Recently Tomasz Trzebiatowski uploaded a video about photographing locally. So even if you walk the same streets every day there are still good images to be found, if you are alert.
So following up from this I decided to try, on a familiar local walk – ‘the big loop’ – to take a photo every five minutes. Setting my phone timer I would stop at that point and look for something worthwhile to photograph.
It was hard!
The thing that I noticed first of all was that I was having to ignore potential shots between bleeps and then when I got the allotted spot I was left scratching my head!
But a useful exercise of course.
Here are the results:
The light was lovely, the end of the afternoon and a orange, warm glow as the sun began to go down. The top of this post caught my eye with it’s rough top and shadowed side.
Edited this as black and white as the mucky gate in the foreground stands out with the darker mid ground and lighter sky beyond. Got spots on the lens of my Ricoh GR3 which will need professionally sorting.
Another post but this time with grass growing out of the top – the grass glowed quite brightly and it was this that attracted my attention.
I could have taken lots of general sunset, landscape shots but I decided instead to do some close ups – like this cone in the water. Not that interesting however – I was beginning to struggle.
Getting down low to get these muddy tracks leading the eye into the distance – hmmm – bit dull.
Reflection and sun setting – done much better ones than this recently. I thought maybe the stone might be interesting but looks a bit like a dog poo!
Perhaps one of the more successful shots. I’ve done other similar photos to this as I like the way the reflection of the trees balance with the actual trees above. The pop of orange in the distance is nice but the focus is off.
Another reflection. This really was boring so I spent a bit of time editing it to make it more interesting.
Done this before and better.
The light was changing to that fabulous blue just as the sun is disappearing. The track was quite bright and greens and blues were amazing. Don’t have the skills to capture that.
I was really stumped when the timer went off here – what is there to capture but this is probably a more interesting one with the gate leading the eye into the distance. Probably should have increased the exposure a bit but it it was getting dark at this point.
I love this sign with the contradiction of the track leading away but not to be trodden by the general public!
The worst picture of the entire exercise. When the timer went I was stood next to a bare hedge on one side and an empty field on the other. The light had gone and distant view was hazy. Moving on.
Really getting dark now so had to pump up the exposure generally and to add any level of interest worked on the grass in the foreground.
Final shot of the walk as I headed down the street and home.
So useful for the discipline of having to really look at points where previously I would have walked past. Definitely passed by some that might have worked out better but, on a regular walk, it is good to remind yourself – ‘am I missing out by not observing closely, really closely, the familiar landmarks?’
Be observant!
All the time! And look around corners!