John Blakemore // Looking For Texture In Landscapes

I decided to look at the work of John Blakemore after I discovered his work in a library book as he is considered by many, one of the most important landscape photographers in Britain. At a quick glance there really is a noticeable style throughout Blakemore's work that makes it very recognisable as his style of photography. For me what makes his style so visually interesting is his use of the zoning system to create a very low contrast in his photographs which really reveals the texture in his subject matter rather than showing a great contrast in highlights and shadows. Blakemore's images are also very low lit, and have a very eerie feel to them which I really think gives a more surreal take on landscape photography without using crazy editing techniques, which personally I really like this more minimal approach. 

This photograph of John Blakemore's above is one of my personal favourites of his as I think the textures are so interesting through the low contrast as is the composition. I think what makes it so effective is this interesting vantage point that the photograph is taken at where we as the viewers are looking down at the ground, rather than across the woodland. To me it gives this feeling of sorrow that we are looking down at this tree that has fallen, which really evokes this feeling of hopelessness as we see the other trees behind it stood upright. This personification in this image I find really emotive and I think it really brings another level to a landscape photograph. 

Looking at John Blakemore's work has inspired me to go out and take some of my own landscape photographs using his monochromatic style, looking for textures in landscape rather than colour, and experimenting with different vantage points. I have also edited my photographs to lower the contrast and lighting to create a similar effect to John Blakemore's photographs.

This is my favourite photograph from the shoot as I think it really expresses this feeling of intimidation and how powerful nature really is. I also really like the shadows that really add a dark mood to this photograph, as well as the vantage point that I took the photograph at that puts us under the trees in a really intimidating way. 

I also like this image which I took to really capture the texture of the woodland floor where I was taking these photographs. The light covering of snow on top gives a really crisp and cold feel to these leaves that you can imagine are really dry at this time of year. This really shows how Blakemore inspired the photos on this shoot as I was really searching for texture in my surroundings. 

During this shoot I did struggle with the sun being way too bright, and a lot of my photos were very unsuccessful because either the sky was too bright or the light washed out a lot of detail in my images. These photos are my favorites from the ones I've took but I'm not overly happy with what I've produced in this shoot, and I'd now like to go somewhere more wide open and hopefully the lighting will be better and I'll know how to tackle it next time.