Strathfarrar, Highlands, Scotland
I don’t often use the wider apertures in my landscape photography and on the rare occasions I do I back it up with a shot that is sharp front to back, but on this occasion at least the blurry but discernible background pleases me hugely, probably far more than it pleases other viewers but then again my picture my choice. Either way the golden drapery of the birch leaves hanging under the weight of autumn foliage almost ready to drop and that fiery red rust bracken surrounding an old bothy with a green tiled roof just seem to hang together so very well. I feel sure it would make for a very fine chocolate box lid.
Pentax 67II, 300mm lens, polariser, f/4 at 1/60 Second, Fuji Velvia 50.
2 Likes
Ian,
This is just awesome! Congrats for recognizing the possibility here and thinking outside the norms of our craft. This light and colors absolutely come across beautifully and I can see why this pleases you so - Pleases me too!
Not sure if you would be inclined to do this, but the only suggestion I can think of would be to soften/blur a couple of areas that are in the plane of focus - ie. the bit of road in the LLC and some of the bracken ferns and grass along the bottom. Much is oof there anyway due to the wide aperture, so I’m just talking some touch up spots.
Even without any modifications, I just love this scene. Congrats!
Lon
Ditto what Lon said. I really like the sense of place it provides, especially the sense of standing there, looking through the golden chain tree or whatever species it is. The out of focus habitation work really well in this composition.
I don’t know how or why I get this sense, but I feel like this is a very small scene, and the viewer is quite huge. It’s something about the ground and tree drapery nearly meeting and the road looking so narrow, along with the building appearing quite small. I almost feel like I’m seeing a country scene under a christmas tree.
Nary a nit from me.
ML
Love the mood of this image. The old stone building leads the viewer into its history while they take the road throughout the rest of the scene. Awesome image.
This is awesome! I love the light, the colour and the shallow DOF.
Every time I see a landscape image with a narrow DOF it makes me want to try it as well and I just might the next time I go out.
Ian,
This is a beautiful use of the wider aperture and I have often wondered why we don’t see more of it in landscapes? The result is very creative and pleasing in this case! Nicely done!
Another awesome image comment here! Thanks for giving me something different to think about when composing landscape shots.
Very nice, I would probably never have thought to use a shallow depth of field like this but I do like it. My only nit and it’s probably just me, I wish the leaves in the immediate foreground were in focus with the leaves right behind them. I really do like the “golden drapery” very much!
