A Sense of Place: Emsworthy explorations continued.....
A few weeks later, I returned to Emsworthy, this time with a friend who was visiting Devon for a few days. Born and raised on a farm on the moor, she has a deep-rooted connection to Dartmoor, gathering up its moments to sustain her until the next time she can return. We wandered along the paths and beside the old stone walls, listening to the cuckoos calling across the open moor. I was so pleased that there were still some bluebells for my friend to enjoy, although they were fading into purple. Now there was also the white blossom on the knarled old hawthorn trees:
Having company made my photography take on a different dimension. The US photographer Jamie Konarski Davidson writes in detail about capturing the sense of place in his blog, reminding me to look for icons, elements and details in a scene, while also adopting the approach of a 'local-tourist'. I concentrated on looking for different 'frames' within the scenes that I had visted earlier in the month:
The sense of place developing on each visit, showing the complexity:
I tried playing around with the Cam FV5 app on my phone. I love the impressionist effects that emerge:
In post production I played with different crop sizes for these landscapes and the 18:8 ratio hit a sweet spot. In their recent excellent book on street photography, Sean Tucker and Joshua K. Jackson explain that the ratio of the frame communicates different messages, and that aspect ratios are a key part of composition. They ask 'What does the scene require? Which ratio will best frame your story?'
The photo of the view through the stone portal prompted me to go back to Emsworthy again, this time with a mirror. I again had that 'sense of place' in my mind, looking to get an accurate view of the place, but with a range of different viewpoints and contrasts. Keeping Sean and Joshua's ideas in mind, I had also listened to a talk on compostion by the fine art photographer Martin Osner. He states that each format elicits a different response: horizontal is more peaceful, vertical is more powerful and abrupt. Using a mirror gave me the chance to play around with 'frames within a frame':
I am so fortunate to have this place within a short drive. I can revisit throughout the year, to enjoy the changing of the seasons, and deepen my understanding of the sense of the place.
Composition in Photography: The part nobody teaches by Martin Osner
The Art of Street Photography (2026) by Joshua K. Jackson and Sean Tucker
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