Notes and Images from a Small Island (Practice 11 Day 5)

I have been waiting a few weeks to get a sunny day with very little wind and it arrived this morning, albeit fleetingly, and I headed down to the loch.  The reflections of the blue sky overhead immediately change the character of the loch and as I had hoped, more of the water lilies had opened their petals to reveal the yellow stamens in the centre of the flower heads.  The sun was picking in the small heads in a vast mass of reeds and dark red/green leaves of the lilies.

I decide initially to take some double exposure shots, in camera, to try to capture the luminosity of the water, and a glimpse of what lies underneath.  I work with over and under exposing the layers, with the first being over-exposed to give a glassy effect to the water’s surface.  I notice that the water levels, managed by a sluice gate, are very low indeed.

I then decide to try different techniques and play with my camera.  I had some success when I was photographing trees when blurring the first layer and overlaying a sharply focussed image on top.  I begin by hand holding the camera but the 300mm lens seemed ungainly in my hands, so to ensure a sharp second shot, I take the first layer hand-held to get the camera movement and then place the camera back on the tripod for the second shot.  However, because of the proliferation and vigorous growth of the reeds at this time of year, I worry that the lilies will fade into the background rather than standing out as I hope.  I need to have another try at this technique but here is one of the efforts from this morning.

Postscript:  After one day of sunny weather the heavens open and Skye returns to miserable and wet weather. . .