The Itchen

[readingr]

Took a walk this friday and came across this location and took lots of photo's from various angles but could not get one that I was pleased with.

This is the best of the bunch - all comments will be gratefully received.

Roger R.

[Ultra Magnus]

imo, hard to tell what the definite subject is... The house is well lit and my attention is drawn to it, but it's so obscured by the trees. The thing in the water is interesting, but is dark and hard to see any details...


BM

[mtbbrian]

I have been reading "The Compleat Angler"and have always wonder what the Itchen looks like.
Thanks for sharing your photograph Roger.
Brian

[Overbeyond]

Overall a nice scene Roger and looks like a nice place to be out and about in.
I like the little boxy thing in the immediate foreground but I feel the bush in the middle is very unattractive and is possibly hiding some more of the weir.
I'm sorry for Wales on Sat but I am a very proud Irishman at the moment.

[shootme]

Nice shot Roger. I'm wondering what's to the left of the scene. I like what you have in the frame but would have seen if I could compose the shot with the wooden frame in the lower right corner or there abouts showing more whats on the left of the scene. A bit more light in the foreground would be good too. S

[readingr]

Thanks all,

BM, that was the problem, could not get a good pic of the weir

Brian, its a shallow river full of trout. In fact it seems hard to look into the water and not see one, or two, or three.

Tom, As long as it wasn't England then I don't mind :lol:

Shootme, I'll roll the comments in to answer Tom's as well. From all the shots I took I wasn't happy and I tried to crop with the wooden frame in the left bottom but lost too much to make it work, in m opinion, if you want to try a crop and post it feel free to have a go.

I was going to spend a lot more time PP'ing but didn't think it was worth it.

Just to give you a picture of the location I am in; standing in mud with the river about a foot in front of me and a drop of about two foot to the bed of the river. I am in a thickly wooded area with a little break to get this view. If the trees weren't there I could have moved left to get a nice bridge in as well but the trees are in the way. Taken using a 50mm, anything wider would have been messy trees encroaching left and right of me.

The river is in the shade of all the trees so no room really to move. One more thing, to get to this spot I had to remove the rucksack and leave it about 20 metres to my left to get through the trees. Got a scratch on the top of my head from a thorny tree

What a lovely way to spend a day, I will be doing this walk again when the leaves are out.

Roger R.

[shootme]

Roger sounds like an amazing place and I know easy in the comfort of our office chair to say should have done this or that when your already in the most awkward position to have taken the shot as it is. As it stands the shot is very inviting. I look forward to see more the next time you are there. S

[readingr]

Roger sounds like an amazing place and I know easy in the comfort of our office chair to say should have done this or that when your already in the most awkward position to have taken the shot as it is. As it stands the shot is very inviting. I look forward to see more the next time you are there. S

I know what you mean I always feel guilty when suggesting someone move.

Just found this on a card I hadn't downloaded - I new I was missing some photo's.

This gives you a better idea of the surroundings - this is about 10m to the left of the original shot. The bridge is the same in the original and the weir is a bit better but still not happy with it.

Roger R.

[GB1]

I see what you see Roger - a nice possibility - and also your dilemma. There's just so much stuff laying around that isn't quite photographic, that big bunch of dead-ish branches or whatever in the water there being the largest. Looks like a beaver's dream.

There's also the issue of pretty extreme contrast between the foreground and back. A graduated ND filter is a must in a situation like this. PS has an effect that you can apply in PP though - use a rectangle that grads from white to black over top the image, but set its transparency to something like 97%, so to even out the exposure by making the top darker .........

G

[Frog]

And some people think photography is easy...ha.
After all that trouble getting through the brush is there a reason you can't go into the water with some hip boots?

[readingr]

Frog,
I was travelling light that day so no waders/hip boots I think a chainsaw would be more useful:lol: With what I was wearing it was a bit cold to walk 3 miles back to the car.

GB
Thanks for the PP tip for simulating ND Grad's. I didn't have them with me at the time. I didn't spend much time on this because I wasn't sure of the composition. All I did to it was a bit of Levels, a small saturation adjustment, and a slight increase in contrast.

Thanks for commenting its helped me a lot with this one.
Roger R.