Fallen from the Sky

Here’s an image I’m fond of, and is typical of one of my approaches to picture making.

Fallen from the Sky 2010

I love to be outdoors and that is where the vast majority of my pictures are taken. I'm not interested in picture-postcards, 'chocolate-box' style of landscape photography that seems to pervade all the newsagent magazines. But I am interested in the way small details can represent a larger whole, especially if the picture can be constructed so that there is narrative between the subject and the background.

This shot was taken on a changeable day in the autumn of 2010, with lots of broken cloud scudding by. It was a time of some frustration and disappointment for me – I won’t bore you with the details. I noticed a water trough close to the path that I was walking along. I’ll admit that I ‘m a sucker for reflections. There are usually opportunities to build an interesting layered picture. Drifting gently across the surface was a rather water-logged feather, and on close inspection it seemed to be floating on a fully submerged red leaf.

I was out photographing with my remarkable Panasonic LX3. The lens on this wonderful little camera has the ability to focus right down to almost zero distance from the front element. It does this at the wideangle position of the zoom, which means that close-ups show a large amount of background. Close-up subjects are given great prescence. It’s ability to show details-in-context was one of my main reasons for buying the camera. 

For this image I moved the camera in close, just above the water, until I had got good detail in the feather and leaf, set off against the reflected sky. I pressed the shutter and made a little prayer for fallen leaves and fallen angels.