Last day of my adventure in Norfolk, and down came the rain. From drip to drizzle to drenching and repeat! We headed to Sandringham to photograph the wonderful woodlands. Taking shelter under the trees, I found myself rushing to capture the lush spring green foliage against the dark trunks before I (or more importantly, my camera!) got too wet.
I challenged myself to only do #ICM and to only use manual. I looked for contrasts between light and dark, hard and soft, and different colours. The drizzle muted the tonal range, but a little brightening in the cloud cover and out popped a vibrant green.
But still the rain fell. Large drops from the overhanging branches and littler ones from the leaves. Hard to get into the flow and lose myself in the process. So the end results were very hit and miss. I was aiming for strong lines in a softly blurred foliage. But the most successful were those that were more abstract and diffuse. Reflecting my ambivalent mood maybe! Aware that this was my last chance on this trip to benefit from #charlottebellamy's expertise.
After such a wet wander in the woods, and the afternoon drying out our gear, we were so fortunate that late in the day the skies cleared. We took the chance, left our puddings (!) and rushed out to capture the sun setting over Brancaster Staithe. There was not much water in the channels, but the outline of the boats and masts, with light reflecting on the mud, gave a rich variety of possibilities. I watched the changing colours in the skies as the fiery sun set, and the resulting silvery-blue patterns in the channels of mud.
I used a side-to-side ICM to emphasise this transition from day to night. It may happen every evening, an ordinary event, but it is rare for me to take the time to carefully observe and absorb myself in the process. This evening. I paused. I marvelled at how quickly the sun disappeared, and how soft and lasting the subsequent golden light was.
