Project 8

This project is about recording a sequence of shots leading up to the final composition.

The project suggested a situation involving people out on the street. I tried this, but the situations where I tried gave disappointing results particularly as I had a lot of difficulty understanding exactly what I was trying to achieve.

After the sad examples of about 20 shots of people, I thought I would try something different whilst at the same time examining what I thought to be the purpose of the project.

I decided to take a subject, a disused railway viaduct in my village, and walk around the village composing shots from different viewpoints to attempt to make, what was a pretty uninteresting subject, into an interesting composition.

As I took the shots, I was aware of other factors that were spoiling the composition. Things like trees, buildings, posts, telephone and electric cables, cars, caravans, to say nothing of my own inadequacies!

It would be nice to photograph the viaduct as it perhaps would have been before all the new technological advances were built around it.

As the experiment developed I decided to try to use some of the distractions to enhance, rather than spoil, the shot, and the final image was one I was quite pleased with.

Nice setting, but the farm buildings distract the view from the subject.

Closer in to the viaduct. The buildings, an electricity cable, satellite dish and rear end of a car spoil it.

I just couldn’t get into a position to avoid the buildings, post, cables and the trunk of a tree.

Finally got away from buildings and cables,but ended up with a rather dark shot that just looks like some arches in a wooded area. Doesn’t really do the viaduct justice.

I moved over to the other side of the viaduct and got a better composition, but still had a pole with a cable attached, and some chimney pots in the foreground. Getting better though.

A bit closer in and still on the other side, and now have masses of cables, a post, and now the roof of a caravan. It is beginning to feel like there is no place to take a shot without the distractions.

I almost got an unobstructed view, however I either had the roof of the building, or a cable just above. I could have zoomed in, but then I lost some of the effect of the arches. Of course, I could amend it to crop out the building, but that isn’t the point of the exercise.

Moving further along, I began to get buildings back into the shot

More buildings!!

I could have lost these building, but only by getting an awful lot of sky. Anyway, there isn’t much of the viaduct in evidence, and the shot is quite dark. Must remember to check my exposure.

Luckily, digital SLR’s let you preview, so I could adjust the exposure. Other than having a better exposure, the shot is the same as the one before.

I moved along to remove the buildings from the foreground, only to find that there was now a caravan site and another building spoiling the shot. Still having trouble with the exposure, as the sun keeps appearing and then disappearing again.

So I adjusted and took the shot again

I may be getting somewhere as I managed a fairly good shot of the viaduct which shows the arches diminishing as it recedes into the distance. The caravan site is camouflaged by the trees, but still visible

I quite like this one. There are still some buildings visible and also some cables through one of the arches, but the symmetry of the arches make a pleasing shot.

Having thought about the symmetrical aspect of the viaduct, I shifter along slightly so that I got three complete arches instead of the two and two halves. I think that the previouls shot is better because it seems to indicate that there is more to the viaduct than can be seen. The one of three complete arches doesn’t give any feeling that there is any more to it.

Adding a bit more and making it three plus arches doesn’t help at all, and makes the shoot look unbalanced

Finally, having walked around the entire viaduct, I took this shot which I think really shows it at it’s best. There are enough hidden arches to leave you with the feeling that there is more to it. The wall in the foreground gives depth to the view, and the trees provide more interest and create a nice frame for the view. If you look carefully, there is still one chimney in the right arch, and a hint of a caravan under the left arch, but there is enough else of interest to make these inconsequential.