Mark Denton and the End of Summer
I've always thought of summer as my 'downtime' in photographic terms, tending to be tempted out only when thunderclouds billow above the Vale of York. But as September approaches and the children return to school (phew), the variety of colour begins to return to the Yorkshire Dales landscape.
Here above Coverdale, close to home in Crakehall, a 105mm linear polarizer enhances a sky that is full of features. I am careful to use the filter sparingly, but it's irresistible to get it out of the bag at moments like these.
On the second shot of Penn Hill in Wensleydale, the polarizer had marginal effect, so best to leave it off it these circumstances, but I did use the 0.9ND hard grad, as I often do. The difference in brightness of the dark, end of summer greens and the sky is often more than you would first imagine, even when the land is lit by bright sunshine.
Both shots used an 81c warm up filter to compensate for the Phase One sensor having a tendency towards the cold blue hues that our eyes filter out.
Two years earlier I was on the other side of the Dales national park, shooting with Velvia 50, (hence the slight change in format) looking towards the Howgill Fells. A sublime little 'mountain' range that is mostly ignored by photographers and tourists alike. With film I was pretty much using the same techniques with regards to filtering as I am today. The techniques of capture have changed but Lee Filters remain constant.
Mark Denton is a renowned Landscape Photographer whose work can be seen in LEE FIlters "Inspiring Professionals" Books 1 & 2. For more on Mark, visit: http://www.markdentonphotographic.co.uk