Photography: feet can be as important as hands
Photographs are taken with the hands – right? Well, perhaps not! Sometimes the photographer’s feet are just as important! In November I visited Snape Maltings – a gentle, reed-girdled river just in from the Suffolk coast. It was a perfect Autumn afternoon, the river showing a classical mirrored stillness. The colour contrast between river / sky and the reeds was glorious and I couldn’t wait to get the camera out.

This part of the east coast always offers huge skies, but with no cloud, the interest was in the landscape. My first shot showed that big sky and good reflections. But the image lacked something. It had no pizzazz.
So I walked on a little … no more than 30 or 40 yards… and suddenly the vista opened up, revealing a beautiful S-curve. The final key to the shot was to engage knees too and take it from a lower position to provide some foreground interest by emphasising the reeds on my side of the river.

The final image needed very little post-processing – a judicious crop, and a little detail boost was about it.
This shot looks great in print- but you wouldn’t give it a second glance if I hadn’t moved my feet!
Currently available as 18×12 inch print through my Etsy shop, below, For other sizes please message me: etsy.com/uk/listing/151626280/riverside-landscape-fine-art
Was really chuffed to get a lovely email from a client who bought the final version of this image:
“I wanted to thank you for the beautiful photo of Snape, I ordered it to give as a birthday present to capture the memory of time spent there last year. I couldn’t be more pleased with the picture – it is a stunning and evocative image.”
Thank you L from Upminster – your email made my day!