Pagham Boardwalk – Setting (Cropping) the Scene

Pagham Boardwalk

It’s the combination of lines and textures I like about my choice of image at the head of today’s post about my walk at Pagham on the south coast of England. The photo has been cropped a bit to help provide a better sense of the scene and it is the undulations of the boardwalk as it spans the shingle of the foreshore that initially attracted my eye. Continue reading

Seeing it as it is – details of the bigger picture

Nearing the end of my short street walk this week I was considering how useful a camera can be in helping to pick out aspects of an environment. Without peripheral vision plus the ability to select a point of focus it is possible to present reality as abstract. I have not taken todays photos that far and the subjects of all these images are identifiable, but seeing it as it is does not necessarily mean there is an understandable context.

If you have seen my previous posts this week you will know that the context is a city centre street along which I have been walking, looking and listening to my surroundings. But taking the images of today’s post on their own, there is a great deal of contextual information they do not give. This means the photos almost force you to consider their more abstract elements and forget about the street or town they may be in – peeling paint, the pattern of broken glass, marks on a road surface and lines in a wall.

street markings

The penultimate photo below is in a specify location in a specific town / city. It can only be one particular place but at the same time it could be anywhere. I like the vertical columns in the background set behind the horizontal pattern of parked cars but wanted to bring some more attention to them give the image a little more individuality. So with a monochrome conversion, a little digital manipulation and a tighter crop . . .

If viewing this in an email, please click the post title to see other photos in this post, thank you.

Grass Reflection

The marsh water beside the lake at Llyn Llech Owain in Carmarthenshire, Wales, was almost like glass when this shot was taken. The reflection of grass and clouds in its surface is only distorted by the slightest of movements on a cold Winter day.

Do you have a preference for the landscape or portrait crop?

grass reflection

grass reflection

Tree and Lake

Two alternative crops of one of the images from the StillWalks video “Winter Lakeside Walk” (see below).

tree and lake

tree and lake

One Point of View – Multiple Options

Which structure to focus on? That was the question for me with this view over the lake at Llyn Llech Owain in Carmarthenshire. The portrait view could only include one tower. My choice was less about the scale of the architecture and more about the fact that the larger structure was partly hidden by the small trees in the middle distance. With the lake being partly hidden by the trees, there seems to me to be a greater sense of mystery about the scene.

lake

lake