The Wasteland

THE river's tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf
Clutch and sink into the wet bank. The wind
Crosses the brown land, unheard.

[IMG]http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad116/ADC3440/Pictures723z.jpg[/IMG]

FOR you know only
A heap of broken images…
And the dead tree gives no shelter.

[IMG]http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad116/ADC3440/Pictures713z.jpg[/IMG]

WINTER kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.

[IMG]http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad116/ADC3440/Pictures716z.jpg[/IMG]

WHAT are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish?

[IMG]http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad116/ADC3440/Pictures720z.jpg[/IMG]

lines from "The Wasteland" by T.S.Eliot

Went for a damp, cheerless walk this morning with the K100 and my Dad's old 28mm Cosina... it started raining on the way back.

Best wishes,

Andrew

The second one stands out for me Andrew, even if it is bleak!

Best wishes, Kris.

Thanks both,

I was kind of drawn to the austerity of the scene and tried to process them to bring this out. For once, I think a lively, interesting sky would have detracted a bit from the bleak effect although as photographs they are, admittedly weaker because of this...

I often walk here but the landscape is so hard to photograph successfully: there are so few vertical elements.

Best regards,

Andrew

Your first image is a great one, I like the unusual look of the waterlogged landscape.
I think it is worth processing it better for a better range of tones, it works very well in B&W.

Andrew,

Yet the watercourses and stone walls provide some of those elements in a 2-d image. The first works best for me too Andrew, and perhaps the mono aspect of it assists me there. I'm sensing there may have been a nostalgic aspect to this walk for you this time (albeit on a track oft traveled) - on account of the lens?

Thanks guys.

I'll have a go at boosting nthe contrast in the first one: it's an amzing bit of landscape totally unsuiable for building (good!) and not much use for agriculture beyond a bit of summer pasture.

My mother used to take us out here for walks when we were kids and dad used to pick us up in his van to take us home. I remember rattling about in the back with all the decorating tools and pots of paint. When I first met my wife she'd recently moved to the town and this was one of the first places I took her on a spring day with the sky full of th3e sound of ascending larks. So, i-Berg, you could say it's a bit nostalgic for me!

Back to the pictures: the tones are so similar mono conversion is hard if you're looking for a range of tones: lots of dodging and burning required after settling, not too happily, on an initial blend.

Thanks for taking the trouble to look and comment.

Regards,

Andrew

How's this:
[IMG]http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad116/ADC3440/Pictures723z-1.jpg[/IMG]

Best wishes,

Andrew

Yeah, that's better. You have some tones in the sky that could be worked on and brought out slightly, too. Sorry to be a nag!

What do you use for your processing? I use Lightroom 2.6 and its all i've ever needed, it offers great control over the tones in an image, and it could work wonders on an image like this, too.

I like the new improved one Andrew and No. 2 stands out as well Nice set

Thanks Emms.

A bit like parts of Essex, I imagine, not that I'd know of course, never having been east of Greenwich!

An early version of Photoshop CS with a bespoke conversion method I got from somewhere. The sky is pretty featureless, mind, Pauly. I sort of gave up and kept the horizon high. Sometimes I add a better sky from my collection but I wasn't too bothered here as I felt the featureless sky worked with the bleak landscape. That's my excure anyway, and I'm sticking bto it!

Regards,

Andrew

Andrew,

A marked difference - Paul was right methinks. I'd leave the sky as is too.