Light throughout the day.

I have found this exercise to be quite time consuming, for several reasons.   For me at this time, it is very difficult due to relocating from the Middle East to our home in France. I left Oman at the end of May and have been in transit ever since, only arriving in France last Sunday.  During my travels I have spent time in UK, visiting Ceredigion, Wales, and other parts of England.  Travelling and living out of a suitcase for a month is not contusive to completing photography exercises on time or to the standard one wishes.

For this exercise, a full undisturbed day was required!!!! and a location was to be used, that showed the change in light throughout the day and one that I could return to hourly for a minimum of 12 visits. Whilst in Wales, I decided that to achieve this hubby, newly retired and under my feet needed to be sent off for the day....otherwise work would not be completed.  There was no internet access during this trip to Wales, therefor adding my images to my blog as a record of completion was impossible. 
Today I am France, with poor internet connection, slowest WI-FI ever and trying to add my resulting images to my learning blog, a very slow process this is going to be...again hubby has been sent off to the decheterie to dispose of empty cardboard packing cases from Oman.

The location I have chosen was off the beaten track, quite close to Tregaron...to reach my chosen shooting position, there was a short walk from where I was staying and to reach it a trek across two small fields.  The lake was man made and within the land of the cottage where I  was staying...very beautiful it was too !!
The weather had not been good, but on getting up one morning, slightly later than sunrise, I decided to use the 'fine dry' weather forecast, excellent light and good forecast for the day to my advantage.
I had walked around the lake earlier in the week, on a less sunny day and found that this view of my chosen landscape would be an excellent vantage point for my composition giving me the opportunity to capture shadow, reflections and varying light, enabling me to be able to shoot without shooting directly into the sun. 
The sun had already risen, and was behind me in the first image, travelled round and set in front of the camera. It was early summer. 
The foreground is a water plant, the middle ground of the images would give interesting reflections and the trees would throw shadows and the varying light will strike the trees.
Throughout this exercise I used:

Nikon D7000
18-105 lens
ISO 100
White Balance sunny.
Manual mode
Tripod

Below are the results.



Fig 1.

   

 8.15 am.

Fig 1. was my starting point, the sun behind me and slightly to the left.  The shaded area to the foreground and below the central diagonal line of trees reflects the blue colour from the sky. 

The sky being the light source is also reflected on the water.  

 

Fig 2. 

9.33am.

Shadows are cast below the trees. Reflections on the waters surface are slightly diffused.

 

 Fig 3.

10.29 am.

The clouds which appear have scattered the light with shorter wavelengths.  The light coming from the cloud is colder and bluer.

 

Fig 4.

11.36 am 

 

Fig 5.

12.35pm

At noon light is harsh on a clear day.  In this image the cloudy layer has acted as a large diffuser and the light is non directional.

 

Fig 6.

13.47pm

 

Fig 7.

14.40 pm

From the downward sunlight, a more neutral coloured light. The water appears more transparent. Shadows are cast below the trees, less harsh light.  

 

Fig 8

15.59 pm

 Cooler soft appearance, no direct sunlight.

 

Fig 9 

17.07 pm 

High contrasts in light, slightly warm with pink tinges around tree line.

 

Fig 10

18.03 pm

Less harsh light, light is warmer 

 

Fig 11. 

19.33 pm

Light quality is improving prior to sunset.  Slightly warm tones.

 

Fig 12.

20.41 pm

The most desirable time for photography.  Warm glows from a setting sun.  The warm colours are due to the absorption and scattering process in the atmosphere.

 

 

Due to typical British weather in early summer, some of my images have cloud cover, but  these do show the difference in light from that when the sun is shining.   I did not manage to capture a spectacular sunrise or sunset and this exercise has made me more determined to try out some photography at these special times....

I can see throughout the images above that the ones taken in clear sunny weather are more defined than those taken when there was cloud cover. 

I have two preferred images, fig 7. with the bright blue sky and contrasting greens and the reflection of the tree in the lake and the final image I have submitted where the low warm light catches the top of the tree , the lake and also gives a warmer glow to the field of yellow, even around its perimeter.