Charlie Waite

The leading landscape photographer picks the best golden season images that feature in his latest photobook

See autumn through the lens of this great landscape photographer

Iwouldn’t dream of prescribing ‘what’ to photograph during the autumn season, but here are some of my thoughts…

• Creative interpretations of this remarkably beautiful time will vary so much from one photographer to another. Perhaps autumn colour in its natural form is lively enough not to be presented in a loud, garish way?

• The single leaf is a perennially popular subject, and rightly so. Just yesterday I noticed an ‘unnoticed’ leaf. I was reminded by a beautiful John Keats line about taking part in existence. Photographers notice things all the time, don’t they? Perhaps we may find a single autumn leaf at

LEFT

Pumpkins, Vermont, USA

In the autumn, visitors flock to Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont to see the world’s finest display of autumn colour. But it is impossible to predict precisely when the maple trees will be on fire. A local landscape photographer told us that, one year previously, the colours and light were the best in 20 years, but this year was the worst in living memory.

There was nothing immediately appealing about this array of pumpkins at a bend in the road; but there was the tree with its deep-orange canopy, and behind were the tattered stalks of maize, upright and in orderly lines.

Through the lens, I attempted to draw together pumpkins, leaves and corn. The key was to be low, but not so low that the tumble of pumpkins masked the base of the corn. I introduced a mild 81B amber filter to give an additional wash of warmth.

SETTINGS

Lens 50mm Exposure 1/2 sec at f/22 Filter 81B amber filter

RIGHT

CHAMPAGNE , FRAN CE

In search of some autumn colours, I crossed the channel to Epernay, the champagne grape-growing area of France. On the third day, despite fair and unseasonably warm weather,

I failed to find autumn colour and chose to head home. Feeling mildly despondent, I left for Le Havre.

A kilometre beyond me, I noticed a double line of fine plane trees, the lower half of their trunks half-hidden by the stubbled slope of a nearby hill. After some dead ends and a chain barrier were deftly lifted out of the way, I was able to find what remains of one of the most glorious plane tree avenues I have seen.

What is it about a tree-lined avenue that holds so much appeal? Surely it is the uncertainty and mystery of what lies beyond. This avenue near Epernay needed light to introduce a sparkle and to enliven the trees with some speckled highlights. That afternoon there seemed little prospect of light, but I still set up the tripod.

SETTINGS

Lens 50mm Exposure 1/2 sec at f/22 Filters Polariser some stage of decay, exhibiting almost all of the seasons in one. If so, consider discovering it where it was naturally meant to fall and present it to your audience as being precious, sacred and beautiful.

• The sheer ‘heat’ of some autumn colour needs no exaggeration, but the ways of conveying autumn and the way it expresses itself to photographers will always be entirely down to how the photographer responds. Combining red, orange, amber and yellow could deliver a thrilling mosaic of tones. Perhaps consider which hue you would like to be most pronounced against the others, or allocate to them equally proportionate importance.

• Water and autumn colour deliver numerous options. And the resurgence of intentional camera movement, long shutter speeds and multiple exposures can deliver some glorious results (and some catastrophic ones, too).

Consider using different shutter speeds for water as the velocity of the water will dictate the effectiveness of your chosen speed. Water can look especially magical if there’s a suggestion that it is in fact water. With all its chaotic froth, along with the darkest cavernous shadows, turbulent water may exceed the ability of the sensor to embrace it. A lost highlight is lost forever, so watch out for extreme contrast.

• Backlit scenes (shooting ‘contre-jour’) offer a wonderful opportunity to convey true autumnal splendour. Some trees do not offer the vibrancy of their leaves that others do. I was looking at a chestnut tree the other day, and thought it was rather low-key. But there are so many factors involved with the degree of autumn colour to discuss here.

Research is often so worthwhile – perhaps there is a powerful muscular branch somewhere that could look breathtakingly explosive when backlit.

If we are truly photographers and we wish to honour and relish our natural world and the untold nuances that it offers us, then let us get out and be there to receive them.

“Combining autumn’s red, orange, amber and yellow could deliver a thrilling mosaic of tones” Charlie Waite

ABOVE HARRIS POOL , SCOTLAND

I have long had a passion for reeds in any form – but for some reason, I always prefer them as they near the end of their lives. But in this truly magical pool, with so much beauty hidden from view, there lay not simply a pool of reeds but a multitude of water lilies which had already turned to rich ambers, lively yellows and smoky magentas.

With the reeds still green, the entire ensemble seemed beautifully presented upon the calm surface of the water. The cold blue sky contrasted well with the predominantly warm-coloured lily discs, and the two cloud reflections contributed to the blue sky not becoming too flat and monotone. There were moments when the lightest of breezes arose and quite literally demolished the entire scene, but thankfully there was just enough protection from nearby hills to keep the wind from spoiling the pool’s serenity.

Many landscape photographers enjoy introducing a polarising filter; here I did so to remove a degree of some white-light reflection from the surfaces of the lilies. The use of the polarising filter allowed their true autumn colours to be collectively revealed.

There is often a segment of a landscape photograph that unsettles the photographer: it could be compared to a corner of a room that has never quite ‘worked’. With the big lily statement in the foreground, the very back of the image might appear to lose strength, with the reeds becoming apparently more compressed due to the lens’s focal length. In addition, the perspective might also have the effect of compressing the reeds. I did enjoy the cyan tone at the top of the image, though.

I chose to stop fussing and get on with it, and am glad that I did – the breeze soon returned and this pool of beauty collapsed and fell apart.

SETTINGS

Lens 150mm Exposure 1/30 sec at f/16 Filter Polariser

RIGHT

STONE HENGE , ENGLAND

In the late 1970s, the familiar brick-shaped bale was soon to be eclipsed by the much more glamorous cylinder. Here was true and naturally glowing installation art atop the stubble.

When I came across these five-foot-high bales, I was disappointed. The sky was a weak, dreary, monotonous blue. But from the angle at which I stood, I thought the farmer must have seen me coming. The bales before me were positioned like a perfectly laid table. Of the 11 swiss-roll bales, two sets seemed inseparable from one another. I looked across to the west and saw a formation of cloud that made me laugh out loud. It was beyond belief that such an arrangement of building cumulus cloud could echo so precisely the giant bales beneath, even though the clouds were some distance away.

The wind delivered the clouds before they disintegrated, the ensemble came together and it all seemed perfect. Sadly, it was not – through my viewfinder I could see my tripod’s shadow. Any movement would have altered the balance of the image, but I didn’t compromise – I made my image from exactly this point.

SETTINGS

Lens 50mm Exposure 1/2 sec at f/22 Filter Polariser

LEFT

MONTAGNE ST VICTOIRE , FRANCE

I have always had a fixation with small sheds.

I am not ashamed of this – there must be a psychological reason for such fondness.

I was staying in the handsome city of Aix-en-Provence in southern France. The viticulturist whose land lay along the lower slopes of Montagne Sainte-Victoire had long since harvested his crop, and the vines, with just a few ragged leaves, were stripped of grapes.

But I had seen a shed! The dusting of orange light on its chunky stone was a gift, as was a dark doorway that provided a point of deep black, which to a certain extent images need somewhere – although they should not take up too much of the surface.

There was a delightful, though perhaps tenuous, relationship between the mountain, the tiled roof and the rumpled soil. The final player was the cirrocumulus sky, each puff much more entertaining than a carpet of infinite blue.

SETTINGS

Lens 50mm Exposure 1/2 sec at f/22 Filter Polariser

ABOVE

TO WAR DS OSTEN D, BELGIUM

The enthusiasm for super-saturated colours may have diminished now, but extreme saturation was popular when digital photography arrived. For me, if the viewer, using their own personal criteria for judgement, distrusts the colour rendition in a landscape photograph, then perhaps in some way the relationship between viewer and image is adversely affected.

I remember waking early that morning and feeling that the light would be flat with a low contrast – not what I was hoping for. I was seeking strong, autumnal directional light that would work well for water and ‘edge of canal bank’ reflections. On arriving at the bank, however, I found that the opposite was the case.

Despite the narrow colour palette, I felt unsure as to whether something so fundamentally subdued would work, but I decided to loosen my fairly deeply embedded parameters and proceed. I am glad that I held fast to my conviction, shaky though it was at the time.

SETTINGS

Lens 50mm Exposure 1/8 sec at f/22