. What if I came up with three more versions of the same image using only Silver Efex Pro2, promising myself that I would take no more than five minutes on each version. My plan was to start with one of the many pre-sets and then make some minor adjustments until I finished with an image I liked but had a very different look to the first attempt. What would I learn from this quick experiment? Would I prefer any of the ‘new’ pictures? ….. and finally how would all these photographs compare to the original RAW file from the Leica M Monchrom. Just how flexible are the files it produces?