Hoornse Plas

Today was the first practical session of the landscape photography course I'm taking. With a group of about 13 people we gathered at the Hoornse Plas, a recreational area in Groningen. We had to be there very early: at 7.15. It was cold: -4 degrees Celcius. Within half an hour, ice started to form on my tripod. Later on, I also had ice on my camera bag and on my ND filter. We were there for two hours. It was a great experience and I have now seen with my own eyes what it means to be there at the right time. This is one of the shots but there were more that could have been my blip for today. Better somewhat bigger.

Actually, there is another reason why choosing my blip was very difficult. Yesterday, 50 minutes before midnight, Martine's sister Jannie gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Her name is Christel and even though she was born a couple of weeks early she is doing great. After my photography session we went to hospital and visited Jannie and Christel. I'm sure there will be another opportunity to take pictures of her so she might still make an appearance on blipfoto. Huge congratulations Jannie and Raymond; you have both done a great job!


Edit: the next day I went to the landscape photography class again. The verdict on this image:

* Foreground subject (the pole) too dominant. I partially agree with that. For me the picture worked because I liked the textures and colours of the pole. Unfortunately, this did not show at all on the projector.
* Composition not really going anywhere; there's no logic in the lines and the viewer is not 'taken by the hand' through the picture. This I know is my main problem so I wasn't surprised there...
* To end with a positive note: I've mastered the technical aspects of landscape photography. That's good to know. Now I can focus more on the composition bit...
* General advise: try to vary more with the composition. Further away, closer, lower, higher. Experiment. Make lots of pictures and see what works best. I'll definitely do that!

I've written this down mostly for myself, but I also received some comments asking about sharing some of the stuff I learned so here it is.