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We have returned recently from our trip to the southern regions of Western Australia in pursuit of autumnal scenery and bush explorations. It was a great one with mostly good weather and lots of excursions to be had. Towards the end of the trip we stayed in a little cottage overlooking one of the wineries in the Porongurup Range. We had a wonderful view out of the cottage, overlooking the vineyard and reaching out towards the Stirling Range mountains in the distance (you can just see them on the right over the vines). It was just a pity that this is when the weather turned less friendly with strong wind and heavy rain as company. This precluded us from hiking out in the mountains but as least we had a lovely place to stay in for the day with wood fire burning nicely to keep us warm.
Still, I was on a lookout for photographic opportunities and I was hoping to to catch a nice sunset or sunrise over the vineyard in front of the cottage. In between the rain, we were able to enjoy a walk through the vines and surroundings. Just when I was about to give up any ideas for a sunset photo, this scene emerged through the dark clouds.
I almost missed it as I was busy taking telephoto images of various autumn leaves and birds. I had to quickly swap my lens for a wider angle and take a test photo to see if I could make it work without a tripod but the dynamic range was just to great to get anything decent without exposure bracketing. I ran quickly back to the cottage to get my tripod and filters and had barely enough time to set up a shot when I returned to the vines. Because I have walked around previously, I had a composition in mind already and I was able to take a couple of sequences of exposures. As soon as I took the frames and about two minutes after I set up my camera, the light rapidly faded away and the illumination of the clouds and vines disappeared.
In the rush, I actually forgot to change my camera settings and ended up with f/5 rather than preferred f/8 for this scene. I was using those setting beforehand to isolate autumn leaves from the background with the longer lens and to minimise the chance of wind blurring the foliage. In some way they also worked the same for this image, as I am sure that with slower shutter speed there would be motion blur visible in the vines.
So, in the end not the most technically correct image but one that I hope captured that special autumn light, spirit and atmosphere. Sometimes it is great to let go of technicalities and just to focus on the scene. I would rather end up with a photo which has great light and atmosphere but not necessarily the best image quality available than the other way around (obviously short of unusable image). I felt this photo to be a good one to return after my short break and it allowed me to get back into creative mode at home.
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