The Tree on the Hill - Black and Whte

This is yet another shot that made me wish I had my DSLR with me. The smartphone hasn't done a bad job but it is easy to see the limitations of the lens and sensor straight away.

Fortunately I shall be back that way in the next couple of months and I won''t have any luggage problems that will prevent me from taking a full bag of camera kit with me.

As I've said before, I treat these smartphone shots like planning shots. It is easier to run around and get lots of shots with a basic camera or a smartphone and the lack of options forces you to think about the composition more. Then you can go back later and spend some time on the shots you liked most and get a good capture.

Ploughed Field with Old Colour Treatment

I took this picture of a field that had been half ploughed just the other day. However I wanted to try a treatment that made it look a little older.

There of lots of aged looks you can go for from monochrome and sepia toned images replete with blurring and vignetting etc. through to 70s and 80s style treatments that have recently become popular on Instagram.

The rural nature of the shot put me in mind of the USA in the first half of the 20th century. I was thinking of some of the recoloured black and white shots from the Depression and early colour shots of farmers and their tractors.

This photo is a mixture of ideas so it doesn't replicate just one style but I like to think that the modern photo with old colouring gives a sense of the continuity of the earth and nature.

The Many Colours of The Sun

A low evening sun filtered through clouds produced this fabulous light. The photo doesn't quite do it justice. In person it was both eerie and wonderful. The field was shrouded in a deep golden glow along with these long shadows that added texture to the grass.

This is why I now carry a Smartphone with a high megapixel camera. The idea of not having been able to capture this in some way is too much for me to think about!

Corn Field in the Evening

I've taken a number of different shots of this field and it is really interesting to see how it changes with the seasons. This shot is taken from the church yard of St. Peter and St. Paul's Church in Seal Sevenoaks.

You can see the North Downs of Kent in the distance.

Steps up to field on the North Yorkshire Moors

These steps caught my eye because you don't usually see steps into a field. To me they look like they should go up to a little stone cottage but there is no sign of there ever being a building here.

The clue might be iron fence that was often used to mark the edges of country estates. There are a couple of estates near by that this land might have once belonged to. It is always possible that this gate was for a footpath that crosses the estate.

Ploughed field in Autumn

What I liked about this scene was the texture of the ground with the straight lines of the furrows. Also the early evening like from the side was casting long shadows on the ground.

Despite essentially being a man made scene it feels very natural due to the earth colours and the agricultural nature of it.

The hills in the distance are the North Downs in Kent, UK. If you stand on the top of them you can see London on the other side. Canary Wharf is clearly distinguishable.