No matter what time in the morning I get to the park (on the mornings I can bear to drag myself out early), I always seem to be at this spot not long after the sun has come up. The low light often looks so good on the gnarly textures of this old tree that I have to stop and get a couple of shots.
This image and a number of others are available for licencing on Getty Images
Recently I decided I was going to make the effort to get up early a bit more often. I like going out in the evening, but timing my trips out to make the most of the best light was getting increasingly difficult with the needs of the rest of the family to consider.
I had no real idea about where I was going to go, but after looking at Google Maps and checking http://www.gaisma.com/en/ to see where and when the sun was going to rise I decided on Bradgate Park. I have a few shots that I like from here, but I never really felt like I’d seen it in the best light.
I made three trips there in the end, and the conditions were different each time – one morning of low lying mist, one morning clear and one foggy. This was taken on the second morning, which was mostly bright and clear, but for a small amount of mist.
I have taken pictures of this stream (the River Lin) in the past but they were all taken before I really started to learn what I was doing and were dreadful. For that reason I’ve always avoided this part of the park. The day before this was taken though I’d seen mist rising from here as the sun hit the cold water so had made a note to wait for the sunrise here. Conditions were different though and I didn’t get the misty stream, but the light on the water caught my eye so I set up here and waited for a gap in the passing cyclists and early morning dog walkers :)
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Two views of Old John, in Bradgate Park, taken less than a month apart in December 2009.
There are so many dreadful images of this building, and it is such an uninspired choice of location perhaps because it is so often photographed, but I still see it as a bit of a challenge.
This is my favourite of my shots that feature Old John – I prefer the building to be in the distance, that way its slightly easier to hide how uneven the structure is – even then I have to spend a long time trying to work out if my shot is level.
The heavy cloud cover here (and use of the Cokin ND4 soft grad) allowed me to get a nicely balanced exposure, retaining a lot of the rich late autumn colour.
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No photographers collection should be without at least one picture of Old John in the snow :)
This was snapped on the way back to the car after an early morning start. I’d never really noticed this path before, but the light sprinkling of snow picked it out perfectly.
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A small amount of snow just before Christmas gave me the ideal excuse to get up nice and early on a Sunday morning to go to Bradgate Park. When I arrived, long before sunrise, there were only two sets of prints leading into the park from the Old John car park – someone taking their dog for a walk.
The sunrise itself was rather uneventful – a cloudless sky, a bit of a glow and then the sun appearing – not really my favourite. Perhaps I could have made more out of it if I’d prepared (or had more imagination) but it was pleasant enough just to be there in the fresh snow.
While the light was still good I headed to one of the places I’ve been meaning to visit at daybreak for sometime and got the shot above. This is just as it was taken – no filters, no post processing, just good old fashioned sunlight.
The weather has been a bit variable to say the least over the past few days – but then I’ve been too busy to take any photos anyway so it’s not bothered me that much. The sun was out for a while this afternoon so I took a late lunch and headed to Bradgate Park as the late afternoon light is really nice on the bracken.
Old John wasn’t my intended subject for today – as you can imagine this local landmark is much photographed – I had planned on walking straight past but the light was too nice to ignore so I took a couple of shots handheld and carried on my way. I managed one other shot before it started raining again :)
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One of my first experiments with monochrome HDR photography and still one of my favourite images. This shot was taken about 30 minutes to an hour before sunset on a sunny but bitterly cold and windy winter afternoon out with Dan in Bradgate Park, Leicestershire. The angle of the sun lit up the grass, and the shadows added depth in front of the tree – I’ve been back to this location since but I’ve never found the light as favourable.
Three shots were used, each two stops apart (-2EV,0EV,+2EV). Processing was done with HDRSoft’s Photomatix Pro, with the black and white image then being split toned to give it an antique look.
