Project 12: Changing Light

More than any of the other projects so far, I felt I was floundering with this one. The process of recreating the example image, Cadbury Castle, was interesting, but I found myself unable to replicate this with any of my own shots. Over the past couple of weeks, with this project in mind, I have taken several shots of a jetty close to where I live. I ensured that I placed my tripod on the exact same spot each time, and used the same focal length – but despite having several images that could be easily aligned, I couldn’t find a pleasing combination of layers and lighting. Everything I tried looked fake and forced.

Then I hit upon the idea of combining photographs taken in different seasons. I searched back through my files, and found a snowy picture that I thought might be suitable. I took a note of the focal length, printed the photo and returned to the spot where it was taken (just around the corner from my house). I set up the camera and tripod as close as I could to the same position I had stood in for the snowy shot and took some Spring/Summer shots.

Here are the Winter and Summer images:

I resized the winter image slightly before layering and aligning them. I tried combining the two shots in a number of ways – firstly just splitting the frame in half, so that half of the photo showed Winter scenery, and the other half showed Summer. However, I admit that the composition of the photo is weak, and this didn’t work too well. I therefore tried a ‘concept’ image...

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence:

I also experimented with making a snowy path through a Summer landscape:

 I can’t say that I’m particularly happy with either of these, I'm pretty embarrassed to post them here actually, as I can see a multitude of faults. For instance, the seasonal elements are not strong enough - a thick blanket of snow would be better. Also, as I said above, the composition is very weak, there is no real focal point or framing to the image.

However, this exercise has given me ideas for improved images in the future. For instance, I’d like to find a deciduous tree – oak or ash – and take shots of it in all four seasons. I am hoping that I could then layer the shots and divide the frame into four – each part showing a quarter of the tree in a different season. It may not work, but at least it’s an idea for me to work on!