March: month in review
Each month I aim to pick an image that, in my mind at least, captures the flavour of that month. It might not be the best image from the month, or the most spectacular of subjects; it just needs to illustrate something about the month.
Corsliehill Road, Houston. A fairly simply scene which I like because of the warmth of the light…
Fujifilm X-Pro2 | 50mm f/5.6 1/250s ISO400
What’s this month’s image? It’s a local scene taken on one of our lockdown walks around the area. What I like about this image is that there are hints of spring around the corner and some warmth in the light…
Did you do anything to it? It didn’t need very much - I’ve mucked about with the contrast a little and done some dodging and burning to tone down the highlights and lift the shadows. The colours are pretty much how they came out of the camera.
What’s it doing here? Since we’re still confined to our local area, with a restrictive ‘stay at home’ order still in place, variety has been a pretty rare commodity. This is probably a couple of miles kilometres from the house and, over the summer, was on a longer walking route that we did a few times. Given the weather was absolutely dire over the last few months, we’ve not been out this direction for a while. However, we had a spell of really quite good weather around the middle of the month and I revisited this route as part of a much longer walk.
The picture, I think, picks up on a couple of changes. While the trees are still bare, the change in light and the lushness of the greens and yellows in the grass and the moss hints that spring, if not yet fully at home, has arrived and is starting to settle in. The newly cut logs also speak to preparations being made for the season ahead - the dead wood being cleared ahead of a seasonal renewal.
Overall, it is, I think, a more optimistic image after a series of more melancholic offerings and, hopefully, a precursor to a more positive spring and summer.
Have you been up to much else? The whole national lockdown thing tends to be a bit of social dampener, but despite that there have been a couple of positive developments. I received a syringe full of AstraZeneca’s finest in the middle of the month which, apart from feeling slightly ropey for a couple of days afterwards, seems like a step back in the direction of normality.
I’ve also massively simplified my kit after a couple of months of unnecessary angst: I’m now no longer a Canon shooter and have sold all of my Canon gear (the majority of my kit). There’s probably a post at some point on the reasons for change and time will tell whether it’s the right thing to do, but for the moment the Fujifilm gear seems to do everything I need in a simpler, smaller and lighter package. Exciting times…
Finally, we had cause to be in Glasgow; images below…
Any recommendations? Happy to oblige:
Reading: Paul Hobson’s Wildlife Photography is a real labour of love, hugely authoritative on finding and photographing the UK’s wildlife and a real insight in the the dedication / obsession of the wildlife photography. I’m not sure I’m that dedicated…
Listening: Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club has been playing a fair amount over the last few weeks. A number of critics have made the point that it doesn’t break any new ground; I like to think of it as a sort of pastel version of Born to Die, and on that level it works very well.
Viewing: Another set of photography videos… I invested in the F4 Roadtrip set of videos and wasn’t disappointed. While you can often see the humour in the main episodes coming, it’s generally well done and contains some useful nuggets of information. I will confess I found the processing videos more helpful and took a good deal from the very different approach that each of the four photographer’s took. Not cheap, but it’s not as if I’m spending money on going out…
Lastly, any final words? Sadly, no.
