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Author Topic: Springtime in Skye  (Read 2959 times)

KMRennie

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Springtime in Skye
« on: June 01, 2014, 11:52:23 am »

What do you do when you travel several hundred miles to take some photographs and the weather is terrible?

This is Skye from in early May. I waited for the clouds to break a little but this was the best that I got, apart from a drenching. I may convert to mono later.
Any comments welcome.
Ken
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sdwilsonsct

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Re: Springtime in Skye
« Reply #1 on: June 01, 2014, 12:00:24 pm »

What do you do when you travel several hundred miles to take some photographs and the weather is terrible?

Tilt the camera up to get more great sky and less foreground? Make those nice misty hills the "foreground". I'd call this trip successful.

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Springtime in Skye
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2014, 12:01:28 pm »

I'd say you were lucky with the weather. Foreground, not so much ;)

luxborealis

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Re: Springtime in Skye
« Reply #3 on: June 01, 2014, 12:14:58 pm »

This is the real Skye. You've  captured the real thing (frustrating as it may be). I'd say you've made some good lemonade here. I would agree about the foreground, though it seems even there you've made the best of a less-than-ideal situation. Anything with more sky? (no pun intended!)
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thierrylegros396

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Re: Springtime in Skye
« Reply #4 on: June 01, 2014, 12:18:56 pm »

What do you do when you travel several hundred miles to take some photographs and the weather is terrible?

You drink a Talisker whisky  :D :D

We've just been to a belgian restaurant that propose the brand today !

Yes, focus more on that interesting sky.
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KMRennie

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Re: Springtime in Skye
« Reply #5 on: June 01, 2014, 12:33:04 pm »

Another shot
Same location, 30 minutes later, pointing NNW this time away from Skye. The Scottish mainland is hidden in the rain squall on the right. Keeping the rain off the lens was difficult, pointing the camera up would not have been possible. I have a series of shots taken for a panorama which have more sky in them but the first time I tried to merge them resulted in total failure, I may try again when I return from a cycling trip to the South of France which, with a bit of luck, may provide me with images of sunny hilltop Provencal villages. I have had half a lifetime of sodden Scottish weather, I now live in Cumbria, the wettest part of England, I never learn.
Ken
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DwayneOakes

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Re: Springtime in Skye
« Reply #6 on: June 01, 2014, 01:06:17 pm »

epic sky, tones and mist in the BG
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luxborealis

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Re: Springtime in Skye
« Reply #7 on: June 01, 2014, 02:41:19 pm »

You drink a Talisker whisky  :D :D

Great suggestion! Personally, Talisker is one of my favourites and it tastes a heck of a lot better than lemonade!
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KMRennie

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Re: Springtime in Skye
« Reply #8 on: June 01, 2014, 02:46:55 pm »

Actually it was 15yr old Bowmore. I know it's from Islay and not Skye but I like peaty whisky. Ken
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ehackett

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Re: Springtime in Skye
« Reply #9 on: June 01, 2014, 02:49:06 pm »

Transcendent image...which it will need to be as I am sitting in the hot & dry Sonoran desert...and it does make me reach for the bottle, to ward off the chill and damp.

Thanks for posting this wonderful photo!

Ed
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wolfnowl

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Re: Springtime in Skye
« Reply #10 on: June 04, 2014, 02:40:54 am »

Curious about the highlight (in red). Also the horizon seems tilted down a bit to the left. Nice light, but as to the foreground, all been said.

Mike.
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Jeremy Roussak

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Re: Springtime in Skye
« Reply #11 on: June 04, 2014, 03:39:21 am »

Actually it was 15yr old Bowmore. I know it's from Islay and not Skye but I like peaty whisky. Ken

Try Laphroaig or (my favourite) Lagavulin, then.

Jeremy
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stamper

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Re: Springtime in Skye
« Reply #12 on: June 04, 2014, 04:56:15 am »

Do you need to be an alcoholic to comment? ;) If so then my contribution is that the foreground looks a little over sharpened imo. The compositions are fine but I equate this type of image with a sense of mistiness.  Despite being born and bred in Scotland I haven't been to Skye. Difficult to reach by public transport.

KMRennie

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Re: Springtime in Skye
« Reply #13 on: June 04, 2014, 08:09:45 am »

Mike I am posting a detail shot of the highlight (unprocessed RAW, Fuji XE-1, XF 18-55). It would appear to be buoy with the tide pushing past creating highlights on the turbulent water. The tilting horizon is mostly an illusion as the shore is coming towards you at this point. Their may also be a little curvature at the edges as I had the lens pointing downwards as I envisaged the shot as the foreground with the misty nondescript background as no more than a backdrop. As most have said the foreground, most of which is cropped off, is poor and the only interest is in the backdrop of the hills and clouds. If you look at the file posted with this message their is no drama in the hills and sky, that is all down to pp.
A good debate can probably be had about how real the image is and whether we are:
1.showing what was there;
2.showing how it made us feel;
3.showing what we had hoped was there;
4.producing an image that will get a reaction.
5.producing an image that will make the viewer feel a little of what the photographer felt then and there.
Their may well be a lot more possibilities than this.
Tourist info: Scotrail run club 55 (most times outside school holidays) which allows a 1 month return ticket between any 2 stations in Scotland( +Carlisle and Berwick) for £18, 55yr olds and above. Mallaig and Kyle of Lochalsh have stations and the train trips are terrific. Kyle is less than 5 miles from this location. Ken
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Springtime in Skye
« Reply #14 on: June 04, 2014, 02:44:51 pm »

A good debate can probably be had about how real the image is and whether we are:
1.showing what was there;
2.showing how it made us feel;
3.showing what we had hoped was there;
4.producing an image that will get a reaction.
5.producing an image that will make the viewer feel a little of what the photographer felt then and there.

Ken, that is an excellent summary of a photographer/artist's dilemma.

KMRennie

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Re: Springtime in Skye
« Reply #15 on: June 04, 2014, 03:49:03 pm »

Isaac I can persuade myself that it is mostly #5 as this is a somewhat higher level #2. However I can't totally rule out #4 as it is difficult to show work that results in indifference so I do tend to hit the "drama" button a lot. #1 is obvious when taking landscapes but where I stand, lens choice, camera height, filters used etc all go to produce my subset of what was there.
Ken
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wolfnowl

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Re: Springtime in Skye
« Reply #16 on: June 05, 2014, 01:01:53 am »

Thanks for the clarification, Ken. It was hard to tell from the original; just looked like a schism in the water but it didn't carry forward into the hill behind.

As Slobodon said, you've summarized the questions artists ask themselves very nicely.

Mike.
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Dave (Isle of Skye)

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Re: Springtime in Skye
« Reply #17 on: June 10, 2014, 06:24:13 pm »

This looks to me like a shot taken across Broadford Bay towards Irishman's Point in the far distance and I like it, lots of drama and interest to look at.

What do you do when you travel several hundred miles to take some photographs and the weather is terrible?

Weather hardly ever does what we want does it? I flew over to the States a couple of years ago in spring, to go to Yosemite. Long flight, followed by a long drive etc and the weather for the whole two weeks was wall-to-wall sunshine, with not a cloud in the sky day after day and not in anyway how I wanted to see it or photograph it. Not to mention having to stand four deep in the nightly photographic scrum at tunnel view and to top all that, being a sea-level living person, for the first few days I went down with altitude sickness (think migraine on steroids).

But will I go back? Of course I will.

It is the nature of landscape photography I think, 99.9% effort and 0.1% success. I often see a composition on the IoS and know that I will have to go back and back again and back again, until I beat it into submission and it gives me what I want, then I will keep on going back to see if I can get it any better.

I think your shot is a good one, enjoy it and the memories you have of taking it and think next time, I will get exactly what I want, because this time, the conditions will be absolutely perfect and you never know, they might just be....

Dave  ;)
« Last Edit: June 10, 2014, 07:31:27 pm by Dave (Isle of Skye) »
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