Stirling Ranges Western Australia
While we do not always get the conditions we like when shooting landscapes adaptation is a key ingredient for me, something that has taken myself a lot of shooting in a lot of different locations and weather situations to begin to understand. I think I am beginning to see what is before me and not what I want to see and achieve.
Here is a situation where I had seen many images of farms and mountains and thought one day I want one of those. All with great sunsets, full fields of crops, clear creeks running and the occasional tree for foreground interest etc. What did I get this time around, pretty much a cloudless evening and very dry cracked earth with a backdrop of mountains ( a little hazy ) and a tree line. But at second glance when I looked a little harder I saw a tree line turning orange the sky turning dark blue and dry cut fields turning orange. So I slapped on the 70-200mm set up at f/11 and 140mm and went nuts shooting as much of this golden glow of the cut fields and tree line as I could in the very short space of time that the light lasted.
This particular image is a 13 image stitch at 140mm … Detail is amazing at full size which came in at around 93inches at 250dpi …. An Australian Farm
Beautiful crisp shot Neal…the scene remoinds me of my favourite shot from when I was at the Stirling Ranges in 1997.
Tony Middleton said this on May 21, 2009 at 10:29 am |
Nice shot neal , love the golden colors of the crop , deffinatly worth reshooting when there are some nice fresh crops there and stormy clouds
kirkhille said this on May 21, 2009 at 10:31 am |
Mate I love it., great shot nice and clean and with minimal post work.
I have to disagree with Kirk . Why go back and shot it with storm clouds?
Its a great shot as is because that is what was there at the time and as you said you saw what was before you and not what you maybe wanted to see.
Great stuff and well shot.
mervfrench said this on May 21, 2009 at 11:12 am |
Thanks Tony, 1997 dude your going to have to come back and shoot it again with us.
Thanks Kirk – I was really surprised at the depth of colour on these images when I was browsing them today as I remember when we shot this farm I saw how nice the light was but was unsure I was able to capture it well enough.
Thanks Merv – Yeah I really really like this shot, just simple as you said. Although I do wish I walked another 100 or so yards into the paddock so the trees became more defined, but thats just being picky on my part.
spoolphotography said this on May 21, 2009 at 11:24 am |
Oh yeah I definitely want to make another trip through WA ! maybe next year now…
Tony Middleton said this on May 24, 2009 at 11:35 am |
I think you have managed a very nice shot here mate!
I did I think at biggest a 9 images stitch with the 5d mkII and the detail is phenominal!
Dylan Fox said this on May 21, 2009 at 3:14 pm |
Man oh man, I love the gold and detail in that grass, absolutely amazing.
jamiepatersonphotography said this on May 22, 2009 at 12:58 am |
got some lovely light there Neal.
awesome shot!
they take on a different feel with clouds around the peaks.
so the same shot with clouds can still be totally different.
i love the Stirling’s at any time though
Stephen Williams said this on May 22, 2009 at 4:40 am |
Thanks Dylan
Thanks Mr Paterson
Thanks Stephen – Cant wait to get back down there to shoot so many other locations I saw but never had the time to shoot.
spoolphotography said this on May 23, 2009 at 8:11 am |
classic clean spool image, well done.
christianfletcher said this on May 24, 2009 at 5:13 am |
Thanks CF – Classic thats a word not normal heard about my images, thanks.
spoolphotography said this on May 24, 2009 at 8:18 am |
sweet shot Neal, nice light coming across the mountains there.
William Ophuis said this on May 26, 2009 at 3:47 am |
Great work Neal, I like this very much indeed. I agree on adaptation, everyone is complaining about bad light, no clouds etc. but you have to adapt, see and take what’s there, can’t always have perfect light. Should be able to shoot a great shot regardless.
If you don’t have perfect light, you can have great simplicity, colours, composition etc. I love how when I look at this from a bit of a distance, I see a lovely simplified shot, 3 elements, sky, ranges and that brilliant golden crops. All colours go together, an important part of this shot. Trees don’t even need to be there for me. It is almost Kata Tjuta in a field of gold. My kinda stuff Neal, love it, wide open simplified grandscapes.
Flemming Bo Jensen said this on May 28, 2009 at 8:25 am |
Thanks William
Thanks Flem – When I processed this image I had you in the back of my mind as I thought this may appeal to you. Cheers
spoolphotography said this on May 28, 2009 at 8:28 am |
this is really beautiful, I love this kind of grass
katie said this on June 1, 2009 at 1:20 am |
Thanks Kate glad you like it and for stopping by to comment.
spoolphotography said this on June 1, 2009 at 3:34 am |
Hey Neal,
Just dropped in for a look around and I really like this one. I like the mountains, they look like death valley.
Just a suggestion, look at a crop at about the 2009 somewhere, see if you like that version.
Cheers Mate
James said this on June 11, 2009 at 7:22 am |
Thanks James, I have a cropped down version for my open edition release that was cropped pretty much where you have suggested. Just now have to wait till that section of the website is built
spoolphotography said this on June 11, 2009 at 7:52 am |