Re-photographing a well-known image (29)

Requirement
2 images

Purpose
To use the images of photographers who you admire to improve your own work

Technical learning

• To develop as a photographer get into the habit of analysing outstanding images -  viewpoint, lens choice, light conditions and other aspects of composition
• Visit the location, if possible, with a copy of the image to verify how the photographer made his or her choices in composition 

Exercise instructions

• Pick an existing published image that you would like to study
• Confirm what attracted you to it
• Work out lens length, light conditions, time of day and other ingredients of composition
• Visit the site
• Try to re-produce the version of your chosen image as faithfully as possible
• Then take a different view of the scene, however seems appropriate 
• What did you learn?

Images and review

I shot these images 6 months before writing up this blog post from my notes. 

Bluebells, Micheldever Woods

The published image

'As the sun rose, it was creating long
shadows with all of the trunks of the beech trees, but it was when
it hit the leaves of the branch that the scene came to life'
Simon Byrne,
published as an entry into the Landscape
Photographer of The Year Collection 5 (2011)

My version

1 hour or so after sunrise on 13 May (2012) 

after a 50 minute drive along M3 (which lies not far behind these trees). 

Similarities: 

• Location
• Subject matter
• Sunrise
• Bluebells in bloom (a 2 week wonder in May) 
• Long shadows of the birch trees
• Frame: 16 x 9

Differences: 

• Angle of sun (time of day): the sun in mine has a higher elevation so the light is more intense and has a different colour temperature than Simon Byrne's original. See the impact on the colour of the bluebell carpet on the forest floor: blue vs mauve. Also, in my image, the light has more of a presence, even if out of shot.
• Composition: mine lacks the prominent backlit branch and leaves in the centre of the image
• Viewpoint: mine has a standing height viewpoint, his knee high; the sun in mine is at a 30 degree angle to the left of the camera, whereas in his it is at a 30 to 45 degree angle to the right (lack of attention to detail on my part)