A wider view

Winding Path

UPDATE

After posting this from my PC I checked to see that it looked OK on the iPad and found that the shadows and mid tones on the latter are about a zone lighter than on the PC. Where I'm talking about moody tones, you'll just have to squint or adjust your monitor a little to see what I'm on about. It's too much work redoing all the pics and reformatting the post. I'll try to get my monitor and the iPad in greater agreement for future posts.

If there's a knack to using a wide angle lens, it's making sure you have something filling the foreground. Wide angles make things smaller and if you don't have something dominating the bottom of the frame then chances are the main point of interest will be something very small and insignificant in the middle to far distance.

There are exceptions to this general rule, of course, but failing to get in close to the subject and maximising the apparent expansion of space that occurs as a result is what makes some photographers think they can't use lenses wider than 28mm with any success. The wide angle "look" isn't enjoyed by everyone, however. Ralph Gibson decided early on that whatever style he was going to develop it wasn't going to be the Bill Brandt super wide effect.

Lingering Snow

I mentioned a few posts back that I've taken to going out with an OM1 and 24mm, 50mm and 70-150mm Zuikos in a neat wee Domke satchel-type bag. As a result, I've been using the 24mm more than I've done for a long time.

The Zuiko is that great combination of small, light and sharp so it's a great addition to my walkabout bag. The focal length used to be thought of as the start of the "super wide" range but it's really nothing special at all nowadays with some very wide zooms out there and the likes of 12mm and 15mm lenses having been made by Voigtlander for the Leica in the last few decades.

Broughty Ferry Beach

Still, I find it's just about perfect for the type of photograph I like to take. Anything wider and the distortion effect in the foreground becomes a bit overwhelming in my opinion. It ceases to concern the relationship between the foreground and the background and surrounding space and becomes just about the weird look alone.

Winding Path

My favourite of the shots in this post is the first one. It has what I like in a photograph which is a simplicity without too many distracting shapes, details and tones. There's really just the path, the sky and the grass. The image is a scan of the negative and hasn't had much done to it at all in Photoshop.

I like to use the image editing software to explore the possibilities so that I have some idea of what to do when it comes to the printing stage. I did another version of the photograph where I lightened the path to give the impression of light bouncing off the dampness. It's something that could be done in the darkroom either by dodging under the enlarger or by the use of a bleach on the print.

On one level, it was a more striking image than the one here but it detracted from the subdued bleakness of the scene. Also, the tones here complement each other well so that no single one dominates - they're quite harmonious. With the lightened path, it became all about, well, the lightened path! It upset the balance of the photograph and added a sparkle that was at odds with the sombre mood. Who'd have thought photography could be so complicated?

I asked for a second opinion from Cath having done up the two versions and presented them to her without comment. She preferred the one in this post as well although she couldn't really put her finger on the reason. The other thing that struck me was the influence of the street sign on the horizon near the left hand side of the frame. It may be small but it helps to balance the picture.

An Abrupt End

Lingering Snow

Lingering Snow was taken a couple of months ago when the cold snap we had around here at last started to lift. There's always a pocket of snow that remains in shadowy ditches and stubbornly refuses to move and this was one of those.

It's another pic that caught my eye because of the similarity in texture between the ground and the sky. I normally meter snowy scenes directly from the snow and then open up two stops to place it on zone seven. You have to watch in case the snow causes some under-exposure. The Lingering Snow negative has plenty of detail away from the snow but I chose to give it the moody treatment like this for the same reason I avoided lightening the path in the first photograph. This pic is all about the highlights - the snow and the sky - and "printing down" the rest of the frame is the best way to emphasise this.

Broughty Ferry Beach

Broughty Ferry Beach worked out better than I thought it would. I was shooting into really strong sunlight and was concerned that flare would spoil the shot. Then there was the exposure to work out. How to capture some detail in the sand shadows without blowing out the sky?

The Zuiko did a good job here, I reckon. Yes, there's some flare but rather than spoiling the shot I think it adds to the atmosphere. There were a few strollers out (this one was taken in the evening) so I waited until a couple got themselves into a nice spot where they were adding interest to the empty patch of water at the top left. The building almost right in the middle on the skyline is Broughty Castle.

Menzieshill

An Abrupt End

An Abrupt End is a quirky wee shot that was taken earlier in the same week as Lingering Snow. The building is a little pavilion next to some tennis courts. Someone, maybe a parks department worker, has trundled something across the snow and then apparently vanished into thin air. I like the switch from white tracks on black tarmac to black tracks on white snow. Without the 24mm in the bag I probably wouldn't have bothered to take this photograph - one of the reasons I'm no good as a one-lens photographer.

Menzieshill

A bit of urban grittiness now with Menzieshill. This is a well-used path across a park stretching from one busy road to another. I'd spotted the potential in this shot before and went back to photograph it in the snow because it just didn't do enough for me in the dry. Like Lingering Snow, it's been printed down to emphasise the highlights in the snow and sky.

Broughty Beach 2

Broughty Beach 2

Broughty Beach 2 should probably have been Broughty Beach as I took it five minutes before the into-the-light shot of the castle. Never mind. It shows how low the sun was in the sky at this time of day and is a reminder that I really should look out the lens hood I have for the 24mm. I'm not sure it would have made a huge difference in the later contra jour shot but it wouldn't have harmed it. I'm undecided about this photograph basically because it seems such a hackneyed subject. Probably every photographer who's ever been near a beach in the evening has a taken a similar photograph.

Being naturally shy and retiring, I've always had a bit of a problem photographing in public and there were quite a lot of people milling around this scene. I feel self-conscious - a bit of a plonker would be another way to put it - standing on the street with a camera in hand. However, I'm gradually getting to grips with it thanks to a mantra I've started chanting inwardly to myself. Full of Buddhist mysticism, it goes like this, "I don't give a shit". Works for me.

Road to the Coast

Road to the Coast

Finally, Road to the Coast, a pic that you'll possibly agree bears a striking resemblance composition-wise to some others in this post. What can I say? It's how I see the world through a wide angle lens. With lenses from 35mm to 135mm I tend to shoot with the camera in landscape format but with the wider lenses I seem to see a lot of vertical compositions as is the case with all except the first one in this post - and I've got a vertical version of it as well.

Road to the Coast was taken in North-East Fife on a chilly day when there was some ice on the puddles. Thankfully, after a cold winter and equally cold spring we're at last beginning to feel the weather taking a turn for the better. There's even some blossom on the orchard trees in the Carse. Time to get the Rollei SL66E out for some fun.