Location Scouting

[32BT]

Towards a Crowd Sourcing Landscape...

Okay, during an early morning drive I pass a plowed field. Next to it are a group of trees. This is late winter, early spring, so the trees are still bare and didn't have any leaves yet. The backdrop is misty and I realize this makes for an interesting picture. But I didn't do what any self-respecting decent photographer would do, because I am not a self-respecting, decent photographer...

So I recently visited the location again to see if there is a picture opportunity there and I believe there is certainly potential. So I was thinking about a different approach to this.

I thought about taking some wider view shots to show you all the location and surroundings and then we can discuss ad nauseam what might make a good picture. That way we can hopefully have some constructive discussion about framing and composition, color vs B&W etc…

It is an experiment, and I am not completely set up equipmentwise, but here is a first try for an overview. It is a quick&dirty pano which unfortunately doesn't quite do the location justice, maybe need some more surroundings. Additionally I have included two pictures to start the discussion, one B&W in vertical framing, one color in horizontal framing.

The plowed field has corn planted which is beginning to grow…

I was initially triggered by the single row of trees, but the pano seems to give an interesting picture as well. Maybe do a real pano there. I don't think the trees in and of themselves are interesting enough as is, so some dramatic sky is probably required.

There is one additional shot I would like to add, which is a 200mm from further down the field, so that the perspective is flattened. I don't like the left tree hanging inward in the horizontal image. I do like the plow troughs running in the direction of the trees.

Here then are the questions:
1. Interesting experiment?
2. Interesting location?
3. What would we need to see a useful overview?
4. Any suggestions regarding framing, composition, color/B&W etc…?

[John R Smith]

The problem is, Oscar, the pano (nice though it is) is no real substitute for being there.

We can't look around, check where the light is, assess what the clouds are going to do, or most importantly "walk the shot". We really need something like the Google Street View and even then we would be constrained by the porthole of our computer screen. Half of photography is being aware of what is behind you and on either side.

John

[Riaan van Wyk]

Half of photography is being aware of what is behind you and on either side.
John

I would say more than half John.

Interesting idea Oscar. Thing is, people "see" things differently and with that it would mean that you would get lots of suggestions but not only one of them would be "right" since all of the suggestions would be right. For instance, my preference is wide angle vertical compositions with interesting foreground anchors so my suggestions would hinge on what I prefer, not what you would like to hear perhaps.

[32BT]

The problem is, Oscar, the pano (nice though it is) is no real substitute for being there.

We can't look around, check where the light is, assess what the clouds are going to do, or most importantly "walk the shot". We really need something like the Google Street View and even then we would be constrained by the porthole of our computer screen. Half of photography is being aware of what is behind you and on either side.

John

Yes, I fully agree and I realized that. Especially when shooting some quick frames for the pano, I immediately ran into the question as to what to include in the wider view. When I first thought about this idea, I merely meant to shoot a slightly larger framing so we could discuss framing, then reshoot etc…, but I then figured it might be interesting to be forced to think consciously about what it is we are doing when we are assessing a location. But the temporal and spacial aspects of the light and the context is such an integral part of that assessment, I suppose it was a bit optimistic...

[32BT]

I would say more than half John.

Interesting idea Oscar. Thing is, people "see" things differently and with that it would mean that you would get lots of suggestions but not only one of them would be "right" since all of the suggestions would be right. For instance, my preference is wide angle vertical compositions with interesting foreground anchors so my suggestions would hinge on what I prefer, not what you would like to hear perhaps.

Yes, agreed, but that would also make for good exercise. It's one thing to shoot one's own style, but it might be very valuable to try someone else's approach towards the same subject.

[Rob C]

Yes, agreed, but that would also make for good exercise. It's one thing to shoot one's own style, but it might be very valuable to try someone else's approach towards the same subject.

You really, deeply inside yourself, believe that that's possible?

Was a time I imagined that I could ape Sarah Moon, if I wanted to; then many years later I realised that it couldn't happen: not only don't I have the same past or gender, but neither do I have access to the same locations, models or outlets and the best I could do would be to think of a single image of hers and try to convert some of the symbolism into my own version of a very similar image: rip her off, in other words.

I'm sure that's not your intent, that you are writing about using 'style' alone, but that's the bit I think can't be done, not even in an outright copy of any single shot. Interesting to see what people better placed than I could come up with! Frankly, I doubt that even the great painting or photographic stylists have the slightest idea of how to ape themselves: they just do what they do in a totally unselfconscious manner. Had they to think about what to do, I guess they'd freeze.

Rob C