With the third of my five part trip review almost complete I’ve realised that it will be another epic read. So this week’s photo post is short and simple.

I woke up just before dawn on the fourth day and after a night spent camped along the shore of Lake Afdera. It had been an early night – around 10PM by the time I had taken some shots of the star-filled sky over the tents and, despite the humidity, I slept well so was up and about within minutes of opening my eyes.

I had guessed right the night before and I could see the sun about to rise above the hills on the other side of the lake. I grabbed the tripod, walked what must have been all of eight-steps to the lake’s edge and after the usual test shots managed to get a few I liked in the pre-dawn pinkish glow. Job done.

I had seen a tree stump further along the shore the evening before when we had first arrived and thought at the time that it might make an interesting subject against the stillness of the early morning lake surface. The light was changing fast – literally by the second at this time of day – so it was a mad dash to get over to it and set up the shot to see if what I saw in my mind could be translated into a photograph.

Now I’m back home I’ve had a chance to work through the shortlist of images and I’ve hit a bit of a problem with this shot. When I first saw the tree stump the image in my mind was the tree stump in high contrast, almost black and white. It is a simple, restful image and, as I seem to favour, it has lots of negative space it in – the top two-thirds in fact. The image at the top most closely resembles the image in my mind. But the image below is one of the several I took I took but without the high key adjustments – it has a much warmer feel to it. I say warmer – as you can see the colour is more pastel – but pastel is still warmer than white. I like it, as much as the ‘original’ intent above, albeit for different reasons. I can’t choose both, but I can’t choose one over the other either.

 

The third image at the bottom is the original shot I took the evening before as a test to see if I could frame the shot as I wanted. It was never taken as a ‘keeper’ shot but does show that – like most things in life – waiting for the right moment can dramatically alter the result you get.