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When you're looking at a scene, deciding if you want to photograph it or not, what do you look for first and foremeost? Is it dramatic scenery, full of cascading waterfalls, high mountains and so on? Or is it dramatic colours, maybe the reds of Autumn foliage or the magenta of a twilight sky?
For me, the first thing I look for when deciding to photograph is light (duh - you can't take a photo without it!), but not just any old light, light that compliments the scene before you, light that brings out some details and hides others, light that brings out textures and nuances that would otherwise go unnoticed, light that flatters rather than uglifies (is there such a word?). I hope you're getting the point that to me, light is primary and what it's falling on is secondary.
Combine great light with fantastic scenery and you're really on a photographic winner, such as was the case here.
I'm stood on the flanks of Snowdon as overhead clouds cast a pattern of light and dark over the landscape, and backlit mist streams from the summit of Wales' highest mountain as the wind batters at the unyielding rock.
I love it when light and landscape combine to overwhelm the senses, and it's all I can do to concentrate enough to actually take a photo.
Filename - mountain path 03.jpg
Camera - Canon 5D
Lens - 17-40mm zoom @21mm
Exposure - 1/10sec @f16 ISO100
Location - Miner's Track, Snowdon, Snowdonia
This image - 800x533px JPEG
Conversion - ACR & PS-CS2
Comments - ND grad filter used at angle to hold detail in the sky.
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