Onegav

This afternoon I went over to visit my mum, she often has the girls on a Monday, and with me being off work it was a good chance for me to go over and see her too.

My mum lives over in North Wales, so of course I took my camera, the secenry over there is simply stunning!

I did have a photograph in my mind I wanted to take, its a view looking out over the top of the cliff at the back of Loggerheads Country Park, and with the light being low I thought it might be catching the top of the adjacent hills and mountians.

As it transpired, time ran a away with me, and it became touch and go whether I would make it to the top of the rocks in time to catch the fading sunlight.

However, all was not lost and my mum suggested I take a walk up into the hills behind her house instead, where I would have a view down the Vale of Clwyd, and over to what we know as “Mary’s Muffin”, so named after my gran, and pictured above.

The light was amazing, lighting only snippets of the hill I was stood on, and just gently washing the surrounding landscape. It wasn’t particulary ideal for a photograph to be honest, but to the eye it looked breath taking.

Anyway, I found a composition I really liked, with a gnarly old tree in the bottom left of the frame, and a nice leading line running up to the house you see to the left of the frame in the photograph above. The light just wasn’t quite right though, and the trees on the hill just looked like brown mush. I really do feel the compositon has a lot to offer though, so I’m not going to share the photograph yet, I’m going to capture it again in different light.

With it now time to head back, I started to follow two tracks no doubt made by the sheep that live on the side of the hill, and I thought “these would make great leading lines, if only there was something at the end of them”.

There was nothing to speak of infront of me, save for a fallen log that was really cool, but was just a little too far over the edge of the hill to be a focal point. However, upon turning around to look at the lines the tracks made, the scene looked all the more complete. In the end that was the photograph I chose for today, and you see above in a wider perspective.

The fallen log had its place too though, and below you can see it from further down the hill, no leading lines, but I still like the composition and especially the way the log looks like it might roll down the hill at any moment into the valley below.

Not for the first time, my mum was right, and I’m really pleased with todays photographs! Whats more, I think there are many, many more photographs up there to capture one day.

Learnings – again today was all about compositon, and I do wonder if after almost a full year of photography, I’m much more in tune with my camera, the settings, capturing the light and what actually might and might not make a good photograph; all that is leading me to be more “free” to focus on composition. Also, it has to be said that following the leading lines in both directions, certainly paid off!