Severe Clear at Cragside
If I had to pick one time of year to have forever whilst out taking photographs, one season, it would be winter. If I could choose one season to never shoot in, it would be summer.
Some people will wait all year, counting down. Striking crosses through calendar days until the sun shines and it is warm outside. But not me.
You see for me, I have children. Two. And when I’m out shooting landscapes on a weekend they are generally in tow with me.
Ever since I discovered my passion for photography I had always preferred shooting in the colder months, and I never really knew why until I traded my entry level Canon in for my Fuji. Now, whilst I love my Fuji, it has become my hiking camera. It has been retired from client work but it is still a workhorse. But it wasn’t the camera itself that made me realise why this was an issue, it was the push for self improvement that came with a system I actually started to gel with, a system I enjoyed using (honestly, I hated using the Canon I had, the only thing I miss about it is app). And as I started to delve into the world of photography, I discovered creators that were focused on this system.
I had never heard terms like ‘Severe clear’ until I discovered Fuji focused channels on Youtube, such as Andrew and Denae. This term was used to describe extreme summer conditions, hot days with nothing but blue skies. Whilst I’ve broadened my horizons now to many other new and exciting creators, the first time I heard this phrase as someone still relatively new to photography it was mind blowing.
You see, because of being located 55 degrees north, in the summer months if I am out on a photography adventure, the children are generally in tow. In these months sunset may not be until after 10. Or in other words, a long time after bedtime. This means I am normally back at home, tucking the little ones into bed long before the light softens, leaving my time with camera in hand only being during the more harsh light of the day. (Conversely, I also have images taken at 1pm in winter that look like they were taken in golden hour because of the seasonal variation in the light.)
Whilst harsh midday sun can have its place (fashion editorials with hard light, and street photography where shadows are pushed to black spring to mind) for landscape or scenic photography this is often not the most flattering light. A lot of creators in the photography space who also do educational content will advise to go out at sunrise, or sunset. But what it you can’t get out during times when the light is normally better? I know I couldn’t justify getting my kids up at 3am to get on location for 4.30am to catch a sunrise, or keep them up until midnight to catch a sunset and blue hour after 10pm.
One of the things I do to combat this, is to focus on the smaller details. I did allude to this in a previous blog, but with the UK hitting record breaking temperatures recently, I’ve been putting it into practice. Whilst there are other techniques to employ, this is one that I quite enjoy. To those who have followed my landscape instagram page since the beginning as well, it must appear almost cyclical in terms of this type content featuring more prominently during the summer months.
A bee and a thistle, in the grounds of Cragside.
It must seem to the casual observer that during the summer months I become obsessed with bees and flowers. With this image, which was taken on my 35mm, the bee took off when I wasn’t expecting it, which leave the image a little softer than I’d hope for, but still within what I would deem acceptable for using online/socials. I tend to run at ISO 800, with manually selected aperture and leave the shutter speed dial set to auto. In this light 800 ISO is very much on the high side, but as a result you can see the detail to the wings of the bee even though they were beating at this point, including a slight bend to them. I shot to try and cut off any sky from the frame. I have used a lot of empty space to draw focus to the flower and bee. The scene is backlit which helps define the hair (fur?) on the bee, although I tend to run negative texture/clarity/dehaze on all of my images which does take away from this a little. I have left the edit with minor Lightroom tweaks, but it could probably be pushed a lot further with a little photoshop cleanup of the thistle and the grass in the bottom left.
Lily in the formal gardens at Cragside.
Lily in the formal gardens at Cragside.
It is probable that I have been to Cragside over a hundred times. There are certain walks we do there very frequently, such as from the screw to the house along the stream that flows under the Iron Bridge, and some we do a little more seasonally, such as the Log Flume which is an epic walk in autumn for photographing fungi and mushrooms. I think our last trip however, was the first time we’d ventured up to the formal garden.
The crispness to the shadow of the flower in both images above show how hard the light was. It is a real sun trap in that part of the grounds. As soon as I saw the lily pond I knew I wanted to do a top down shot of one of the flowers. It may feel like a cliche image, but sometimes things are cliche for a reason.
I studied the pond for about 5 minutes to choose the perfect candidate. There was a flower I preferred, but the direction of the sun was wrong and cast my shadow into the image. For a second choice I don’t think this one turned out too badly.
Lily pond in the formal garden at Cragside.
The concept of getting closer to capture the smaller details is somewhat subjective. For instance the picture appears to be much wider than my previous example of the bees and flowers, but it is probably tighter than I would take this image in better light. I aimed to have it wide enough to give context to the space, showing the pond to the bottom of the frame, but be tight/close enough to show the details in the shadows being cast upon the door. These shadows would probably make an interesting shape if stood under them for a portrait and would only really be possible in harder light.
The Clocktower, Cragside.
I have wanted to try a photograph the clocktower for a while. I don’t think this was the weather to give a try for the first time, but that’s just an excuse to go back in the winter. I did capture it from several angles inside the formal gardens, but this image taken from outside was probably my favourite. The foliage from this angle casts shadow and darkness across much of the frame, with the light still hitting the Clocktower itself, allowing it to pop from the centre of the frame. I wish that branch didn’t cover the clock face to the right, but if I moved left the tree on the left cut into the other face. I’ll include another image from inside the gardens at the bottom of the page for comparison to how it looked from inside. I think the light on the foliage looked more harsh when not being aided by shade.
If you would like to see more of my landscape work, moving forward most of the images will be here in blog format, but I will notify of new entries on my Instagram page for landscapes - @photog.righ
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A small selection of other images from this trip are in the gallery below.
