Chris martin

A dramatic rescue leads to a moody Lake District shot

ChrIS SAyS:

this photo was taken during a November trip to the lake district. The location is Wastwater in the western part of the area, and it was shot on my Canon 750D with a Sigma 10-20mm zoom lens.

Unfortunately, our car had slid of a very icy road at Hardknott Pass and we’d got stuck! Two passers-by stopped and helped us back onto the road, then took us via a low-level route to Wastwater.

The person standing on the rock in the photo is one of our rescuers, and I thought he added some perspective to the composition. The exposure is one second at f/16.

ANDreW SAyS:

you had a dramatic journey to get there, but also a dramatic result – just look at that light on the distant hills! Plus, as a bonus one of your rescuers is acting as perspective for your composition. I think you’ve come out of what could have been a tricky situation rather well, Chris! Overall the image holds together really nicely – there’s good foreground interest, wonderful natural lighting, and great depth of field. It’s tack-sharp too. These elements are all big ticks – however, there are a couple of things to look out for in the future. The first thing is to watch those horizons. Yours isn’t straight, so the whole image is slightly wonky. The second thing is that your ‘hero’ on the rock is blending in tonally with the background, so he rather disappears. Not all rescuers come in bright red coats, so the easiest thing to correct the issue here is lighten that background and separate the tones so he’s more obvious. The wonky horizon and the tonal separation can be resolved fairly easily in Photoshop, but it’s always worth considering these issues when you take the shot to save work later on.