Grand Union Canal Leicester UK

[Nigel Kibble]

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5330/8999085796_1366047628_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/95117931@N04/8999085796/)
Taken with a Nikon D3100 , Tessar Carl Zeiss Jena 2.8f 50mm , Exposure 1/250 , manual mode , Hand held , a view from the path , inspired by the dreamy look of the foliage over the water ,it was a lovely summer afternoon , first time i had used this old lens , hope you enjoy the view as much as i did

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hi Nigel.
Welcome to the Landscape forum. Landscape photography is one of the harder forms of photography to master, though it may not seem so at first.
Do look around and browse some of the images here to get a feel for what kind of critique we are giving etc, and to be inspired to grow in this area.

This looks like a nice lush scene. Two things immediately grab my attention - the light seems flat (less than ideal, best to shoot in early morning or late afternoon for dramatic light on the landscape, or in overcast conditions so shadows are negated for a softer feel). If you had shot with less than 50mm you would have had more of the nice big tree in on the RHS bank. The gunk in the water is also not ideal for a good lead-in to the scene (which you want the river to achieve here, taking the viewer deeper into the scene). Lastly there's nothing compositionally that really grabs my eye. It's hard to explain to others because there's no singular way to compose an image, but often the best is to find something that either anchors the image in the foreground (but not always necessary) or that the viewer's eye can rest on when he/she has been "led through the scene".

I hope this was helpful! Feel free to ask questions...

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Nigel, not much to add Morkel captured my thoughts as well. This is a great site to improve your photography skills. Typically in a scene such as this I would photograph it from a tripod with a polarizing filter on an over-cast day at a lengthy exposure to try and blur the debris floating in the river, making it less noticeable.

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Tapatalk 2