Every Visit is Unique

Over the last few weeks I have been finding myself to a number of locations where I have previously taken some of my favourite images. There is of course nothing wrong with this as I'm a firm believer that even if a 1000 people have already placed their tripod legs on a particular spot, there are still new and exciting images to be had on every visit.

Most recently I wrote about my visit to Venford Falls in an effort to improve on a photograph I took there last year. Shortly after that I returned to the same location and was pleasantly surprised to discover a little more about that location by photographing Venford Brook.

The point I'm trying to make is that even if a location has been well photographed either by yourself or any other photographer, each visit to a location is unique and therefore you can get a unique image.

Returning to Daymark

I recently visited Daymark Tower to shoot on of my 5 Minute Photo Adventure videos. Though I didn't manage to get any portfolio class images from that particular shoot I knew that if I returned a few weeks later when the crops had grown a little more I could try again.

I had a number of goals for a return visit. Firstly I wanted to see if I could improve on one of my portfollio images from last year.

Could I improve on this image from last year?

The image above that I took last year benefited greatly from good light. The setting sun illuminated the tower nicely and added a warm glow to the crops swaying gently the breeze. It's rare that the image you have in your head before you go to a location is actually the image you get.

So what was I hoping to improve on? Well, to be honest, I'm not exactly sure. I think the main element I would like to have seen improvement in is the sky. A beautiful Devon sunset sky with pink or red clouds would have been lovely.

Unfortunately for this particular visit though, the sun disappeared early behind a bank of distant cloud so I never really got a chance to make the most of the golden hour.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 44mm, ISO 100, 1/60 second, f/13

Fly Away Drone

I mentioned earlier that I had a number of goals I wanted to achieve on this visit. Another goal was to take some aerial photographs of the tower and crops using my DJ Mavic Pro. This didn't go as planned! Being a coastal location there is always a little wind and though it was breezy on this particular evening, I thought it was within the limits of the drone.

Shortly after take off I soon realised that the wind was a bit stronger than I had thought. Despite turning around my drone and applying full power it was slowly drifting away from me. I had a fly away drone on my hands! As a private pilot I've learned not panic in these situations, so knowing that the wind would probably be weaker lower down I reduced to height of my drone to just above the crops.

The wind was indeed weaker lower down and I was able to return the drone back to its starting point. The aerial photos would have to wait for another day!

Something New

My final goal was to try and take some intimate landscape images. The crops in the field around Daymark Tower look beautiful as they gently move in the breeze. However, could I translate what I saw into a good image?

So while I'm reasonably happy with the result, I still have a lot of work to do to create compelling images in this style. This isn't a style of landscape photography I'm used to and I need to train my photographic eye a little more for this type of photography. However, it's always good to try something new and with a little more practice who knows what I can produce in the future.

Have you been to Daymark Tower? Do you photograph intimate landscapes? Have you had your drone fly away from you? Let me know in the comments below.