I travel to Flamborough Head to find a sea shell for my new project. It’s more nature than landscape photography, where I bring the outdoors, indoors. I also test out the new lower noise DJI Mavic PRO props.
The Perfect Plan
I had an epic plan. It was going to be beautiful. Everything was set for the early start the next day. The weather was looking great, the mountains were snowcapped, the bag was packed, the coffee was prepped and I went to bed very excited. Then guess what, yep you got it, my alarm did not go off. Or it did, and I did not hear it or turned it off subconsciously. Either way I was gutted. This kind of thing never happens to me. There was just no way I could salvage it, I couldn’t get to the Lake District in time. I was so certain Plan A was going to work that I did not have a plan B. In the end you’ve got to believe these things are meant to be.
A photography project backup
For times like this it’s always good to have a few project ideas in mind. I wracked my brains and remembered an idea I had thought of recently whilst creating a collage on my wall from all the vlogs I have filmed this year. When I was putting them up I realised that they all fitted into one of three categories - woodland (or trees), beaches or seascapes and finally mountains. I thought it would be fitting to create a piece of work that celebrated these three categories that I had subconsciously gravitated towards over the year.
Struggling for Inspiration
Over the last few weeks I have been struggling for inspiration with my landscape photography. It often happens to me at this time of year when the dark nights set in and we go through the Autumn to Winter transition. With that in mind I decided the project would be about bringing the outdoors, indoors. I wanted to photograph a single object that represented each landscape category and then combine them into an overall piece of work. Three items for three categories. It seemed pretty obvious to use a leaf to represent woodland. Mountains were a bit more difficult to represent. The rock, the earth and the dirt all speak to me when I am on the mountain but do not necessarily make a good picture. One particularly appealing feature of the mountain trails are the cairns that mark the path. Whilst piled up by man, the rock is still of the mountain. I therefore decided to represent this on a smaller scale using small stones. That left me with the sea. Nothing represents the sea and the beach like a shell. Except I didn’t have a shell. So here I am.
DJI Mavic Pro Low Noise Propellers
Heading out has also given me the opportunity to the new low noise props for the DJI Mavic Pro. At £20 for two pairs they are not cheap. The propellers made only a very minor difference. When drone is hovering there is very little noticeable difference. When the drone is going a full tilt there is a marginally reduced volume. Worth a £20 upgrade? Probably not.
Bringing the outdoors, indoors
Shell in hand it was time to head back to the studio to create the images. I knew black and White was the way to go for each image using a mixture of high key and low key lighting. The methods I used to capture the images are not the theme of this video but leave a comment down below if you’d like to see a tutorial. My vision for the final image was to have them side by side in a panorama. That makes it harder to print so I settled for small prints in a vertical frame. The final work took much more effort than capturing a single landscape photograph. I loved the process though and am proud of what I have created. Now, when I look at it, i am reminded of the beauty that is out there providing inspiration for the next shoot.
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