Waterscape Wednesday

With a regularity of visits to a part of my locale, I am in danger of making my photography predictable, repetitive and possibly boring but David Hockney did the same with his East Yorkshire copse precisely to capture the constant changes (and ultimately create his marvellous montage ‘Bigger Trees near Warter’). Thus, I take my cue from him and all this week’s photographs came from one session at the local park’s fishing lake. Here are some of its waterscapes (plus a few cues from David Peterson’s How to Photograph still water).

First and foremost, I love how the water provides contrast with these wooded scenes – horizontal versus the uprights; amorphous versus solids; and the ability to change shape, colour, texture with whatever the context or environs

The lake’s stillness on this day was more of a ruffled surface with waterfowl and wind disturbing the surfaces. Nevertheless, I like the ink pen illustrations it makes of reflection

“If you choose the middle of the frame, it’s because you want to capture that strong sense of symmetry that the scene has”

“Choose to put the horizon above the edge of the frame if you want only the reflection in the scene”

Because water has a layered depth, choosing where and what to focus can be a confusing pull – the Opheliaesque greenery caught my eye for this one…

whereas the reflections appealed here though I chose to capture them out of focus and monochromed to create more of that whirly, inky feel

Most of these are full frame but water also offers the opportunity for much more minimalism – coming up later in the week

Meanwhile tomorrow we should be feeling the crunch with some Thursday textures

12 thoughts on “Waterscape Wednesday

    1. I like the notion of illustration – thank you Neil – it sounds so much better than capture and besides I rarely feel my photos ever do capture in the sense of encapsulate

  1. Lovely images Laura. I love the inly swirly patterns captured on water. And I agree with Neil, your photos illustrate the ideas / concepts so well.

      1. Yes, the light makes all the difference. I have just watched an incredible sunset here – pink, orange, red, fading to gold and lilac. Just beautiful.

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