Project 15: planning your portfolio; getting there.

As the year has progressed I have narrowed my choice of locations to 4, all close to home and therefore easy to get out to at the drop of a hat.  I now have images for all four seasons and need to narrow the choice down to one view.

My first location is one looking over the valley of Irby Dale; somewhere that we have often walked over the years and also part of one of my running routes for a long time.  I decided on a vertical format as I felt that it suited the line of trees snaking towards the wood on the horizon on the far side of the valley.  I tried to ensure that the horizon didn't cut the frame in half.

I definitely have a winter feel to this shot.  In fact I struck lucky this winter as we experienced a good spell of snow, which is a feature of all of my possible choices.

It is very definitely Spring in this shot with the blue sky and the hawthorn in full blossom and the buttercups in flower in the meadow.  I have rather a plain sky, however, and would have prefered more cloud, although I am pleased with the lighting.  I have zoomed in rather too much compared to the first image.

I find summer not a good time for landscapes, much preferring the other three seasons.  The grass is longer here and the field of ripening barley glowing in the sun indicates summer.  I am more pleased with the sky here and have a framing and viewpoint more consistent with the winter picture.

Autumn now, although the trees in the wood on the horizon still have someway to go and I may return.  The hawthorns, however, are showing good Autumn colour.  Again I think that the framing is consistent with the first shot and I have counted the fence posts revealed in the first to help me.  One thing I omitted to take note of at the beginning was the focal length of the zoom lens I was using.

 The second location is a view from the end of Irby Dale looking towards the same wood.  I decided on a landscape format this time as I wanted to include the small tree along the hedgeline to the left as it sits on the intersection of thirds.  Again the scene of many walks and training runs over the years.

I framed this initial shot so that the hedge in the foreground runs from the near left corner of the frame.  I positioned the small tree to the left on the inersection of thirds.  A definite winter feel and I like the sky.

I think I have nor done too badly with the framing here but am slightly too far to my right and have therefore shown less of the wood.  The tree in the hedgerow is now just off the intersection of thirds.  A good spring feel, though, with the hawthorn blossom and fresh green of the new crops.

Definitely summer here as the wheat and barley glow in the sun.  I am pleased with the sky.  The framing is consistent with the second shot but not the first.  Again I am slightly too far right, but only a matter of a couple of yards.

Again the framing is consistent with spring and summer but not winter.  A rather plain sky but saved by a couple of aircraft trails.  I have also just caught some clearing early morning fog on the horizon.

 This location is only a mile up the road from the last one.  I was initially taken by the farm track swooping down into the valley and up the other side. I made the ash tree in the foreground dominant to help provide perspective along with the track which leads the eye into the scene.  I placed the small tree on the right on the intersection of thirds to aid composition.  In each of my following photographs I tried to keep this tree in the same position and also tried to ensure that the lower twigs of the ash tree finished just above this small one.

Again I was lucky with the weather this winter and so was able to provide another snow scene.  The plain blue sky is relieved by being obscured by the branches of the ash tree.

This is very definitely a spring picture.The fresh new growth on the ash and the dominating oil seed rape are indicative of May. I think I have kept the framing consistent here and have also just included the tiny tree on the right of the horizon.

Again consistency of framing and although taken in July this has a bit more of a 'back end' feel to it.  Perhaps this is because of the warm lighting as I took it just after sunrise at 4.30 in the morning.  There are poppies in the shot, though, which reminds us it is summer.

Autumn now and the field to the right has been ploughed.  One reason why I didn't go for a horizontal format was because this field then shows as a fairly featureless area in the frame.  I haven't succeeded quite so well here with the framing.  I may return to this shot as, although it is late Ocober and there are fabulous autumn colours around, this ash tree still has to change.  Hopefully we don't get any gales in the next couple of weeks.

 This location is on a minor road in the Lincolnshire Wolds a few minutes drive from home.  Where the road runs through the shallow valley is called Moggs Hollow.  I love this name and wonder at it's origin.  I checked the punctuation on the OS map and there is no apostrophe before the S so presumably it is not a hollow belonging to Mogg.  I used the first shot in Assignment 1 and liked it immediately as the snaking hedgeline leads the eye to the wood in the distance. 

Again very definitely a winter shot with the snow and lowering clouds.

Very definitely spring here with the hawthorn blossom and the fresh new growth of the broad beans.  I think the framing is reasonably consistent but I am slightly to the right.

A summer shot now with the broad beens in full growth.  Reasonably consistent framing with the last and lovely warm early morning light.  The picture was again take at 4.30 in the morning just after sunrise.  The one benefit of winter is that it brings with it more sociable hours for the landscape and wildlife photographer.

Late October now and pleasing autumn colours on the hawthorn.  Again the ash tree resolutely remains green and I may well return in a couple of weeks.  I am really pleased with the sky in this shot.  The broad beens have now been replaced with winter wheat.  Again the framing is consistent with the last two shots.

What have I learned
One thing I totally forgot to take note of at the beginning  was what focal length I used on my zoom lens for the first image.  This gave me some problems during the course of the project.  Despite the fact that I had previous images on my phone as a reference for framing I still found it problematic placing myself in the exact same spot and just a yard or two makes all the difference.  At the beginning of this project I thought it would be easy to show all four seasons, but it has become plain to me that some locations are better at some seasons than others.  Yes, it is easy to show the four seasons if one is not tied to one spot, but not so simple then.