Tom Mackie shows that photographers rarely have the same idea

Tom and a fellow photographer apply their own unique vision to a single scene…

As the afternoon passed and sunset approached, the skies took on a more sinister look

It has been said that every photographer has a different way of looking at the world. Ask a dozen photographers to shoot one location and the result would be a dozen different compositions. I had the opportunity to put this to the test when I was visiting a friend, professional photographer Jeremy Walker, on his local turf in Dorset. As the restrictions for travelling within the UK had eased, I was looking forward to photographing a different area, especially one that has more hills than back in my native county of Norfolk. Jeremy and I have an affinity for capturing trees, and we’d both shot the classic Dorset locations many times before, so he suggested heading just over the border in Wiltshire to Win Green hill. It’s a copse of beech trees that sit proudly overlooking Cranbourne Chase, with gorgeous 360-degree views over the rolling landscape. This would make the perfect subject, as we could move around the trees to capture a variety of lighting situations and choose the sky we wanted to include in the frame.

Get off my cloud

We arrived late in the afternoon with great cirrus clouds building up behind the trees. We worked the location together photographing the sun bursting through the backlit trees, using a Nikon 24mm f/1.8 prime lens to create a perfect sunburst. Moving around for a bit of side-lighting, a polarizing filter accentuated the clouds, so they seemed to be exploding from over the trees.

As the afternoon passed and sunset approached, the skies took on a more sinister look with unusual mammatus clouds forming. These clouds form pouch-like protrusions that hang from under storm clouds. I had only seen photos of these clouds, but have never had the opportunity to shoot them.

Jeremy was waiting for the sun to illuminate the side of the trees, while I was keeping my eye on the sunset and the dramatic clouds. I wanted to include both in the frame, but it was impossible as the mammatus clouds were in the wrong position. Moments like this, you have to commit to one composition and stick with it. I chose to shoot a series of 10 vertical images to create a panorama, helping me capture the sunset and clouds. As the sun descended to the horizon, the clouds lit up.

Even though we were only a short distance from each other, our images were very different.

Tom created a panorama in order to include both the dramatic mammatus clouds and sunset together, essentially creating two different images in one frame.

Jeremy chose an angle that placed the mammatus clouds directly over the copse of trees to give the impression of the clouds emanating from the trees.