Capture: Field
- Peter Worrall
- Feb 13, 2024
- 5 min read
Field is an image taken back in March 2023, following on from a successful photography trip to Kew Gardens with two other photography enthusiasts. Our goal was 'man-made structures in nature'. This was very much outside my comfort zone and something I perhaps wrangled a little with on our day at Kew, the juxtaposition of my usual landscape style of shooting conflicting with the need to shoot the man-made structures of Kew Gardens, impressive though they were. The day was still successful and I have a handful of pictures which were still solid images I was happy with.
On returning from London I remained determined to shoot a better image somewhere which really captured the sentiment of man-made structures in nature. So much so that I'm committing this to be the next Project on my website. Field is just the first of many. A really challenging topic, finding meaningful ways to incorporate structures which are obviously man-made into landscapes; the obvious reach for this is to choose structures which are objectively beautiful of pleasing to look at. A beautifully carved wooden bench in the golden hour on a late spring day would be ideal. Yet I find that harsh structures in nature can be every bit as intriguing and compelling as their beautiful counterparts, and the chase to find such structures is even more satisfying and frustrating at the same time.
My village sits directly on the Midland Mainline Railway, something I find very pleasing. It might sound odd but I enjoy hearing the sound of trains passing through the village on their way to or coming up from London. The line cuts through the centre of the historic parts of the village and emerges on my side of the village amongst the newer housing estates. Between the two newer estates is a bridge which runs parallel to another bridge, a quarter mile to the east of the one nearest my house. Going along the road and over the nearest bridge is a regular walking and running route for me, and lends wonderful views westward over the Leicestershire countryside. Whilst running, I always thought this made for a fantastic composition, with the rail line running alongside the field and heading under the next bridge, just a quarter mile away. During the summer harvest of 2022 this field was scattered with hay bails and was a very obvious composition, yet the weather was never quite right and I never managed to get out and shoot it. I always felt slightly let down by the masts which run alongside the rail line, and spoil the view of the bridge.
On a very cold day in March 2023 I happened to working from home, when I realised that the weather conditions were incredibly fine. Sparse cirrus clouds gave way to beautiful sunshine and an air quality which would rival even the clearest of December days. During my lunch break I wasted no time in packing up my camera equipment and making my way out to the rail line.
Once I was in place, the composition was immediately obvious. Rather than lamenting the position of the masts near the rail line, why not make them a feature of the image. The position of them with the afternoon light shining on them through the clouds was perfect; they'd never looked better! I tried a couple of different compositions, experimenting with how high over the flowers I wanted to be. The example below is one such uncertain composition - too high and there would be no foreground to speak of, and the surface of the field wasn't especially interesting. Too low and the flowers remove all depth from the composition, forcing the viewer to lose touch with how far away the bridge and masts are.
I only took the Tamron 35mm prime lens with me since I was in such a rush to leave the house, and I knew that anything wider would bring too much into the frame. Even the image above has too many distractions, so I knew that I was fine with the composition when cropping with the D850. What I really wanted to do is ensure that both masts were very clear and were featured in the frame, but still left a gap to guide the viewer's eye along the rail line and through the bridge.
I knew that the colours of the foreground would stand out beautifully, therefore I elected to bring out the sky using a graduated filter to balance exposure due to the bright sunlight. The image above doesn't have any filters, and it's clear here that the sky dominates the metering, with the foreground and hedgerow underexposed.
Having used filters on the main image, the edit was very straightforward and required only a little care in choosing the final framing when cropping. I knew I had to leave sufficient space to the left of the frame to retain the feeling of looking across a landscape, yet not include so much that the masts and bridge stop being the subjects. The final colours are one of my favourite things about this image, as it's so clear that it's spring and the masts and bridge really do stand out exactly as I wanted them to.
The other feature of this image that I'm very proud of is that it's no longer reproducible. Going back to this location and shooting the same image again isn't possible any more due to the very necessary yet unfortunate electrification of the Midlands Mainline Railway. This portion of the railway (much like the rest of it I expect) is now covered with gantries which support electrical cables which now obscure the view across to the next bridge from this viewpoint. Additionally, what appears to be a distribution centre has been built on the north side of the rail line.
The image above shows what this viewpoint looks like now, from slightly further up the road. This was taken on the Fujifilm using the Kodak Portra 400 film simulation (something I'm very much enjoying) on a recent walk. I do actually like this image with its colour rendering and moody skies, but it's not quite a keeper from a compositional point of view.
With my house being one of the developments in this area in recent years, I cannot criticise the development of the countryside, nor can I lament the loss of viewpoints none of us own. The electrification of the railway is a necessary part of their developments which I respect. I just miss being able to look down the rail line and see trains approaching from the next bridge. The image below is a classic example of this exact viewpoint, but at 500mm.
As I say, I have nothing against the new rail developments, but I just think it looked better before. But there much always be sacrifice and compromise when moving forwards, and the slightly worse view of the modifications are simply an example of that.
From the bridge itself the railway simply looks a little more industrial than before:
These changes to the views around the village haven't made anything any worse, and in some ways make the images I've taken over the past couple of years more special, knowing that I'll never be able to recreate them. They're now a part of history, much like we all will be one day. Field has been a somewhat deeper introspection into what it means to appreciate man-made structures in nature. What makes something beautiful and what might be classed as simply too industrial? Whether you as a viewer like or despise these artefacts, exploring Field has only left me hungry to shoot more man-made structures in nature.
Comments