Beaulieu 2hr Challenge
Canopy
Originally uploaded by Liam O’Neill.
After a delay of a week due to bad weather, the club had it’s second “2hr Challenge” on the 11th of March, and yes, I’m a little late in writing about it. Given the rather large and open nature of the location, we were basically given the rest of the day, rather than limiting it to 2 hours. This would also avoid any problems with the timing of the sunset. Unlike in Winchester, where we crossed paths with each other quite a bit, out in the New Forest, I hardly saw anyone else. This was a little disappointing, I rather liked meeting the other competitors and seeing what they were up to.
We did well not having the event the week before, when bad weather meant there wasn’t very much to photograph (I know, I went down anyway!) On the day the weather was lovely, which made the whole thing more enjoyable, and also made for better pictures. One of the tricks with this challenge was always going to be knowing where to go at the right time. Beaulieu itself, my first stop, didn’t present any real pictures for me, lovely though it is. I made myself take some of a shop, more to get into a photography mode than anything else. After that, and while listening to England do Ireland a huge favour in the rugby against France on the radio in the car, I toured the area looking for, well, anything.
Graffiti and Tree
Originally uploaded by Liam O’Neill.
This was surprisingly hard. You’d imagine there would be a never-ending supply of great images, but I wasn’t alone in struggling to find them. Perhaps given such a large area it’s hard to see the smaller things that could really work, I don’t know. What I do know is I don’t “see” anything in the ponies. I know they are a huge part of “The New Forest” and maybe it’s because I like driving too much, but I just don’t see any pictures in them.
Branch in the Water
Originally uploaded by Liam O’Neill.
I perhaps left it too late to get to the patch of forest beyond Hatchet Pond. by the back of the old airfield. The trees were blocking any direct sunlight by the time I arrived. I knew the wall was there, and when I saw the tree and the graffiti I knew there was a picture there. I set up the tripod (I love this new tripod) and took the picture. Looking back at it later, I’m not happy with it. The composition is a little off, the top of the wall is the middle of the picture, but a cropping of the bottom fixes that. I think the main problem is just the flat light. The picture doesn’t pop. I tried playing with all sorts of things in PP, but it can’t change what isn’t there. Right place, wrong time. I did find some nice trees for the “Canopy” shot above though.
Driving back to Hatchet Pond as the sun was setting, I noticed how it looked great over the water. By the time I’d turned the car around, parked in the car-park, got my stuff out and walked down, it had lost a little, but was still nice. I didn’t know the branch was there until I walked past it, but as soon as I saw it I saw the picture. My old tripod would have made this a right pain, it never did like portrait shots. The new ball-head, a Manfrotto 488, is a joy to use in comparison and made taking this shot so much easier.
It’s a lovely scene. Maybe some cropping could work, but it takes something away too, so I haven’t cropped it. Seems the rest of them liked it too, as it collected the most votes. 2 challenges, 2 “wins”.