I met another photographer one summer evening at Westleton Heath.
We parked at the usual lay-by but walked over the road rather than through the gate and up to the usual part of the heath we visit.
We wandered up and to the right of the heath looking for interesting trees and compositions.
It was proving quite challenging but we persevered.
I grabbed this shot which looked promising for a sunstar.
We walked on and were conscious of the sun dropping and we eventually found a tree we both liked with some different colours surrounding it.
I decided to try some ICM unsure if it would get me anywhere, and it didn’t.
I was a little stuck what to do in the last 20-30 minutes of sunset light.
We had a recent club presentation and subsequent monthly magazine article on a creative technique called Pep Ventosa.
This technique involved taking multiple images of the same subject and stacking them in post production, and I thought I would try it.
It’s a kind of ICM but layering images and adjusting the transparency between the layers such that an image takes on a more creative look.
I walked round this tree and took about seven or eight images. Usually a photographer will take many more but there’s no rules as such.
The end result is shown below which I’m very pleased with and, aside from the sunstar shot, possibly my best image of the evening.
This is a technique I will definitely be doing more of in future, and it definitely fits with the aim of achieving something different.
We ended the shoot here, wandered back to our cars and after a debrief headed home.
A subsequent discussion with another photographer has led us to the understanding that there are more photographically appealing trees to the left as you approach from the road so it’s where we will head in future.
This had been a very enjoyable evening and one where we had to work hard to capture something decent.
Onwards and upwards…