Woodland Brook | Weekly Photo #121
Before I get stuck in with this week’s photo, a bit of housekeeping. I know urban cityscape photography doesn’t particularly fit the woodland theme of this week’s photo but nevertheless and as promised, I published the first of my two-part blog which covered a photo walk I took in London a week or two ago. In part one, I take a walk along the Thames with my single camera and 23mm lens combo during a beautiful sunrise where I was gifted some wonderful golden light. Just hit the link or click on the thumbnail below to read the post, after this one of course :-)
I’ll be posting part two over the next week where I will be sharing how I configure the presets on my Fujifilm camera so, with one quick turn of a dial, my expose settings are set and I can focus on taking pictures without having to adjust the settings for each photo. And no, it’s not set to auto…hehe. Keep an eye out for that post on my blog here.
Fujifilm XT2 | XF10-24mm | 15mm | 1/5th Second | f/8 | ISO320
Back in late Spring, I went for a walk in my local forest in a bid to capture some of the vibrant spring greens at a location I had come across on a previous visit some months before. On that previous occasion, I followed the same path along this brook during a cold, foggy morning and took this photo here which I called Cascading Brook.
Coming across this spot along the river I liked that there was a bit of foreground interest with the small waterfall and exposed roots on the near bank. The bend in the stream also worked well as it leads the eye around the frame, finishing at the fallen tree in the background which acts as a bit of a focal point, framed by the more conventional but equally important upright trees to the left and right of it.
Having only visited once before where the wintry woodland was expectedly dormant, I didn’t know how much life there would be on this occasion and although the woodland floor was still quite bare, there was still enough vibrancy in the fresh leaves to help tell the story of the time of year this photo was taken.
I perched the tripod right on the edge of the brook and mounted my wide-angle 10-24mm lens on the camera. I needed the wider focal length so I could include both the small cascade in the foreground and the fallen tree in the background without them being too close to the edge of the frame. Once my composition was right, I mounted my circular polarizing filter which I knew would cut some of the reflections from the water and add more pop to those already vibrant green leaves.
Back in Lightroom, I followed my usual workflow but in addition, I softened the image a little by reducing the clarity as I felt the overall look of the photo was too sharp and crisp for my taste. I also wanted to reduce the reddish tones in the rusty looking water as it was too distracting. I did this using an adjustment brush, selecting just the water and simply reduced the saturation in that area.
Having visited the woodland a few times in the last couple of weeks, I’ve noticed the leaves are now starting to turn, which means just one thing. Autumn colours are just around the corner so, I’m sure I’ll be busy in the coming weeks exploring the autumnal woodlands with my camera and if I take anything I like, I’ll be sure to share it sometime in the future.
Until next week.
Trevor
This post is featured in my Weekly Photo series where I post a new photo every Monday. To have this delivered directly to your inbox, you can subscribe to the mailing list here.