Chaotic Colour | Weekly Photo #129
As promised last week, here’s an autumnal photo I took just a couple of weeks ago during a short trip to the Brecon Beacons in Wales. As mentioned in that previous post, I went to photograph the popular waterfalls along the Four Falls Trail but the Afon Mellte (River Mellte) and Afon Hepste (River Hepste) carve their way through some fantastic ancient woodland with an array of interesting trees so, despite some pretty miserable weather and flat light, I could not resist pointing my lens towards the trees and photograph some of the wonderful woodland they have there.
Before we get stuck in, I have some news. I’ve opened an online print store over on Etsy.com. I’ve been toying with the idea for a while, deciding where to host it and how to price the images and finally got around to setting it all up a few weeks ago. My plan is to offer all of the photos I post on my Weekly Photo series as prints but it’s going to take some time to get all 129of them up there, so if you see a photo anywhere on my website and you want to own your own print, drop me a message and I’ll get it added to the store in no time at all.
Here’s a link to the store https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TrevorSherwinPhoto, alternatively you can always find it in the menu at the top of this page.
I’m not going to lie, I found this an incredibly difficult scene to photograph and even now as I sit here writing this post, I’m pretty sure it’s tumultuous nature won’t appeal to everyone but all being well, by the time you get to the end of this blog, you will know why, at the very least, it appeals to me.
The main path that takes you from the car park, along the Four Falls Trail remains on the higher ground meaning for each of the four waterfalls, you need to take a separate path that descends down towards the water in the valley. I came across this scene as I was heading down the steep path towards the Sgwd y Pannwr waterfall which, between descents takes you through this small area of captivating woodland. I was mesmerized by how it looked and even though I knew that trying to find an orderly composition in a somewhat chaotic scene would challenge my relatively modest woodland photography skills, I just had to give it a go. So, after finishing up taking photos by the river, I headed back up to this spot to see what I could make of it.
Fujifilm XT2 | XF18-55mm | 32mm | 1/3rd Second | f/10 | ISO200
So, what drew me to this scene? First off, it’s a very different type of woodland to those I typically come across in good-old leafy Surrey. With the rocks and moss across the uneven floor, the quirky shapes carved by the trees and the plethora of autumnal tones, it just felt a little bit special. I probably spent a good 20 minutes or more working out how best to take this photo and eventually settled on this composition you see here. Along with the interesting shapes and textures, the order amongst the disorder is the way the rocks on the ground create a natural path leading the eye in towards an area flanked by the “V” shaped trees and splashes of vibrant yellow tones on either side.
As I mentioned at the start of this post, the weather throughout my trip was pretty miserable and in between the rain, the light was flat and uninspiring. In an ideal world, I would have had some nice, defused light to bring out more of the vibrant colours in this woodland scene, but it wasn’t to be and I had to make the best of the conditions I was given both on location and back home in Lightroom when processing the final image. I had to be careful with the colours, making sure I didn’t overcook them. Some might be tempted to boost the yellows too much and force them to be what they might have been with better light. I chose to make more subtle changes, so the final photo represents the conditions I experienced on that very day.
Once again, please feel free to pop by my new online print store and have a good look around. I’d love to hear what you think so feel free to get in touch.
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.