Eilean Donan Castle

[weepete]

Eilean Donan by wee_pete, on Flickr

Well this is the first time I have been up this way in good weather, so a photo was required. I'm not too sure if I've got the processing right in this one so I'm angling for some C&C...

 

[Ilovemycam]

Beautiful

 

[WesternGuy]

Looks very nice. My only "nit pick", if you can call it that, is that I would have liked to have seen a bit more water between the top of the castle and the land in the background, immediately above the castle.

WesternGuy

 

[weepete]

Thanks guys. I see what you mean about the top of the castle and the land mate, I'll watch out for that next time!

 

[amolitor]

The sky is lovely, but the land feels a little "flat" in terms of visual drama. As a composition it feels rather busy. The subject is obviously the castle, but there's just a lot of "other stuff' in the frame, competing. Is this a sky with a castle in the foreground? A seascape with a sky, and a castle tossed in for good measure? Or is it a picture of a castle, with some frame context, and some sky for drama?

I feel like the photo can't make up its mind what it wants to be when it grows up.

I very much like the alternate viewpoint, however. Castles looming above us, castles on the horizon line, castles every damn which way, I am sick to death of them. Castles from *above* though, that's a little different, a little newer.

One idea might be to imagine the castle from the point of view of the enemy. This is sort of leaning in that direction -- the scout on the hill, looking through the trees, mentally counting soldiers and weighing fortifications. There could be a nice historical touch here. Castles weren't decorative tourist attractions, originally! Just an idea, maybe it'll spark an idea you like.

 

[weepete]

Thanks Amolitor. As with many of my landscape shots this was taken on my travels around the country with my work. I often don't get the time to think too much as all I can squeeze in is a few shots on the way or while I'm there. Pre-visualisation is as skill I've yet to learn in these circumstances, though I would hope I'm making a first few steps along the way. So it was meant to be a picture of what is there in the best way I could compose the elements that were there, it was also a very resticted view through the only gap in the trees on this road that you could see the castle. I don't mean this to sound like an excuse or too defensive, more of an explination of why I chose this shot and to understand the constraints I was under, more for myself than anything else. Maybe not thinking of it in the terms you put has hurt this image, certainly next time I'll be deliberatley composing some shots trying to keep the themes you describe dominant and as a major part of my compostiton more.

I admit I lucked out a bit with the viewpoint, this is one of the most photographed castles in my country so getting a different viewpoint is difficult and I have my collegue to thank for pointing out the location to take this one!

I really like your advance scout idea, not quite sure how I can get the right look for that yet, but I'll play with the idea and see what I come up with. Thanks for your feedback!