To recap on my last post I've started to explore landscape photography and to help me find out more I went on a landscape workshop in the New Forest with professional photographer Mark Bauer. The location of the the workshop was a place called Bolderwood, click the link for more info: http://www.thenewforest.co.uk/discover/bolderwood.aspx
The New Forest isn't an area I know particularly well so it was great to explore somewhere new.
When you think of landscape photography what first springs to mind? Wide open spaces? Huge vistas? Maybe even mountains or far off horizons? It may surprise you to know (as it did me) that we started by going to the most wooded walk in the place! Not at all what I imagined! This proved to be a fascinating insight into a totally new way of thinking about taking photographs. Mark really opened me up to completely new possibilities that I had never even thought of! The best example is when we were walking through the woods Mark suggested having a go at getting an image of an old tree stump that was next to the path, which to be honest I would have probably overlooked. He got me to use wide-angle lens really close to the stump and suddenly the whole image came to life. See image below to see the result!
The main technique I was introduced to was the use of filters and just how much difference it can bring to an image. Mark started me off with a polarizer and showed me how I could bring out the vivid green in the spring leaves. Then moving on to a graduated filter, which are particularly useful for balancing the exposure. This was especially effective when we moved to an open area later on and captured some dramatic sky's.
In all, the day was a great experience and has made me keen to keep taking more landscape photos! If you have an area of photography you want explore further a workshop is a great way to learn more! If your interested in doing a workshop on landscape photography here's a link to Mark's website: http://www.markbauerphotography.com/workshops
(Also I got a very nice fish and chips in Lyndhurst, which I recommend! Bonus!)