Today my river project began by heading to the very beautiful Golitha Falls. Which is part of the River Fowey that runs through two sites of scientific interest (SSSI), one being the upper Fowey which is a flood plain on the southern slopes of Bodmin moor and the other of course being the falls. Golitha is an ancient woodland that is currently a national nature reserve because it is home to liverwort, lichens and mosses which have great importance. Why is are they important? well...Over 50 species of liverwort grow here and 98 species of moss, some of which are quite rare!
As this was only the beginning of the project I wanted to experiment with different techniques and also get a real feel of the area. And after walking around today it made me question how long I have to do this project so I am currently unsure if I continue with my plans to make a film or to put it on hold for the future. This way I would be able to study the river by doing research, photographing it and what lives off it in more depth ready for when I get the go-ahead to begin filming. Using a range of Cokin Z-Pro ND filters I played around with slow shutter speeds, this was the first time I've had the chance to use them and I highly recommend. When sitting on the river bank I was really able to clear my head and focus, thats the real beauty of being out in nature is that you are able to be free with your thoughts. And as I was looking at the water in front of me one word kept coming to mind that describes the river, which was 'flow'! It's the best descriptive word for such a habitat but this let on to other thoughts such as...if I am to trying to do a photographic study on the life of the river. How do I capture the flow? Well, this is what I came up with:
As this was only the beginning of the project I wanted to experiment with different techniques and also get a real feel of the area. And after walking around today it made me question how long I have to do this project so I am currently unsure if I continue with my plans to make a film or to put it on hold for the future. This way I would be able to study the river by doing research, photographing it and what lives off it in more depth ready for when I get the go-ahead to begin filming. Using a range of Cokin Z-Pro ND filters I played around with slow shutter speeds, this was the first time I've had the chance to use them and I highly recommend. When sitting on the river bank I was really able to clear my head and focus, thats the real beauty of being out in nature is that you are able to be free with your thoughts. And as I was looking at the water in front of me one word kept coming to mind that describes the river, which was 'flow'! It's the best descriptive word for such a habitat but this let on to other thoughts such as...if I am to trying to do a photographic study on the life of the river. How do I capture the flow? Well, this is what I came up with:
And I have to be honest this is probably the most arty I have ever been with my photography. Inspired by the Romanists painter William Turner I panned my camera across the water with a shutter speed of around 2 seconds to give this distorted effect but mostly to make the image flowly and fast. Even though my project has taken a much different direction today that I originally planned I am very happy with some of the results.