Blue Skies over the Mendip Hills

[taffy]

Taken today near Priddy in the Mendip Hills in Somerset (before the rain came!).

Comments welcome as usual.

Thanks

Taffy

[Iguanasan]

It's a beautiful image of the countryside but I'm not sure if it's the lens or the fact that you were in a natural depression but the curved horizon seems a bit disconcerting to me. It feels like lens distortion. That's not necessarily a bad thing, I'm just not a super fan of this image like I am most of your others although I am enjoying the colour!

[Mad Aussie]

I think that's natural Iggy ... lens distortion would be more likely the other way I think ... convex, not concave like this.

My main issues with this one are the graduated filter (pretty sure that's what I see) has unnaturally darkened the sky and trees.

The other thing is simply the scene itself. The foreground interest just isn't interesting at all, in fact for me, it achieves the opposite effect. It's a foreground un-interest!
I'd have cropped or framed this in so we couldn't see the dirt but only the water and reflection at the bottom, thereby removing the dirt from the scene.

[kevin99989]

hmmm - about the foreground - there is potential there. I really like the sense of perspective in this landscape (the rocks in the foreground giving a sense to depth to the image). I agree with Aussie that if the dirt was removed from the foreground, that would help things a lot. Also, fewer rocks would make the foreground appear less cluttered and busy.

But I feel your composition has a lot of potential. Have you tried using a polarizer filter for this kind of shot? sometimes a polarizer can make the dirt below the water surface less visible. Also, what is the direction of the sunlight?

I do like a darkened sky if it brings out the contrast and clarity of the clouds.

[taffy]

Thanks for the comments.

My aim was to use all the curves as part of the composition.

I did use a grad plus a polariser although I was not at the right angle to the sun to get the best effect out of it.

Live and learn!

Cheers

Taffy