whn64
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Chatter Award
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Top Shot Award 22
Creative Winter Award
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People's Choice in The South of England Photo Challenge
People's Choice in The Road Less Traveled Photo Challenge
Winner in Leading lines in nature Photo Challenge
Winner in My Area Photo Challenge
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joycealicesmith
January 24, 2016
Fantastic image! Very worthy of the Challenge win! Congratulations!
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken near the village of Halnaker which is north of Chichester in West Sussex, England. The easiest way to find it is to park near Denge Lane off the A285 and then follow the path up to Halnaker Windmill. You walk through this tree tunnel to get to the windmill. The disused windmill on top of the hill is also worth photographingTime
This was taken in the late afternoon in September, a couple of hours before sunset.Lighting
It was a warm sunny day and the late afternoon sun was important for this photo to work. The time of year was important because I wanted green leaves on the trees still but with some fallen brown leaves on the ground.Equipment
The photo was taken using a Nikon D7000 on a tripod in order to bracket the exposures for high dynamic range processing: the shutter speeds were 1/4, 1/2, and 1 second at f8Inspiration
I stumbled on someone else's photo of it on the internet and was amazed by the locationEditing
HDR post-processing using Photomatix ProIn my camera bag
When I shoot landscapes like this, I normally pack the best camera I have (Nikon D750 right now) and a f2.8 zoom lens (Nikon 24-70mm, f2.8). A sturdy tripod is an absolute necessity and I've found my Manfrotto MT055XPRO3 tripod with the 322RC2 heavy duty grip ball head to be a very reliable combination. If there is the possibility of shooting wildlife too, then I will bring a Tamron 150-600mm zoom with me.Feedback
Taking landscape photos like this is really quite simple. You don't really need a fancy camera or an expensive lens because (as long as it's not very windy), you can shoot at low ISO with a small aperture (eg f8), when even modest kit zoom lenses will be reasonably sharp. A steady tripod is a necessity because you need to bracket exposure to capture the detail and a remote would help because of the slow shutter speeds. If you don't have a remote then choose the timer option so that the shutter clicks a couple of seconds at least after you press the button.