Another return to the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, this time a morning walk around the river Frome near Wareham.
Searching for Landscape Photography
What inspired this walk was searching for “Dorset Landscape photography” in google and then coming across various websites dedicated to the subject. One being from the renowned landscape photographer Mark Bauer and browsing through his Purbeck gallery. The atmospheric photos of the river Frome and Wareham were impressive. The secret to his dramatic shots are being present at dawn and dusk. So searching on google and studying local photographers portfolios can be a good source of new places to visit.
OS Maps Wareham
As always I then plan where I will walk using OS Maps online, studying the footpaths along the river Frome and Wareham.
What was clear there was a circular walk around the river Frome. If I wanted to extend the walk then I would have to head out along the Poole Harbour trail.
Around the river Frome Wareham
Dawns come late in January but I could still not manage arriving before sunrise. At least I was getting my beauty sleep. The winter sun was still low in the sky hitting the reeds and making them turn golden, but any morning mist had long gone.
My first composition was a good shot, not least because of the blue and orange complementary colours, warm and cool, approaching and receding.
Once again I was shooting only with my G7X canon compact camera. Perhaps a bit lazy to get out my DLSR and tripod. I needed to stop bringing my compact camera with me on these landscape photography walks, it was just to damn convenient to use and took damn good photos too.
Landscape Composition Laws
I shot a few more compositions along the river Frome in Wareham that morning. But during post processing them in Lightroom they were wrong. Some composition laws in landscape photography is that it can be more about what you choose to exclude and not include. less is more. Also what you include should be fully included not half in half out kind of thing. Many of the shots half included a boat or a tree.
Other than a few breaks in the reeds by the side of the river Frome there were not many good compositions to capture. By the side of the river was a gravel pit surrounded by reeds highlighted by the low morning January sun.
Along the riverside at Wareham
After my walk around the river Frome I took a look around Wareham itself. Wareham attracts many tourists and the walk along the riverside is quite pleasant. Again many of my compositions were just wrong.
I was not checking the edges of the frame enough ensuring I either fully included an object or excluded it. Small things can be cropped out of the final image post processing but you should not crop more than 10 to 20% of the image maximum.
A beautiful winters morning around Wareham and along the banks of the river Frome in Dorset.