On the Monet?

Photographs can inform, challenge, inspire.  They can bring excitement or moments of reflection. And sometimes they just tease. One of the photographic teases I enjoy is to set up the conundrum: is this real?  This shot is one of those.  I am often asked whether it is is photoshopped.  And barring a mild colour / contrast boost, it's not.  The Monet-esque effect is pretty much straight out of camera.  (And, for those who know I post-process with Aperture 3 not Photoshop, there was no more tweaking there either!)

There is a second tease element here too: what way up should this be displayed.  In fact, what do you think the camera 'saw'?

  

Well, the picture was taken in early Autumn at the wonderful Stourhead ( nationaltrust.org.uk/stourhead/ ).   The lakes here often offer the possibility of great reflections. My usual thought would be to capture both image and mirror-image.  But here the height of the trees were challenging from the narrow path and anyway, the real interest was in the reflection on the so-slightly disturbed surface of the water.  So that's what I framed.  In a way it was an easier shot than to try to include the trees and brighter sky: I was able to concentrate on getting the exposure right - and balancing shutter speed against the movement in the water.

When I saw the final image it was a Monet moment, reminding me of his waterlilies.  So which way up would you hang it?

I was delighted to sell a 16x12 print of this at Christmas.  The gift was for a Monet fan. I understand she hung it the way it was shot.   Available as print, card or canvas over at Redbubble.com/people/colinkemp

Thanks for stopping by - do let me know what you think.