Sand dune and fencing at Formby Point, England. Winter storms and high spring tides had taken their toll on the landscape at Formby Point, and the in some places the dunes had been considerably eroded since I was last there only a few months ago. This area is owned by the National Trust and they were working hard at conserving this area of Britain's coast.
Showing posts with label sand dune. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sand dune. Show all posts
Sand dune tree
Wind swept tree on the beach at Formby Point, England. I love these stark and barren images though I must admit that I am getting ready now to see some leaves on the trees to give a splash of colour and to soften the landscape.
Dune fence and wire
Dune fence and wire at Formby Point, England. late March saw another trip to Formby Point near Southport in England. It was an unexpectedly sunny day so I managed to get a few more shots of the sand dunes on the beach here.
Sand dune grass
Sand dune grass at Formby Point, England. This shot is about texture as well as shape. Notice that the main tuft of grass is positioned one third in from the right. Its top is one third from the top and the main horizon in one third from the bottom. A red filter was used for this shot with the camera on black and white mode. This helps to give the grass that 'wispy' feel against a darker sky.
Sand dune fencing
Sand dune fencing at Formby Point. This is a shot that worked equally well in black and white and colour, and therefore it relies almost entirely on strong composition.
Sand dune posts
Sand dune posts at Formby Point. This shot was taken in black and white mode using a red filter to increase contrast. Composition-Wise, the line of posts lead the eye in from the right to the larger posts an the area just to the left of them which is the main element of the picture. The grassy hill at the back leads the eye back towards the posts again.
Dune tree
Tree in the dunes at Formby Point, England. Definitely a competition entry for me. A combination of red and polaroid filters was used for this shot taken in black and white mode. I love the stong shape and texture of the tree against a minimalist plain background. The bit of tree trunk or stone lying on the ground in the distance on the right acts as a counterpoint to the tree, (and was there, honest, I did not place it there). Even the vapour trail of the plane in the sky adds to the shot.
Global warming
Photomontage of four elements: The sky, the lighthouse, the walker and the naked body. I like the use of a naked body to create a landscape...to create something a little abstract from the human form. A tanned body colour can certainly begin to look like sand. It can be enhanced using an 85b Orange filter, and of course, further enhanced in Photoshop using Image/Adjust/Hue-Saturation and increasing the saturation slider control. using the camera flash for this kind of image is not much use...it is frontal lighting that gives no texture, but rather produces a flat looking image. This means either taking these shots outside or using a studio light or flash to the side. When doing a montage like this it is important to maintain the direction of light. The original lighthouse image has been flipped horizontally in Image/Adjust/Rotate Image, so that the shadow falls on the left, as it does on the body/landscape. If there was a sun in the sky, it would have to be on the right of the picture.
FOOTPRINTS Tutorial - Camera details
Footprints on a sand dune at Talacre beach in North Wales, U.K.
Most of the photos on this blog are taken with a Samsung Digimax V4 digital camera. It is now a few years old and has a resolution of 4 megapixels. It was was my first entry into digital photography, having used 35mm for some years. I chose it becuase of its low to mid range price and because of the features that it has. In the end I have only used some of its features, the most useful ones I have found to be are:
Night mode - for night shots
The +/- exposure control so that I can override the metering system when taking shots in difficult lighting conditions such bright sun on snow, or sand, or into the light shots.
S or shutter mode - if I want to freeze fast moving action. The ASM control gives me complete manual override over the automatic metering system which is sometimes useful.
The camera has automatic focussing and also close up or Macro mode, which I sometimes find useful for the ocasional close up shot.
The camera also has automatic flash - the flash works in poor light conditions, and again, it useful to be able to turn this off in certain situations.
The camera also has 3x optical zoom. Since I tend to do landscape photography, I often use the wide angle end of the zoom - I am a big fan of ultra wide angle. So much so that I still use my 35mm camera for some shots because I have 24mm and 18mm ultra wide angle lenses for that camera, which enables me to get some shots that I cannot get with the digital one. I rarely use the digital zoom, it just lowers the quality of theimage, though I may just use the lower end of the digital zoom very ocasionally.
Of course the great advantage of digital is the instant feedback of results and no film to load. So I can take lots of shots to make sure I get what I want, without worrying about film cost and wastage. Those shots that don't work can be instantly deleted.
LIFEBELT 2 Tutorial
Lifebelt on the beach at Talacre, North Wales, U.K.
I love these more austere, minimalist type of photos, so put me on an empty beach that runs for miles and I am in my element. These kinds of shots depend upon strong simple shapes and colour. here, the bold colour of the lifebelt is the point of interest in this minimalist shot and is enhanced by its strong orange colour. This is as the photo was taken except in photoshot I clicked on Image/Adjust/Auto contrast, and then I increased the colour saturation by using the slider in Image/Adjust/Hue and Saturation. I increased this to about twenty. Cropping this image to reduce some of the foreground would also enhance this picture
LIFEBELT 3 Tutorial
Lifebelt on the beach at Talacre, North Wales, U.K.
A minimalist shot. I love the austerity of these sorts of images - their bold simple lines and composition together with their use of colour. For me, because they require bold colour, these sorts of shots are best taken of sunny days, with the sun behind you to maximise colour brightness. This was taken about three o'clock on an August afternoon in Wales, when the sun was not too high. To enhance the colour I went into Photoshop and clicked on Image/Adjust/Auto Contrast, which gave it more vibrancy and sparkle, and then I increased the depth of colour further by going into Image/Adjust/Hue-Saturation and increased the saturation slider control.
In terms of composition, this shot also makes use of the rule of thirds. If you can imagine your viewfinder with two vertical lines down it at equal distances apart, dividing it into three vertical strips and then imagine two lines horizontally as well, then where these lines fall and cross each other often makes a good place to frame an item of interest. In practice I find that these points of interest tend to be between divisions of one third and a quarter. Thus the life belt, our point of interest, is roughly one third along from the right edge of the frame. Where the dune meets the beach is roughly one third in from the left hand edge of the border. Perhaps a bit of cropping in Photoshop would improve this picture more by getting the horizon to fall about one third up from the base of the frame. Also I could go into Image/Adjust/Rotate and rotate the image about one degree anti clockwise in order to make sure that the horizon was perfectly level. It is a common error with seascapes to have a sloping horizon, whereas in fact it should be perfectly level. The lower the horizon is in this picture, the more sky there will be in proportion to the land and the more spacious it will feel andding to its minimalist feel.
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