Golden Hour in Holyrood Park

As I get more into photography, the more impressed I am with photographers who just "paint with light"... I suppose I'll have to explain that.

Looking at this still by Ho Fan as one example,

It's easy to see that, though there's some interesting elements in the scene, really the photographer is using the light as a subject. The deep shadows and strong lines created by the beams of light and are what make this image interesting.

For a more up-to-date reference, this video by Pay Kay features bright blocks of light from shop windows and silhouettes of pedestrians. Somewhat mundane sounding but they create beautiful images.

These perhaps overly grandiose thoughts came to mind when pulling together my images for this post. They come from a winter afternoon - I was out specifically to capture an image for 52 frames (more on that later). While I was out, there was this beautiful low sun in the sky and I found myself chasing it as it wended its way through the hills.

The first couple of images I took use the water for reflection - a relatively new thing for me.

I was really happy to get this one bird alone as a subject - it definitely adds something to the narrative of the image even though the reflection and bright light catching on "some sort of bush" (ever the botanist am I) catch the eye a lot more.

A flock of seagulls. The pond was very busy with birds - but I'm quite happy with this one. I don't think I've ever seen this hill look so glorious.

I did also try to get a good still of birds in flight over the water, you don't want to see my attempts. Having played with reflections for a while, I realised there was a lovely bend in the road coming up that might make for a good element in a scene and that led to the next two images.

Roads provide a very convenient "story" - I also really tend to like photographs with subjects facing away from the camera, a bit easier to empathise with the person's situation rather than focusing on who they are. This picture was opportunistic rather than thought through. The ones that followed with more prep turned out not to be as good!

This turned out to be a busy walking spot and for a while (amongst capturing photos of the railings) I was also trying to see if I could grab a photo with a single group of walkers, rather than just to capture a throng of people and "lose the scene". I really like this one.

I love these images but I can't help but think it's "some people walking on a road". If the sun hadn't painted them with such luscious colours. Sometimes as a photographer it feels like that's what you're capturing. I suppose you at least get to choose the canvas.

References

• Ho Fan Photography @ Blue Lotus Photography https://bluelotus-gallery.com/ho-fan-1
• POV Street Photography / aPOV ep.2 - Silhouettes - Pat Kay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfQnOZojpH4