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Fable

Posted by
Darkelf Photography (Perth, Australia) on 4 August 2020 in Landscape & Rural and Portfolio.

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One area on the Isle of Skye that looks almost straight out of fairy-tales and fables is the appropriately named Fairy Glen. It is not a large place but it is full of wonderful little hills, rocks and also a superb collection of "goblin" trees. Within the Glen you can find a grove of crooked, gnarly trees and stones covered in moss that look just like the place where goblins would hide. When I saw the grove for the first time it just took my attention right away. It is those little unexpected places that usually provide the most joy to discover and photograph and this was exactly like that.

The conditions were overcast with clouds hanging very close to the ground but just above the tops of the hills. This allowed for great soft light to penetrate through the branches and minimised the issue of any highlight hotspots in the scene. As usual for scenes with lots of green foliage and moss, I used a polarising filter to cut through the glare and to increase saturation of the colours. It is amazing what one turn of a polarising filter can do to lush green landscapes.

I did work quite a bit on this photo in post processing. The original image was darkest in the middle of the frame, which was the most interesting part for me. That meant working with dodging, burning and vignette at various stages to "re-light" the scenery and direct the attention where I wanted. Fine tuning green tones also still gives me trouble as they are so easy to over-saturate. Sometimes it is easy to forget when I do contrast and exposure adjustments that they also affect colour saturation. In fact, I was going to post this image yesterday but I was not entirely happy with the final result and I worked on it again last night.

I took this photo with a vision in mind rather than to simply document what was in front of me. Getting that vision to happen can often require a longer process than usual and that was definitely the case here. I hope that you find the final result engaging (and enchanting) and I am keen to read your comments, as always.

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 3/10 second F/8.0 ISO 100 24 mm

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